Sugarhouse Casino

An African American employee who claims that his race and pro-union leanings cost him his job at the SugarHouse Casino has hand-delivered a petition to get it back. Cory Ballard, 25, who made $13 an hour plus tips as a player services agent the last nine months, was accompanied by about a dozen SugarHouse employees and Bishop Dwayne Royster of the Living Water United Church of Christ in Kensington as he delivered the petition. It was signed by two-thirds of his old department and given to casino representatives Tuesday at management's office at 1080 N. Delaware Ave., directly across from the casino.

The owners of the SugarHouse Casino have agreed to pay $650,000 to settle claims that their workers illegally dumped construction materials into the Delaware River near the Philadelphia casino, prosecutors said Monday. Under the settlement, announced by U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger, SugarHouse HSP Gaming will pay a $25,000 civil penalty and donate $625,000 to the Brandywine Conservancy, a nonprofit agency dedicated to protecting natural resources. "This case reinforces our commitment to protecting the environment by ensuring that corporations either follow environmental laws or face serious sanctions," Memeger said in a statement.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has unanimously approved table games for the SugarHouse Casino, set to open in September on Delaware Avenue in Fishtown. The seven-man board gave SugarHouse the green light on Tuesday to add 40 games, including blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat, and three types of poker. It also will have 1,602 slot machines. - Jennifer Lin

SugarHouse Casino has submitted a revised expansion plan to the state Gaming Control Board calling for a shorter parking garage, more food and beverage outlets facing the riverfront, an expanded promenade, and a new bike trail. The city's only casino said in a filing last week that the expansion would cost more than $540 million. The investors behind the project are seeking $410 million in financing to fund construction and refinance part of their existing debt. The gaming board plans to hold a hearing on the revised plan in May, said Doug Harbach, a spokesman.

The Web site for SugarHouse Casino has a video feed from its 22-acre site on North Delaware Avenue, showing crews removing rubble and driving piles. The scene looks busy. But, the project's investors complain, they are no closer to breaking ground for a foundation than they were exactly a year ago, when the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board issued the casino's license. As of today, the partners have missed a state deadline to have 1,500 slot machines up and running. They are asking the board for a one-year extension, with no guarantee they will get one over mounting objections.

AS A Philadelphian, I strongly urge that we do whatever we can to make SugarHouse Casino a reality. We need jobs. SugarHouse will hire 1,100 permanent employees. We need wage tax relief. Revenues from the casino will lower our wage tax. The schools need funding. SugarHouse will help there, too. I look forward to a world-class entertainment facility giving the public plenty of access to the riverfront. We deserve the world-class facility, the jobs it will create, the hundreds of millions of dollars it will pump into the city budget, and the positive impact that it will have on the development and revitalization of North Delaware Avenue and the waterfront.

A consultant to a proposed casino in Fishtown quit after he was told he would lose his contract unless he resigned from Larry Farnese's state Senate campaign or convinced Farnese to support the casino. Ken Snyder, a communications consultant, went to work last month for Farnese, who is seeking to replace retiring state Sen. Vince Fumo. Snyder has worked as a consultant for Fumo since 2000. Snyder told the Daily News that Dick Sprague, an investor in the proposed SugarHouse casino, issued the ultimatum 2 1/2 weeks ago: Snyder would lose his SugarHouse contract unless he quit Farnese's campaign or convinced Farnese to publicly support the casino project.

Police are searching for two masked men who robbed three women at gunpoint in the parking lot of the SugarHouse Casino early Friday and pistol-whipped one woman before fleeing with cash and credit cards. Police say the stickup was the first robbery on SugarHouse's grounds since the casino opened in September. It was the second such crime linked to the casino, however. Last month, a man who had won about $2,000 was followed home to New Jersey by two men who later tried to rob him. Surveillance cameras outside the casino on the Delaware River waterfront captured the Friday-morning robbery, said Anthony DiLacqua, head of security for SugarHouse.

If SugarHouse Casino breaks ground on a planned expansion this November, what will the next phase of the gaming hall look like? That question is at the heart of a dispute between local minority investors and the Chicago billionaire developer who runs the casino, Neil Bluhm. In a lawsuit filed Friday in Delaware Chancery Court, local investors argue that they are being marginalized in decision-making for the casino's future. Their partnership is led by Philadelphia lawyer Richard A. Sprague and auto magnate Robert Potamkin.

Calling SugarHouse Casino "ripe for expansion," the gaming hall's general manager told state regulators Tuesday that a plan to scale back a parking garage while enlarging the gambling floor makes more sense than an earlier proposal. Wendy Hamilton, who has run the waterfront casino on North Delaware Avenue since its 2010 opening, said customers have told her that the casino needs "more elbow room. " "This is a better plan," Hamilton testified in a hearing before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in Philadelphia.

May is going to be a busy month for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Commissioners will hold three hearings on three consecutive days in Philadelphia. First up: a review at 2 p.m. May 7 at the National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St., on the revised expansion plans for the SugarHouse Casino. It's been four years since the Sugar- House folks got the OK from commis- sioners to expand their waterfront casino on North Delaware Avenue. And it's been two years since City Council and the planning commission also signed off on plans.

The owners of the SugarHouse Casino have agreed to pay $650,000 to settle claims that their workers illegally dumped construction materials into the Delaware River near the Philadelphia casino, prosecutors said Monday. Under the settlement, announced by U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger, SugarHouse HSP Gaming will pay a $25,000 civil penalty and donate $625,000 to the Brandywine Conservancy, a nonprofit agency dedicated to protecting natural resources. "This case reinforces our commitment to protecting the environment by ensuring that corporations either follow environmental laws or face serious sanctions," Memeger said in a statement.

THE OWNERS of the SugarHouse Casino have agreed to pay $650,000 to settle claims that their workers illegally dumped material into the Delaware River as the building was being constructed in Fishtown, prosecutors said Monday. SugarHouse HSP Gaming will pay a $25,000 civil penalty and donate $625,000 to the Brandywine Conservancy, a nonprofit agency dedicated to protecting natural resources, U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger announced in a news release. "This case reinforces our commitment to protecting the environment by ensuring that corporations either follow environmental laws or face serious sanctions," Memeger said.

SugarHouse Casino has submitted a revised expansion plan to the state Gaming Control Board calling for a shorter parking garage, more food and beverage outlets facing the riverfront, an expanded promenade, and a new bike trail. The city's only casino said in a filing last week that the expansion would cost more than $540 million. The investors behind the project are seeking $410 million in financing to fund construction and refinance part of their existing debt. The gaming board plans to hold a hearing on the revised plan in May, said Doug Harbach, a spokesman.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will have a full house Thursday and Friday when it hosts two days of public hearings on Philadelphia's second casino at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Doug Harbach, a gaming board spokesman, said all the slots for speakers have been reserved. Anyone who has not signed up will likely have to wait until a third hearing, scheduled for May 8 in South Philadelphia. This week's sessions will be held in Room 204 of the Convention Center, starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m. on Thursday and 3 p.m. on Friday.

By A.J. Thomson Call it a Wynn-win for Philadelphia. The 300-room casino-hotel for Philadelphia proposed by Steve Wynn would sit about five blocks from my home in Fishtown, and extend up into lower Port Richmond. It should be the only site up for discussion. Wynn, chief executive of Wynn Resorts Ltd., which has similar operations in Las Vegas and Macau, is intent on building a destination resort on this 60-acre site, which extends along North Beach Street from Palmer to Cumberland Streets.

Philadelphia's planning commission wants to hear what people think about the six proposals for a second Philadelphia casino. So it's holding a series of neighborhood sessions over three consecutive nights in three locations. Alan Greenberger, deputy mayor and head of the City Planning Commission, said it is meant to be a "listening tour" to gauge public opinion in advance of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's round of hearings in April and May. The open houses for the commission are scheduled for: South Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field, 1020 Pattison Ave., March 26, 6 to 8 p.m. Center City, Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St., March 27, 6 to 8 p.m. Old City, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., March 28, 6 to 8 p.m. Greenberger said he will make opening remarks and then listen.

DEAR HARRY: I want to complain about SugarHouse Casino. I know that no one forces me to go there, but I go because it's close to where I live. I am 63 years old, and I have lost virtually all my money. Sometimes, I can lose $1,100 or $1,200 in a month. It's so bad that now my house is in foreclosure. Now they tell me I don't have enough points to get free food. They play the music so loud that I can't think, and they won't turn it down. A lot of people are in the same spot as I am. We all go there seven days a week because we like each other.