Table Games

As one of the first to sample 57 new table games at Parx Casino, Donald Kelley said getting up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday was well worth it. "I just love craps and I wanted to be the first at the table," said Kelley, 46 of Maple Shade, who ariived just before 6 a.m. Sunday at Parx. Craps, poker, blackjacks and roulette are officially part of the gambling mix at Parx in Bensalem, Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack in Delaware County, and at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem.

Pennsylvania marked one year of having casino table games with record revenues for the month of July, the state announced today. Gross table games revenues for the state's 10 casinos was $56.18 million. The last monthly high was in March, with gross revenues from table games of $54.61 million. Parx Casino had the highest gross revenues for July, at $10.28 million. Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack was fourth, at $6.49 million. SugarHouse Casino was fifth, at $6.22 million.

Parx just got bigger - again. It debuted additional table games and a new noodle bar Wednesday at its adjacent Parx East property. The new games include pai gow, pai gow tiles, Sic Bo, and mini- and midi-baccarat - all popular among Asians. About 400 new employees, mostly dealers, were hired for the $15 million addition, part of a multiphase expansion planned by the casino over the next couple of years. Though a significant number of the new games cater to Asians, the ground floor is not purely an Asian gaming pit, like those found in Las Vegas.

Four months after it opened on Penn's Landing, SugarHouse already was asking the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for permission to add 14 table games. The reasons were pretty obvious: By the end of February, SugarHouse - with only 43 table games, fewest among the state's 10 casinos - had already vaulted into the top five for table-games revenue from poker, blackjack, and so on. In addition, the casino would get to keep more of the money. The state taxes table-games revenue at 16 percent, slot-machine revenue at 55 percent.

In another threat to a struggling Atlantic City and competition to Pennsylvania's new casinos, Delaware's largest gambling hall began offering table games Friday. Delaware Park, in Wilmington, about 25 miles from Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack in Chester, Delaware County, debuted games including blackjack, craps and poker. "We have always believed that we can compete with anyone in the area," Delaware Park president Bill Fasy said at a noon news conference to announce the launch.

As one of the first to sample 57 new table games at Parx Casino, Donald Kelley said getting up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday was well worth it. "I just love craps, and I wanted to be the first at the table," said Kelley, 46 of Maple Shade, who ariived just before 6 a.m. Sunday at Parx. Craps, poker, blackjack and roulette are officially part of the gambling mix at Parx in Bensalem, Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack in Delaware County, and at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem. The debut of table games at all three early Sunday completed a triumvirate of staggered openings that began at three western Pennsylvania casinos on July 8. Regional rivals, Parx and Harrah's Chester, both debuted their new games at 6 a.m., while Sands Bethlehem unveiled 89 tables, including 40 blackjack, 12 poker, four craps and other games two hours later.

Gov. Rendell is calling on both parties' leaders in the state legislature to meet with him Monday and resolve the lingering dispute over a table-games tax to free up money for state-supported colleges, hospitals, and museums. Four of the 14 state-related universities - Temple, Pennsylvania State, Pittsburgh, and Lincoln - are due to get more than $600 million from the state this fiscal year. But that funding is linked to the table-games legislation needing final approval in Harrisburg.

Some serious logistical challenges stand between revenue-hungry Pennsylvania and the financial promise of table games being placed in the state's casinos, which have been slots-only to date. The possibility of table games being approved as a way to help breach a serious budget gap has been quietly discussed for months. But the prospects seem more likely as Gov. Rendell and the legislature battle to create a new budget. As Harrisburg warms to the idea of blackjack, roulette, and other lucrative forms of gambling happening in the casinos, the nine that are up-and-running and the five (including two in Philadelphia)

ATLANTIC CITY - Table games are not even a year old at Pennsylvania casinos, but they are already claiming market share and jobs in the casino industry here. While slots revenue has been free-falling for four years, figures released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement confirmed what had been suspected since poker and blackjack debuted in Pennsylvania in July - the new competition would eat into what had been 25 percent of Atlantic City's revenue. Total casino revenue among 11 gambling halls fell 7.1 percent last month, to $289.4 million, from April 2010, according to the DGE. While slots revenue took a 3.4 percent hit, revenue from table games registered a 15.4 percent decrease, to $80.9 million.

The $132.5 million Valley Forge Casino Resort is on target to open this spring, president and chief executive officer Sal Scheri told members of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday. "Construction is progressing on schedule, and we're excited to see the casino start to take shape," Scheri said. The assurance was part of his team's petition to the gaming board for a license to install table games at the new facility - which the hearing in King of Prussia centered on. Under the state's gambling law, the Montgomery County casino will be allowed up to 600 slot machines.