Pittsburgh Casino - May Be Built in 2-4 YEARS

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato met with the State Gaming Control Board as scheduled today to discuss the current situation with the $780 million casino project which was halted over the last several weeks because developer / licensee Don Barden failed to come up with $10 million for to continue construction on the casino.

Referring to Neil Bluhm's warning that the board has a week to approve his takeover plan, the Board's Acting Executive Director Frank Donaghue and Acting Chief Counsel R. Douglas Sherman, stood firm in the fact that they will not compromise their process to review Bluhm's takeover application. And they're calling his bluff; the deadline Bluhm set for the Board is July 30th and they have yet to take action.

It was reported that no other casino operators have contacted the control board with an interest in taking over Barden's license and it just seems to be getting worse:

If the application is rejected, gambling officials could attempt to revoke Pittsburgh's lone casino license held by PITG Gaming, led by Detroit millionaireDon Barden.

That could open the license to other interested casino operators, but Barden likely would challenge the revocation in court, and that could take years to resolve, Ravenstahl said.

"If the slots license would be revoked and reissued, we're looking at one, two, three maybe four years for the reissuance and that process to take place. It could involve the (state) Supreme Court."

It was also reported that the longer this takes, the more construction may cost since they will more than likely hike up the price.

WHAT A MESS!

The more I read about this, the more I just can't believe what a mess this has become, and if I hadn't read the fact that the new Arena deal is not firmly dependent on the revenues from the casino - I would be panicking right now. But, again, we Penguins fans must all keep in mind that they were smart enought to include a "fail-safe" part in the agreement which dictates that if funds are not available from the casino, it would then shift to PA taxpayers to come up with the difference for the new arena. Although this doesn't seem to be the best news since we'll ultimately be footing the bill for this arena, we can at least be certain that the Penguins will remain in Pittsburgh for another 30 or so years - for a price!

[Post based on information from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]