About

Casino-Free Philadelphia started June 1, 2006, with a rally of two hundred people for greater transparency and more public input on casinos. Our mission is to stop casinos from coming to Philadelphia and close any that open.

Our Successes

Since that first rally, we have created a grassroots movement to halt predatory gambling in our city, including:

• Working with civic leaders across the city and Asian Americans United in opposing and successfully eliminating Foxwoods’ proposed site in the heart of the city.
• Causing more than two and a half years of delays before SugarHouse casino opened, at forcing the casino to open at one-third the size. While we continue to oppose any casino in Philadelphia, this means SugarHouse is having two-thirds' less of a negative impact on our city.
• Pressuring Mayor Nutter to oppose both Delaware riverfront sites, stopping Foxwoods from building at the site at Delaware and Reed after it had allegedly sunk $170 million into the project. Having been kicked out of Center City and no longer welcome in South Philly, Foxwoods is currently struggling to get even basic financing for its casino.
• Running Operation Hidden Costs, our first campaign focused on the economic costs of bringing an addiction-based industry into the city of Philadelphia, and publishing the Snake Eyes report detailing the poor investments Philly casinos make.
• Earning thousands of television, newspaper, and internet articles about this struggle, including generating coverage inThe Washington Post, CNN, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and international press. Most notably, shifting the editorial position of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News from strongly in support of the casinos to strongly opposed.
• Organizing with national anti-casino groups, including speaking at the national Stop Predatory Gamblingconference, and sharing material and contacts with similar groups in places like Gettysburg, Pa.; Columbus, Ohio; Buffalo, NY; Chicago, Ill.; Anne Arundel County, Md.; Ft. Wayne, Ind.; and across Massachusetts.
• Leading more than two dozen trainings and organizing events to grow our leadership capacity, including direct action training, media workshops and community organizing.

We've done all this with an opponent that bought nearly every major public relations firm in the city to discredit us. SugarHouse claims our delay tactics have cost it $100 million, which included their hiring of private investigators to try to smear and intimidate us, law firms to intimidate and threaten lawsuits, and an aggressive public relations strategy.

Our core beliefs and strategy have shown to be effective. We believe in strengthening the power of the people through grassroots organizing, direct action, and sustained public involvement.