No planning and development issue has been as controversial in Philadelphia as the Commonwealth’s siting of two slots-only casinos on the Delaware riverfront in December 2006. When Pennsylvania legalized slots gaming in 2004, Mayor Street convened a task force to review potential casino sites and submit recommendations to the state. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board ended up placing SugarHouse Casino at the former Jack Frost Refinery site at Delaware Avenue and Shackamaxon Street in Fishtown, and Foxwoods Casino at a riverfront site at Columbus Boulevard and Reed Street, neither of which were the city’s recommendations.
Further, opening casinos in Philadelphia would make it not only the largest city in the country to legalize gaming, but it would also be the closest a casino has been constructed adjacent to residential neighborhoods in the country. By the same token, casinos will pay millions of dollars in taxes to the city every year, which can fund vital city services. What has followed since 2006 has been a flurry of lawsuits, countersuits, license extensions, protests, and redesigns, all while the casino developers slowly continue their march through the permitting process.