After Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association was awarded Pennsylvania’s fifth mini-casino license on April 4, not one bid was received for the sixth license at the auction on Wednesday, which was open to owners of casinos within the northeastern state.
According to the Associated Press, after the mid-week auction, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board officials said that it must now decide whether or not to hold a second auction, and if that is decided, whether to allow bidding on the five remaining licenses by casino operators located outside of the state or by non-casino business, as published by ABC News.
Earlier this month, the $7,500,003 bid by the operator of Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course was enough to secure a site for placement of the fifth mini-casino. It was the second winning bid for Hollywood Casino, after a Jan. 10 auction net the subsidiary of Penn National Gaming, Inc. the first Pennsylvania-area satellite property for Yoe, PA in York County, with a winning bid of $50,100,000.
In addition to being the sixth auction, it was also the first one where previous winners could bid for a second time.
There are five auctions remaining, courtesy of the gambling expansion law signed by Gov. Wolf on October 30, 2017, which included the creation of 10 satellite casinos. The five winning bids have surpassed the state’s estimate of $100 million in the event that all 10 Category 4 licenses were sold at the required minimum of $7.5 million (slots) and $2.5 million (table games), with the bids totaling $127 million to date.
The new Category 4 licenses allow between 300 and 750 slots and as many as 30 gaming tables in the first year of operation, with an option to add 10 table games the second year.