Detroit no longer America's largest city with casino gambling.

**iheartthed** · September-23-10, 09:42 AM

PHILADELPHIA — Six years after the state Legislature legalized gambling, Philadelphia is set to become the largest U.S. city with a casino.

The opening Thursday of SugarHouse Casino, Pennsylvania's 10th casino, comes after years of community protests and delays. Now, casino officials expect thousands of gamblers to attend the first official day of business at the casino's 1,600 slot machines and 40 table games.

"We can't wait to welcome all the players," said Wendy Hamilton, general manager of the casino on the Delaware River waterfront. "The fact that this was a four- to five-year process, it makes it all the more exciting."

The casino conducted test runs of its games on Monday and Wednesday, with the proceeds going to charity. It is scheduled to officially open to the public around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, after getting a final go-ahead from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

That will make Philadelphia [[population 1.55 million) pass Detroit [[population 910,000) to become the nation's largest city with casino gambling.

Board Chairman Gregory Fajt said he's excited about finally getting SugarHouse off the ground after all the delays, caused mainly by litigation from community protesters, government agencies and disgruntled bidders.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_736086.html

**DetroitPlanner** · September-23-10, 10:46 AM

Surely Detroit has more tables or slots per capita than Philly does!

How about jobs created?

**Detroit Stylin** · September-23-10, 10:49 AM

Largerst cityt per population only. Detroit is still larger unless Philly has stretched its boundaries...by 4 sq miles...

**iheartthed** · September-23-10, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by Detroit Stylin

Largerst cityt per population only. Detroit is still larger unless Philly has stretched its boundaries...by 4 sq miles...

Population is all that matters. Also, I don't think Detroit was ever the largest city [[in area) to have casino gambling...

**GOAT** · September-23-10, 11:13 AM

Once almost all states have gambling the revenues will drop quickly. The problem is govt's can't reign in their own spending. This is all a cruel joke for those in this field. In my opinion the govt's give then take away and where does that leave their revenue?
There are going to be a lot of job losses in the next 10 years as more states allow casino gambling.

As for sq. miles or population does it really matter? Does anyone really care what the size of a city is with gambling? This is much ado about nothing except for those job losses coming [[and the lower return on investment for the addicted govt's).

**Gistok** · September-23-10, 12:52 PM

This population comparison thing is apples and oranges....

...as long as Philadelphia is only 65 miles away from gambling mecca Atlantic City. The caravan of buses going from Philly to Atlantic City will not be stopped... especially since there's no real "border crossing" from PA to NJ... and with 11 casino/hotels on the Boardwalk... it is likely that most serious PA gamblers will still prefer Atlantic City.

Gamblers are a funny breed.... if they don't feel lucky at one casino they move on to the next... but they won't be able to do that in Philly. Detroit/Windsor gives gamblers 4 options in that regard... so I don't think Philly's single casino revenues will ever approach Detroit/Windsor.

**iheartthed** · September-23-10, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

This population comparison thing is apples and oranges....

...as long as Philadelphia is only 65 miles away from gambling mecca Atlantic City. The caravan of buses going from Philly to Atlantic City will not be stopped... especially since there's no real "border crossing" from PA to NJ... and with 11 casino/hotels on the Boardwalk... it is likely that most serious PA gamblers will still prefer Atlantic City.

Gamblers are a funny breed.... if they don't feel lucky at one casino they move on to the next... but they won't be able to do that in Philly. Detroit/Windsor gives gamblers 4 options in that regard... so I don't think Philly's single casino revenues will ever approach Detroit/Windsor.

In the short term, yes this is pretty much just a battle between Philadelphia and Atlantic City [[or better yet Pennsylvania v. New Jersey) for gambling dollars.

In the long term, this could be a sign of casino chains transition from focus on single purpose towns [[Vegas, AC), to focusing attention on traditional urban centers by offering full service resorts.

**Hypestyles** · September-23-10, 03:23 PM

what's las vegas's population?

**DetroitPlanner** · September-24-10, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

what's las vegas's population?

Actually the LV Strip is in a town called Henderson. The Vegas metro has a decent sized population, but it is nowhere near as large as Detroit or Philly metros.

**jcole** · September-24-10, 08:11 AM

Why does it matter what size the city is? There are cities all across the US with casino gaming anyway. Council Bluffs, IA has two, KC, MO has a few as do Des Moines IA, Joliet IL, the Quad Cities on IA, IL border, Michigan City, In, and that's just what I saw on my trip back from Denver. Also, all of the tribal casinos in almost every state.
Colorado has two towns devoted to casinos and SD has one.

**DetroitPlanner** · September-24-10, 10:15 AM

jcole, I don't get it either, Montana literally has thousands of casinos. These are set up in Hotels, bars, gas stations, even at Denny's! Why Montana must be the largest state with more casinos per capita than anywhere else! Who cares!