Parx Casino Shippensburg suspends opening till 2023

The new Parx Casino branch located in Shippensburg Township, Pennsylvania, has pushed back its plans of opening by a few months.

The Central Pennsylvania subsidiary of the casino operator was initially supposed to begin operations in November 2022; however, it faced some setbacks. Parx Casino’s website announced the schedule change of its 73,000-square-foot Pennsylvania gaming venue earlier this week.

Parx Casino is owned and operated by a privately held company named Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment. The organization initially planned to spend around $65 million to transform the previous Lowe’s home improvement store into a Category 4 gaming venue.

In Pennsylvania, Category 4 casinos are known as satellite properties which have ties to broader full-scale Category 2 licenses. The state has a set limit for the number of slot machines and table games a satellite brick-and-mortar venue can own.

The former can be no more than 750 machines while the latter, a maximum amount of 30. The table games come with an additional $2.5 million fee and can be increased by ten extra games after its first year in operation.

Category 2 properties do not have a limitation regarding the number of gaming positions they can acquire. Greenwood-owned Parx Casino is located north of Bensalem’s downtown Philadelphia. When considering annual gaming revenue, the company is currently the wealthiest casino in Pennsylvania.

It earned its Category 4 satellite license in February 2018 during the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s (PGCB) auction event. Greenwood’s Parx was the highest bidder at the event with an $8.1 million winning offer.

Parx indicated interest in Shippensburg Township for the company’s satellite development. The township was previously considered a Category 4 host location.

The casino company initially planned on beginning operations towards the end of this month; however, unplanned construction delays occurred. The delays were caused by supply chain disruptions and resulted in more time needed. The mini-casino was not given an exact opening date in the announcement made; however, it would be in the early months of 2023.

For the mini gaming venue, Parx plans to ply customers with around 500 slot machines available and 48 electronic table games, including roulette, baccarat, and blackjack. There will also be a “first-class” restaurant and sports bar, which will house up to 100 customers.

The facility will be non-smoking and may likely create up to 175 construction jobs and over 125 full-time jobs. Parx Shippensburg is organizing a number of job fairs to fill online positions available for both gaming and nongaming positions.

The multi-day fair will take place within the week at the Shippensburg University Conference Center located at 500 Newburg Road. The available jobs include slot machine attendants, kitchen staff, table game dealers, player hosts, bartenders, cooks, waitstaff and bussers, security officers, surveillance agents, and others.

The casino will hold a second job fair next week at Franklin County’s The Orchards Restaurant in Chambersburg. Those interested can apply for the available openings on November 4 at the Shippensburg University Conference Center at 500 Newburg Rd.

Pennsylvania is currently among the big three, including Nevada and New Jersey, as three of the richest gaming states in the US. The state currently has around 16 brick-and-mortar casinos as well as 65 truck stops with slot-like video gaming terminals (VGTs). Pennsylvania also houses 19 iGaming websites, 14 online sports betting platforms, and 18 retail sportsbooks.

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