Casino news
Casino plan criticized
Andrew Conte, February 6nd, 2006 \pittsburghlive.com\
With at least 3,000 slot machines, Pittsburgh's casino will be too big and could end up looking like a "shed," Anne Swager, co-chair of the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force, said in a recent magazine interview.
That's assuming the state ever awards the casino licenses. Swager also said lawmakers have impeded a casino selection process marked by "politics as usual."
Her comments appear in a five-page interview in the January-February edition of Columns magazine, published by AIA Pittsburgh, a chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Swager is the group's executive director.
In the interview, Swager criticizes the state's gambling law, blames politicians for delays and lays out her criteria for the city's casino. The interview was conducted in late November.
"From the perspective of the design community, I'm critical of the (gambling) law," Swager said this week. "It's not that I'm plain flat-out critical of the law. I want a really good design and something that fits within the community. I think that's been made more difficult by the law."
Appointed by former Mayor Tom Murphy in March, the task force has a bully pulpit but no binding control over the city's slots parlor. The group has made a series of recommendations that it hopes state gambling regulators will adopt.
The task force's other co-chair, Ron Porter, declined to comment on the Columns interview because he had not seen it. Nick Hays, spokesman of the state Gaming Control Board, could not be reached for comment.
Swager called the state gambling law "too prescriptive" for setting out the specific number of slot machines casinos can have. Each of the three groups seeking Pittsburgh's license would open with 3,000 machines.
"Everyone worries that they're going to build a windowless place -- but with 3,000 slot machines, there's going to be a lot of space without windows," Swager said in Columns. "Come on! It's too big! It's a shed!"
Swager said this week she fears that because the casino is so big, it will "make the design process more difficult." She added that she doesn't "want a Wal-Mart."
State politicians want the slots process to move quickly, Swager told Columns, because "They need the money. They staked their public policy on being able to relieve property taxes, and they have spent the expected revenue many times over."
But if anyone has held up the process, she added, it's not the city's task force. The politicians have "done that on their own," she said.
The state Gaming Control Board expects to issue provisional slots licenses for the state's horse and harness racing tracks by late summer. It might not award the other licenses until early 2007.
The full Columns interview is available at aiapgh.org.
|
