Pocono Record - Split Rock eyes 500-machine slots license

"We're back in the hunt," Split Rock President and CEO Jack Kalins said. "We're definitely interested again." For a resort to be eligible to apply for a license, it must have at least 275 rooms and what the state calls "substantial" year-round facilities.

By the December 2005 application deadline, only two resorts Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington and Seven Springs in Champion had applied for a license. No Poconos resort entered the running. Kalins said at the time he had his lawyers stop working on the application just a day or two before the deadline.

But in the fall, Seven Springs dropped its application because the Nutting family, which bought the resort in June, also is part-owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Major League Baseball does not allow its owners to have gambling ties. Then at the end of November, Nemacolin Woodlands pulled out because resort officials thought some of the state's regulations were too stringent.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board officials said there is no timetable for when the state will reopen the process for the Category 3 licenses, how long it will take once it begins, or if there will be any tweaking to the application process. "The board will look at reopening the application period in the near future, though that time and period for applying will not be announced until current applications are considered and acted upon," said Doug Harbach, the PGCB's deputy director of communications . That means it won't be until at least the end of this month that the board reveals the new process, after it awards the Category 1 and 2 licenses.

Mount Airy in Paradise Township and Pocono Manor in Tobyhanna Township are vying for one of the two Category 2 licenses, which allows for 5,000 machines in a stand-alone slot parlor. Hearings on their applications took place last week and the licenses are expected to be awarded on Dec. 20.

While Split Rock is in, other Poconos resorts again decided slots were not for them. According to the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau, four resorts in the Poconos fit the state's criteria for a slots license Split Rock, Fernwood Hotel and Resort in Bushkill, Caesars Cove Haven in Lakeville and Woodloch Pines Resort in Hawley. Caesars officials, as they did last December, said gambling is not on the immediate horizon.

"At some point in the future, that could change," said Doug Wilkins, area managing director for Starwood Resorts, which owns the four Poconos Caesars resorts. "But not now." "We're a family resort," Woodloch's marketing director Laurie McEvoy said.

"Gambling and family just don't go together. We'll be happy to bus any of our guests to a local casino, but it's not for us." Wilkins said Caesars is comfortable with either Mount Airy or Pocono Manor receiving a slots license to bolster business to Caesars.

Mount Airy is closer to more of the four Caesars resorts and would probably be a better fit, he said. "Gaming is still very interesting in this area," he said. "Either one of those projects especially Mount Airy would provide the kind of economic development that would increase our business without us having to take on the responsibility of opening a gaming parlor.

" That responsibility is part of what previously kept Kalins out of the running last year. Last December, he said he worried about tight rules and security infringing on the family nature of the resort. He also thought the two western Pennsylvania resorts had a veritable lock on the two licenses, so it might be a waste of time to apply.

But now, Kalins sees it as something to build the resort, even though he said a 500-slot casino probably will not be very profitable. Any casino could be augmented by an indoor waterpark the hotel plans to build. Kalins said the resort recently received the financing to build the park.

"I think the waterpark will be a lot more profitable," he said. "But from a business point of view, I think we have to do it. If we didn't, I think we'd be kicking ourselves down the road.