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A Special Message from Dave LeVan

As many of you know, I introduced a gaming project in 2005 called Crossroads Gaming Resort & Spa, a 3,000-slot machine facility that would have been built near the U.S. 15/30 interchange in Straban Township, just east of Gettysburg.

One year later, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, amid controversy, rejected the project. It was certainly a different time in our economy.  In 2006, the unemployment rate in Adams County was among the lowest in the state at 3.4 percent.

I learned a great deal from the Crossroads experience and, since then, we all have certainly learned a great deal about Pennsylvania’s gaming industry.  Three years later, the county’s unemployment rate has more than doubled to 7.4 percent, while the gaming industry has helped its host communities with thousands of jobs and millions of dollars for economic development and tax relief.  If table games are legalized, estimates show as many as 10,000 more jobs could be created.

All of this has helped strengthen my belief that Adams County has so much to gain from hosting a gaming facility in what is now the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center, a property that I now have under option.

People spoke loud and clear that the previous project was too big and too close to Gettysburg, and I didn’t forget.

The proposed new project – Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino – would:

• Reduce the number of slot machines from 3,000 to about 600;
• Preserve valuable green and open space since much of the existing Eisenhower facility would be refreshed and incorporated into Mason-Dixon;
• Maintain the community’s décor and heritage.  As someone who has a home in Gettysburg and has donated all future development rights of land that has been in my family for a half century to the Gettysburg Foundation, I have no interest in Atlantic City-like casinos; and
• Be located closer to the Maryland border (2 miles) than to Gettysburg (5 miles). This site of the proposed facility is in a secluded location. Other than the signage that you would see out on Emmitsburg Road, you would drive through the area and not be aware that this facility is there.”

In fact, I’m proud that Mason-Dixon would actually be farther away from the National Military Park than a similar-sized casino recently licensed by the state near another historic site: The Valley Forge Convention Center is building a 500-slot casino that will directly abut the Valley Forge National Historic Park.   Two other casinos approved for the city of Philadelphia will be located less than 2 miles from Independence Hall, the birthplace of our nation.

Since the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board rejected Crossroads, casinos have opened across the state and many of the initial concerns held by some simply haven’t developed Some feared casinos would bring Atlantic City-like crime. But crime has typically been minor in nature and handled on-site by 24-hour security and the state police.  Pennsylvania casinos are clearly safe or they wouldn’t be as successful as they’ve been.

That success has also led to unprecedented local economic development opportunities for the municipalities that host casinos, as well as those also located within the same county. As of November 2009, gaming in Pennsylvania has produced $221,124,306 in revenues for host communities and counties to use for a myriad of economic-development, infrastructure, and health and safety projects. 

Dauphin County Commissioners have approved a variety of projects with gaming money, including $1.1 million in East Hanover Township to repair Jonestown Road and $525,000 to Derry Township for roadway improvements on Route 743.

Wayne County received $1 million to build a new 911/Emergency Operations Center; Forty Fort Borough in Luzerne County was awarded $27,500 for a police cruiser; and Barrett Township in Monroe County used $100,000 to purchase an ambulance.

Of interest to tourism-focused Adams County, the Washington Industrial Development Corporation received $150,000 to conduct a Washington County marketing initiative. 

Casinos also have become good community partners. On the one-year anniversary of The Meadows Racetrack & Casino opening in Washington County, a headline in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette read: “Casino seen as 'win-win.'”

The Meadows has donated more than 350,000 cans of food to the county food bank and each Thanksgiving provides 1,000 turkeys to needy families.  The Meadows also used nearly all local businesses for construction and services and its 1,000 employees are also from the local area.

Adams County residents can expect the same economic development, job opportunities and community involvement from Mason-Dixon.

Mason-Dixon will protect the jobs currently in place at the Eisenhower and create hundreds more.  That doesn’t even include the number of jobs that will be created by areas businesses that will be hired to assist with construction or provide other goods and services.

Not only will Mason-Dixon benefit Adams County, but it also will assist the state’s need to generate property tax relief through gaming.  While nearly all of Pennsylvania’s casinos are clustered in the eastern and western areas of the commonwealth, this facility will draw visitors from an underserved region in south-central Pennsylvania, as well as northern Maryland, northern Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

As I look back on previous experience and all that has happened since then, perhaps the biggest lesson I learned is the need to discuss our project with all Adams County residents, and I will do just that.  I’m eager to do so because as a Gettysburg native, I believe in the potential of Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino to provide unprecedented opportunities for the good people of Adams County.

I’m looking forward to the future.