Owner Las Vegas Sands Corporation inked a deal to sell Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians’ Wind Creek Hospitality for $1.3 billion in 2018.
The transaction closed in spring 2019. As a result, the reign of former owner Sheldon Adelson, who was strongly opposed to online gambling, came to a close. As the sale closed, Sands applied for a PA online casino and online poker license on Wind Creek’s behalf.
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Additionally, the property is no longer known as Sands. Now, it is known as Wind Creek Bethlehem.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) approved the application in October 2018 despite the lack of a plan for Wind Creek Bethlehem online gambling. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians also submitted an application for a $10 million sports betting license.
What Wind Creek Bethlehem will offer
| Online Casino | Online Sports Betting | Online Poker | Other states with online | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wind Creek | Yes, TBD | Eventually | No | None |
The Wind Creek Bethlehem PA online gambling plan
As a condition of the $1.3 billion sale to Wind Creek Hospitality, owner Las Vegas Sands Corporation was forced to apply for a PA license to operate online poker, online slots, and online table games.
It was certainly an interesting move, considering Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s founder and principal owner, Sheldon Adelson, has done everything in his power to fight the spread of online gambling across the US.
The company’s anti-online gambling stance came to the fore once again at an October meeting of the PGCB. There, Sands executives testified the company has no knowledge of Wind Creek’s online gambling plans, but it disapproved of whatever those plans might be.
Representatives from Wind Creek also testified it had no concrete plans. Sands officials also confirmed the company would not use the licenses if the property’s sale to Wind Creek fell through.
Plan, or lack thereof, approved
Despite all that, the PGCB went ahead and approved the application. The casino’s new owners have expressed their intent to roll out PA online casino, poker sites, and sports betting.
Unfortunately, Wind Creek has zero experience with online gambling, so it will need to look for partners and could be forced to wait until at least 2020 before it can get something off the ground in PA.
Currently, it’s impossible to say what a Wind Creek online casino might look like in PA. Because it appears even Wind Creek Hospitality has no idea.
About Wind Creek Bethlehem
Before Wind Creek swooped in, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem opened in Northeastern Pennsylvania on the former Bethlehem Steel Company site in May 2009. It has been one of the top two grossing casinos in the state ever since.
The casino is open 24/7 and features more than 3,000 slot machines, 200 table games, and a 30-table poker room.
It is a draw for local players and visitors from out of state. In fact, Sands sits just 82 miles from New York City and 50 miles from Philadelphia.
In March of 2018, Sands Corp. signed a deal to sell the property for $1.3 billion. An Alabama tribal casino company called Wind Creek Hospitality will soon take over. The sale of the property should close sometime in the spring of 2019.
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Summary
It is hard to have high expectations for the Sands Bethlehem online casino platform mostly because there is not much to get excited about yet. With the sale to Wind Creek not final, the property cannot move forward on an online gambling plan. Additionally, the casino will be one of the last to the market as a result of the delay.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) finally approved the change of Sands Bethlehem’s license to Poarch Creek Indians Gaming Authority (PCI Gaming).
PCI Gaming operates under the Wind Creek Hospitality Brand. The $1.3 billion sale of Sands Bethlehem also requires Wind Creek to pay a change-of-control fee of $3.75 million to PGCB’s coffers.
Faster than a speeding bullet
Wind Creek President and CEO Jay Dorris projects the transition to occur very quickly. Specifically, the sale might conclude as early as this week. In addition, $15 million has been earmarked for rebranding expenditures. Dorris expects rebranding to be complete within 90 days.
Sands Bethlehem Online Casino Games
Bigger and bigger: more hotel rooms and meeting space
To begin with, Wind Creek presented an expansion plan to PGCB for $90 million included in its acquisition funding.
Currently, amenities include:
- 282 hotel rooms
- Over 183,000 square footage of casino floor space
- 3,000 slots and electronic table games
- 200 table games
- Multiple food and beverage vendors
- A 150,000 square foot retail mall
- 27,000 square feet of convention space
In two years, another 276 hotel rooms and 42,000 square feet of meeting space will be completed.
Wind Creek stated in its presentation that the current hotel space is 93% occupied. This means that potential hotel guests are turned away on a weekly basis. While that is good news, Sands Bethlehem did decline by $7 million in conventions last year due to its meager meeting space.
Get ready for a new wild and wet adventure
Wind Creek has ambitious plans for the vacant and desolate No. 2 Machine Shop at the former Bethlehem Steel site. Specifically, the site will transform into a 300,000 square foot adventure and water park. Also, this expansion includes another expansion of 400 hotel rooms.
Most importantly, the acquisition financing includes $100 million towards the revitalization of the Machine Shop. However, this project’s budget is $250 million. As a result, Wind Creek is actively soliciting investors for the remainder $150 million.
Make way for the online casino
Conditional for the sale of Sands Bethlehem to Wind Creek, Sands executives applied for and gained approval from the PGCB for a PAinteractive gaming license in October 2018.
Currently, Wind Creek is actively seeking an online casino platform. The expectation is to finalize a partnership and launch the online casino within three months, but that is probably a lofty goal given how much work is involved. If they did meet that deadline, this time frame would fall directly in line with Dorris’ rebranding transition timeline.
Keep in mind that many PA operators have been working at an online product for almost a year and are still at risk of potentially missing the July 15 launch date.
Sports betting still in the works
Wind Creek aims to add PA sports betting to their casino. Admittedly, the process needs to commence.
Sands did not apply for a sports betting license. The company knew they were selling the property and sports betting applications do not have a deadline.
Now Wind Creek can move forward on sports betting, but first, it needs to finalize a partner. Once they have one though, they can move forward on applying for a $10 million license.
Cleaning up the underage gambling issues
Sale Of Sands Bethlehem Casino
In April, Sands was forced to pay out $120,000 in underage gambling fines. Historically, underage gambling is a recurring issue at Sands Bethlehem.
Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem
As anticipated, PGCB questioned Wind Creek ensuring a hard line is in place against underage gambling. In addition to current measures, facial recognition to match government ID along with hiring more employees is expected in the near future.