Gambling news from http://www.philly.com:80/
Nov. 02, 2006
A coalition of community groups, gaming opponents and businesses yesterday filed a legal challenge to the state law allowing slot-machine gambling at 14 sites across the state, including two in Philadelphia.
The coalition asked the state Supreme Court for an emergency order to halt the granting of the two Philadelphia gaming licenses.
Those licenses are expected to be approved Dec. 20.
Irv Ackelsberg, the attorney who filed the lawsuit for Casino-Free Philadelphia and other groups, attacked the ability of the Legislature to delegate the power to grant gaming licenses.
The slots law, passed in July 2004, created the Gaming Control Board to grant and regulate the 14 gaming licenses.
Ackelsberg insisted that elected officials, not appointed board members, should decide what impacts casinos would have on neighborhoods. He also complained that the law did not lay out what factors the Gaming Control Board should consider when granting gaming licenses.
"In our judgment, the gaming board should not be the one that makes the ultimate call," he said.
Gov. Rendell, who yesterday signed legislation to reform the original slots law, dismissed concerns from community groups that they don't have a voice in the licensing process.
"I think the legislation was crafted to allow the board to accept any and all testimony on impacts [or] on anything," Rendell said.
The Gaming Control Board will hold hearings Nov. 13-15 on five applications for two licenses in Philadelphia. Four of the applicants have sites on the Delaware riverfront from South Philly to Fishtown. The fifth site is in Nicetown, next to East Falls.
The state Supreme Court in June 2005 upheld the constitutionality of the slots law while striking down a handful of its provisions, including a clause that prevented municipalities from controlling zoning for casinos.
That ruling said legislators "failed to provide adequate standards or guidelines" for the Gaming Control Board to assume those zoning controls - an argument that echoes in the legal challenge filed yesterday.
Many of the people pushing yesterday's legal challenge have already tried to influence the decisions of the Gaming Control Board by offering written comments and testimony at public hearings. They have also engaged in "on-again, off-again" negotiations with the local casino applicants, Ackelsberg said.
Still, they complain that their voices are not being heard.
"Much of the community has been left out of the process of being able to have a meaningful input into the casinos that may be coming to our particular communities," said Rev. Jesse Brown Jr. of Casino-Free Philadelphia.
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