Steve Wynn is calling off its bid to secure the second casino license in Philadelphia, citing business opportunities elsewhere as its main reason for doing so.
Ironically, this is the second time that Wynn has withdrawn its casino proposal in the City of Brotherly of Love. Back in 2010, the Las Vegas-based company had an agreement with local investors for a casino to be revived in the city. But after a week into its deal, the company backed out and it wasn’t until this second round of interest that Wynn expressed interest in developing its own project. The company’s proposal called for a $926 million casino-resort to be built on 60 acres of industrial land along the Delaware River with Wynn also having an option to buy even more parcels of land from New Hope builder James Anderson.
But all those plans have now been scuttled after taking a closer look at the financial feasibility of putting up a casino as opposed to exploring other opportunities elsewhere. Ultimately, the company’s board signed off on doing the latter. “[The board] took a host of factors into consideration, including the Philadelphia market performance over the past year and the competition which will result from the recent approval of gaming in New York last week,” the company said in a statement.
Wynn’s reasons for withdrawing its Philadelphia casino bid seems like a good move, especially with the amount of money, time, and resources it has put into building the $4 billion Wynn Palace on Cotai, Macau, as well as the opportunity to bid for a license in Japan, which is set to open its market sooner than later.
The company also has a casino license bid in Massachusetts and is actually one of the few operators that received a tremendous amount of support from the community where its planning to build its establishment. There’s still that matter of appeasing the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and its incredibly complicated regulatory process. But Wynn is still in the running in Massachusetts, which at this point, and given how many operators have dropped out, is about as good a news as you can have in that state.
But Philadelphia is another story. Wynn is dropping out of the race, leaving five competitors in the running for the city’s second casino license, including Penn National Gaming, the Goldenberg Group, the Cordish Cos. and PHL Local Gaming L.L.C.
