Blotter: Sands to restart construction of Pennsylvania casino

Executives with Las Vegas Sands Corporation announced that they would restart construction on a planned hotel alongside their casino in suburban Philadelphia. The announcement comes at the same time that officials with the Pennsylvania state gaming commission announced that they would allow table games like blackjack, craps and roulette alongside the slot machines at the Sands Bethlehem and the rest of the state's casinos.

Sands, along with many other casino complexes in the state, announced plans to either start or resume construction on hotel and resort complexes once the board approved the installation of table games. Some observers in the casino industry see the move as an attempt to bring in customers willing to gamble for longer hours and higher stakes than those that frequent the low-limit slots that populate many casino floors.

Andrew Zarnett, a casino stock analyst with Deutsche Bank AG in New York, said that the installation of table games in Pennsylvania casinos would signal the "potential for strong returns", despite the sluggish economy. John Kempf, a gambling industry specialist with Barclays Capital, said that the announcement to move ahead with the hotel "has a lot to do with" the start of table gaming.

Sands chairman and chief executive officer Sheldon Adelson said that the company would resume construction on the three-hundred-room hotel within the next few weeks. Officials with the Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Pocono Mountains said that they would add another two hundred rooms to their hotel complex to give their players a place to stay during long gaming sessions.

Last month, stories began circulating in the area that Sands was looking to sell the Bethlehem property, which led to the stoppage on the hotel construction project. The site opened last May and experienced an influx of customers from Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey in the first few months, but has been struggling as a slots-only casino.

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