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 Philadelphia officially became the largest U.S. city to serve as home to a casino when Pennsylvania's 10th gambling hall opened its doors last week.
SugarHouse Casino drew a crowd of well over a thousand people during its opening ceremony. Lawkmakers and officials praised the casino saying that it would create more than 900 jobs and will benefit the state and local economy. Before the doors opened eager players could be heard chanting, "Let us in," as they waited in the heat for more than an hour to play amongst the casino's 1,600 slot machines and 40 table games.
"SugarHouse is the place to be in Philadelphia," said general manager Wendy Hamilton.
For most of the opening day the casino was crowded. Traffic snarled outside its entrance and parking lots were overflowing with gamblers who couldn't wait to test their luck on the latest casino games.
Despite all the enthusiasm though, the dark cloud of protestors did not go away. Members of grassroots group Casino-Free Philadelphia held an opening-day protest in which they unveiled a mural depicting how they think the waterfront should look like. Adamant about running the casino out of business the group said that they plan to have volunteers regularly patrol the area in search of problems such as alcohol violations or kids being left unattended in cars.
So far, casinos have generated more than $4.3 billion in tax revenue across the state leading to a reduction in property and wage taxes. The city of Philadelphia will receive 4% of SugarHouse's gross revenue which should go a long way towards community projects.
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