William R. Miller, IV Op-Ed on PA Gaming Board decision (as told to D. Gale)

Naturally, I was quite disappointed in the state gaming board’s decision earlier this month to award casino licenses to the SugarHouse and Foxwoods applicants. As a member of the Pennsylvania Partnership Group (PPG), the local investment group backing the Riverwalk Casino proposal, I won’t pretend that I wasn’t hurt by the board’s decision. Speaking for the other members of PPG, we devoted more than two years of our lives, and an extraordinary amount of money and effort in what we felt was a unique and winning proposal. Our disappointment in not being selected however, is not based on sour grapes or the loss of personal revenue. Our own investment aside, we are far more chagrined that once again Philadelphia’s minority communities were shut out of the process once real money was on the table.

In a city where less than one percent of municipal service contracts are awarded to African-American businesses, and where the lack of educational and employment opportunities hit minority communities hardest, the action of the board in refusing a license to the only applicant comprised of Philadelphians from those very neighborhoods is appalling. Remember, early in the application process, the board made a point of emphasizing the need for local minority participation, and that the level of such participation would weigh heavily in the board’s final decision. Considering the outcome, one questions the board’s sincerity in seeking the maximum minority inclusion. SugarHouse is owned by a Chicago billionaire and several politically connected local millionaires, and Foxwoods is owned by local investors and the Native American Pequot tribe of Connecticut.

Neither winner demonstrated a significant level of minority participation in its ownership structure, and gave no concrete assurance that a substantial portion of future profits would be used to fund worthy programs in Philadelphia’s most troubled neighborhoods. Simply put, the rich will get richer, and the poor will get what the poor always get.

In its decision, the gaming board cited Riverwalk’s “confusing” management structure as a major impediment, implying, among other things, that while the black and brown faces of PPG would be the public persona of Riverwalk, the real power and decision-making would lie with the white faces of our partners at BHM Gaming and Planet Hollywood. After extensive testimony and explanation of our management structure by industry experts, the gaming board was well aware that with our 51 percent share, PPG would control all general and casino related decisions. We are insulted that the gaming board would accuse us of risking our well-earned good reputations by misleading and selling out the communities where we live, work, and conduct business.

Knowing the impact gaming will have on Philadelphia’s economic future, Mayor Street appointed a blue ribbon panel to carefully study the applicants and make recommendations based on the best interests of the city. That panel enthusiastically endorsed Riverwalk’s proposal, and rated Foxwoods and SugarHouse last. The mayor relayed those recommendations to the state gaming board in December, adding his voice to those supporting Riverwalk. Unfortunately, the gaming board chose to ignore the mayor’s endorsement.

Let’s not mince words here. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board made a political decision. Their ultimate choice of licensees was based not on who had the best proposal, the best location, or who would best benefit the citizens of Philadelphia. The desires of the politically well-connected few overrule the needs of the many, even overruling the mayor of the country’s sixth largest metropolis.

We are now exploring ways to best avail ourselves of the 30-day appeals process. Rest assured that the goal of our appeal is not to recoup our investment, nor to line our own pockets, but to make public the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s bias, and expose the process as flawed at best, and corrupt at worst. Either way, we will not let this grievous insult to Philadelphia’s minority communities go unanswered.