Ari, I am confident you will. No doubts, and lots of excitement about pocker in Bucks County taking the east coast by storm!

+1

Harrah's Chester is currently the closest room to my house (just shy of an hour), and I refuse to play there due to the uncomfortable conditions. I am more than happy to drive the extra 20/30 minutes to DE Park or Atlantic City.

I'd be even happier to drive under 30 min to Parx

Thanks for posting this.

Ari you definitely have a great opportunity here. Other rooms in the area are just not cutting it. I live in South Philly and still would rather drive to AC, then torture myself at Harrah's. If you build it they will come......A good room that is.

I live right off the Blue route in delaware county.I am 12 miles from Harrahs,30 miles from DPARK ,33 miles from PARX and 80 miles from BORGATA.I play 40-50 hours a week live.Please give me a reason to never drive to the Borgata again.It sounds like your dead serious about your poker room dont wait to fix things like these other poker rooms .Come out of the gate strong like Borgata has since 2003.Strive to have the best tournaments in the country and that room will be packed day in day out.I could careles about tournies but many players do and that is what gets a room full.I saw Borgata do it from day one.They would run a 50 rebuy At 10:00am Monday through Thurs back in 2003 and the room would be jammed at 9:00 .This was before the MONEYMAKER effect.Harrahs has great action but like everything else they do in poker im sure they will screw it up.Sugarhouse already has blown it in poker by not having a room in SEPT.You guys should open your room to a PARX POKER OPEN.Dont wait! Come out of the gate roaring and takeover the eastcoast.Borgata is the best room in the country not just the eastcoast. I think you have a chance at replacing them if you take the bull by the horns like they did.Im just excited about the buzz on your room make us feel like its OUR room and we will be there.

My only knocks on Borgata have been... no stud game <30/60, no O8 game <10/20 half kill, no LHE options between 3/6 & 10/20, and no consistent low/mid limit HOSE game. Other than that, excellent room.

I agree with NEWDAWN's assessment of the Borgata being the best room, in the nation. And, while the original room is not the room of today, they have made many choices over time that really do distinguish the property as a poker player's paradise. If you are spending long sessions, or days, you can do it easily rather than exhausted by the poor atmosphere that so many other rooms and casinos provide.

So, if PARX is going to be premier, it needs to do it from the start. None of this "we'll see how it goes and adjust" nonsense... it's ALL IN of fold... and so far, Harrah's Chester looks like a 8-3o that needs to be folded. Sugarhouse will likely be nonsense to start, as it has been all along. And, PARX can be poker paradise if they start that way, instead of adjusting their way to some "bit better than mediocre" type gig.

I cannot wait for PARX poker. I believe that they will do this even better than we could expect!!

Awesome you guys have a poker rep here. Ari, How often do you think there will be 510 nl running? How many avg tables of 25nl will be running? What will the rake system be? (hopefully time)

Those are all great questions.......5-10nl and higher will be a time raked game. I am unsure to the number of tables that will be running, as that is based on demand.

Just listened to the House of Cards interview they had with you Ari. Looking forward to the fall opening of the poker room. I'm 10 minutes away from Parx and can't wait to play some 2/5NL there.

Does anyone know if the hearing happened and/or what the outcome was on the expansion?

http://kyw.cbslocal.com/2010/07/26/p...ino-expansion/

Bensalem Casino’s Meeting with Council May Get Postponed
Mike Dougherty
> Local News, > Local News,> News,Bucks County,Leisure
7/26/2010
11:02am
Eight days after gamblers started playing table games at Parx in Bensalem, casino officials planned to go before the township council on Monday with plans to expand the gambling hall. But a little before noon on Monday, that public meeting was facing a likely postponement.

KYW’s Brad Segall reports that the casino was on the agenda for Monday night’s council meeting. Council was expected to take a look at land development plans that reportedly includes a nearly 90,000-square-foot expansion for the main building.

Parx has more than 3,500 slot machines, and nearly 60 table games were added to the casino floor earlier this month. At that time, Parx spokeswoman Carrie Nork Minelli told KYW Newsradio that expansion plans for the near future included the addition of more tables for poker, certain types of Asian games, and full service baccarat tables.

There’s 400 acres of land on the site, plenty of room for Greenwood Gaming to continue to grow. Parx officials would not talk specifics prior to the meeting, which was likely to be postponed until the council’s next meeting, scheduled for August 9th.

Update: Parx asked Bensalem for a delay until the next meeting on August 9th so the township could review some material on traffic. Source: Council meeting replay on fios. Screen cap video link: http://yfrog.com/j5nebiz

So, they are still waiting for the permit?

I hope the news will be out soon. The casino should already have the opening date for the poker tables. If they don't have it yet, I am not sure it will open in Sept. and could be early next year.

Well, as far as I know, they haven't even asked the PGCB for the right to add the "non-banking" poker tables (e.g. hold'em, stud, etc).

This meeting with Bensalem (now scheduled for Aug 9) seems to be for the expansion of the casino to include things like poker:

Even if the town approves the building permits and such, Parx still needs to get the proper authorization from the state to add the poker tables.

I'll be DVR'ing the meeting on the 9th - if you've got fios or comcast and live in lower bucks, you probably get the bensalem channel too.

ShipFaced12 - do you have a link to that interview?

You know how fast the PA State moves. I hope it will open soon. But, I won't hold my breath for it.

They already have table games approval- that was the hard part. Now they just need to submit what seems like a supplemental application for additional tables (poker), and then I'm sure show that they've got trained/capable dealers, security, management, etc for those new games/tables.

http://podcast.com/show/103185/ - episode 128

I hope you are correct. Like lots of people here, just can't wait till it opens. its 35 minutes from my house to Parx instead of 1hr 45mintes to AC.

I can't believe what I'm reading. They army even approved? They've been talking a big game and they don't even have the permit to operate? I mean you really gotta be kidding me. We are all waiting for this big ass Borgata like room to open so we don't have to drive to AC and you have a permit?JOKE!!!!!!!!

I am not able to find any more recent petition/application that has been submitted to PGCB from Parx than this one:

http://www.pgcb.state.pa.us/files/ta...mes_public.pdf

In it, they ask for the following to be approved:

Appendix 3
Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc. itemization of the table games for which authorization is sought.

Live Banking Baccarat 4
Blackjack 36
Craps 4
Roulette 6
3-Card Poker 4

Total 54

Non-Banking 0

Electronic Gaming Tables

Fully Automatic Electronic Gaming Tables
21 Blackjack
2 Three Card Poker
1 Roulette

Total 24

-----

Non-banking (for which they requested zero tables) is what we all care most about... and includes "normal" poker (not 3-card, pai gow, etc).

Hopefully Ari can shed some light on what the rest of the Bensalem and PGCB process will look like. He's said many times that they are targeting October, and given the pace at which PGCB has been moving (fast, really), that seems reasonable... but I would like to see a parx application for 40+ "non-banking" poker tables make its way to the PGCB soon!

Whoa, relax there with the throwing around of "permit". How I see it (not a state gambling lawyer, but hey either are any of us) , there are 3 things going on that everyone talks about as "permit".

1. Ability for the casino to have table games period: By far the most important and most difficult to obtain. And what the state finally allowed the casinos to request. This would take forever to obtain.

2. What specific games each place can spread: Poker is not listed in Parxs current list. They can't complete their addendum until they finish the plans 100% for how everything will look, where the games will be, and how many tables. This will surely not take long to file, and has a very low chance of failure to go through. Part of what is preventing them from doing this is the room plans not being complete, which is held up by issue three.

3. The current meetings people are listing are purely surrounding building space. They are not "can we have poker here?". They are the same filings you would have to go through to add a garage on your property. They can't know the final plans for the room until they know where they are putting it and how much space they can get.

Things we know:
A: People have been hired already, companies do not spend money training and hiring people (especially right now) without solid proof they will need them. They have hired individuals to work in the poker room.
B: The situation is complicated, it will take to plan and make sure everything about the room is right and planned correctly. They can't just "build a room".
C: Parx has a hired poker room manager who even posts here and has paid money for the ability to represent Parx on these forums, clearly not just someone making a fake account to screw with people.
D: Parx advertised on their website the coming of poker this fall.
E: Parx owns a table games license, that currently does not have poker on it.

All of this fits into the earlier ideas about why they couldn't just drop poker in on the first date. It was understood that they would need to do it during "phase 2" expansions in Fall 2010. Everything fits into place with what has been represented and is understood.

The only unknown, is how long it will take to add poker to their original license. And considering it has never been done before, no one posting here has a clue about it. What we can discern though is that the management at Parx and ownership has discussed a timetable with the state on how long it will take to add an addendum and is working on that timetable. I am sorry for the people screaming "zomg the state takes forever to do anything!". It is naive to think with all the business transactions happening that the people laying out the money do not have access to information and assurances we don't see. This is not you filing for a garage with your local township and having it take three months.

I for one would much rather the proper time be taken to open a solid room with the most potential possible, even if it takes slightly longer. Once things are put it place they are much harder to change than those set up originally. So if they need more time to set the room up properly and get space and room for expansion so be it. It is better than opening up Chester part 2 and having patrons get a sour first impression, and not coming back. First impressions are huge, especially for people who have to travel. It takes more to convince someone soured on a locale to come back, than to get them to give it a shot the first time.

This. I applaud Parx for wanting to take the time to get it right in the first place, rather than trying to see how fast they can open. By now, they have had the chance to see what has happened elsewhere - and the demand in places like Harrah's Chester and Delaware Park.

This can only help Ari and company to get it right when they do open. I'm really looking forward to it!!

Lee

I am with you about rather wait a bit longer and get the room right from the start. But, I am just anxious about when it will be open.

Actually, I was more concern about the renovation of the poker room. Is the venovation done yet? Kitchen for food and drinks? what about the occupancy permit and inspection? These will take time.

I hope we can get a picture of how close it is to completion.

I am hoping to hear that Dealers are already hired, poker tables all setup Just waiting for the final submit process.

Or is it like we are still figuring out how many tables and where are these tables going to be setup, file the process and then start renovating and start to hire the dealers...

Just want to know where its at?

I've heard from a couple people recently that they're aiming for an October opening but haven't read anything on here or anywhere confirming it. Anyone know anything for sure yet?