Really!?! Third floor of the old building. That is horrible! What, are the fishies supposed to swim over from the nice new building to the dump that is the old building and take the escalator to the third floor?

Boooo, hiss.

If true, third floor of the old building is very bad news, IMO.

I just checked on Google Maps (because the idiots who designed the parx website don't have a good way to check on directions, among other problems) and found that I'ld have to drive straight up Rt. 1 to 295..... Then onto Street Road. (Who names these things, anyway?)

According to Google Maps, this is a 24 minute drive. Vs. approx. 80 minutes to AC. BUT - no way can it be done. Traffic is miserable on Rt. 1. Probably take twice that. Longer in rush hour.

Plus, I can get an easy 4 or 5 nights a week comped in AC - and then the commute to the poker room is an elevator ride or short walk away. With free food, mostly. Hard to beat.

There are no hotel rooms at parx, and I wonder what the rake is going to be. If it's more than the 10% $4 max standard ($5 per 1/2 hour time charge for 2/5 at Borgata) then that just adds a huge expense.

We'll have to see what happens, but for right now I think I'ld still be spending most of my poker time in AC.

Lee

I'm not sure about that. Pretty sure it's going to be on the 3rd floor of parx.

that is all

Poker will be, according to my sources, in the new Parx. The original plan was to have table games, including poker in the old race track building. Pending approval of table games, the race track building may be demo'd and a resort hotel constructed. This depends on the wording (and law) around "resort casinos". Regardless of that, all table games will be inside Parx.

Whether or not Parx (with table games) will draw from AC remains to be seen. There are plenty of people (including me) that live close enough, that 99% of our play will be at Parx. Comp'd rooms in AC are not exciting when you can drive 15 minutes to your own bed. And, as I've said, the summer traffic to/from AC is painful.

Even if the rake is $1 more (I have no idea what the rake will be) - that's offset by the expenses saved commuting to/from AC.

i really dont know how or why people are complaining about the traffic on route 1 or street road. the walt whitman and 42 are horrid during rush hour, as is the end of the AC expressway during peak hours. sure if you're heading down to AC at 11:00 at night, you say you can get there in 60-75 mins from philly, but during rush hour im sure it takes you 90...same thing's going to happen with parx. really, not that big a deal.

It's 90 minutes from my house to the Borg... best case. 120+ during peak hours, or almost every weekend in the summer.

My house to Parx will be 15 minutes.

Traffic is relative, but Street Road and Rt.1 are bad. The entrance to Parx will be off Street Rd. There may be a side entrance off Galloway, but that's a single lane road, so meh. When Parx opens, traffic will increace exponentially. Traveling east on Street Rd. will require a left hand turn into Parx. That turning lane will back up like a an old sewer. The traffic lights on Street Rd are not synchronize controlled. It will be bumper-to-bumper from Rt. 1 exit (and probably backed up ON Rt. 1. Same for I-95.

They will have to do some major road reconstruction along Street Rd. to help accommodate the volume. Even if they do build an exit off the PA Turnpike into Parx (that will never happen, IMHO), it will do nothing to alleviate the jams on Street Rd.

But, it will be 100% better for me, traffic wise, than driving to AC. And, I know the back roads, so I can eliminate Rt. 1 and I-95.

Also keep in mind that Philly people save $15 in tolls and parking by staying in Philly rather than driving to AC.

I travel between Boston, NYC, and Philly frequently for work, and Bolt Bus (leaves from 34th & 8th) from NYC to Philly is ~$10, 2 hours max, clean, with free WiFi and decent legroom. For the money, it beats the hell out of any other method of travel between the two cities.

Free wifi? Seriously?

From the article in the OP:

"It appears as if Philly Park is poised to enter the poker fray in a big way. Monzo said there are plans to create a 100-table cardroom (bigger by some 20 percent than Borgata's largest-in-Atlantic City poker parlor) on the third floor of the racetrack building."

Also a couple weeks ago I stopped in and was talking to the bartender at the circle bar on the 3rd floor and he said they were putting it there.

HOPEFULLY the article and the bartender are completely wrong though. Why put all that effort into a major cardroom then put it in the old building?

If you take exit 9 on the expressway you can take Delilah Road east until you hit rt. 30. That will take you into Atlantic City with no end of expressway traffic.

I share DrewOnTilt's situation and concerns. It would be forty minutes closer from my home, and I work about 15 minutes away from there. I am primarily a 5/10 NL player. If they spread games that high and they are decent, I will play there regularly, but if it is just a low-limit palace I will continue to go to AC. Comps, free rooms do not factor in my decision of where to play.

Right now I take rte 206 to 30. 30 takes you to the Borgata door step. The drive isn't actually that bad from my location, Burlington City, NJ. It varies from 1+15 to 1+40. Traffic has never been a problem on 30, even in the summer.

parx will be 15 to 20 minutes from my house. I just cruise over the Burlington Bristol Bridge and I'm there basically.

that is all

well I'll admit I haven't been to the old Philly Park Casino in over a year, but has anyone been there? They may be able to compare the decor to Borgata but the employees and customers sure aren't comparable. The place was over-crowded with the down-town trash.

I had a run-in with a nasty snotty waitress who called one of her slot host buddies over to play the intimidator. When I called security over the head of security took my player's card numbers down, "to see what kind of player I was." Not, oh sorry your waitress cursed at you and brought over a slot host to act like an ass...

I haven't been back since. I'd rather sit on the floor of the taj poker room and play poker than drive the 15 minutes to the parx...

All you have to do is look at tax rates to see what the rake will be.

Las Vegas casinos pay 4% tax rate, have $4 rake

New Jersey casinos pay 9.25% tax rate on table games, have $4 rake

West Virginia casinos pay 36% tax rate, have $5 rake

Delaware is set to have a 34% tax rate, unknown what the rake will be

With PA set to have a 16% tax rate, decreased to 14% later, there is no telling where the rake will fall. If they are greedy bastards, they will go for a $5 rake. If I'm betting, I'm betting they will be greedy bastards.

That's a bit of a defeatist attitude. We should be making our voices heard that a $5 rake will be unacceptable.

In this thread:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/27...laware-542182/

I prepared a letter that I eventually sent to the Delaware table games committee. I am planning something similar to send to the PA decision-makers.

The time to make our voices heard about how these poker rooms should be set up and run is now - not just bitch about it later.

Fundamentally, I agree with you. In reality, however, they are going to do what they are going to do... and that is that.

I'd venture to say, even if you could come up with 1000 poker players that write and voice their opinions and offer suggestions - the lawmakers and casino owners are going to do what they feel like.

Why? Because there will be lines of people waiting to get in the games, regardless.

The state is going to tax the casinos at whatever rate they want to tax them. The casinos will, in turn, do what they need to do, to make a profit.

I don't like it, but that is how it is.

as a resident of philly proper, i kind of like this. also, while im opposed to the casinos in CC, if they get table games, there could easily be a chance someone steps up and attempts to make something comparable to borgata. maybe not as nice, but close.

Also, im not super concernced w/ comped rooms since if im down there, i'll just play and drive back the next morning since the drive isnt ridiculous for me, just a pain in the ass sometimes.

how does this work, if legislation gets passed, its statewide correct?

this will pretty much solve my need for 1/2 and 2/5 on days when i dont feel like driving the 1hour + tolls + gas to AC.

The law will apply statewide. For sure the casino's along the Delaware, along with Parx, will have table games. I suspect that they will open a poker room in one (or both) of the Delaware River casino's, along with the poker room already announced at Parx. Where else? Dunno.

Philly Park for the horse players will now offer the best of both worlds if this poker room goes through, the racing is pretty good and year round definetly expect to find the room filled with racing personnel and gamblers would be great for the games.

The Foxwoods in Philadelphia was set up perfectly for a poker room when they moved it to the Gallery/Convention Center location, but that location's been nixed now so who knows. Philadelphia is constantly shooting itself in the foot. A full casino attached to the Convention Center would have meant millions for the city from primarily out of state visitors and would have meant a second rebirth of the restaurants in Chinatown. Oh well. I guess that side of Center City will always be a black hole.

Looks like there might be some action this week in the table games legislation so we can move this along (finally). I'm about 15 minutes from parx with average traffic... can't wait.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/br...ames_bill.html

Looks like the PA State Senate has passed the bill and the next step is a formality. Parx is that much closer to having a poker room...

The question really is, how soon will they be ready to open up poker? Is it true once the bill gets passed they will call in the dealers (who are already trained) and start letting the cards fly?

More free rooms in AC. Great. I suspect that they will compete on rake as well.

I don't see how there can be a lag of any less than six months -- they'll need to set up rake, game, tourney rules, a gaming commisssion for the table games, etc.