Westmoreland Mall plans to fill former Bon Ton location with...A CASINO!

[TheFugitive]

Westmoreland Mall, located in Greensburg, PA, 35 miles east of Pittsburgh, intends to fill the vacant former Bon Ton store with a casino.

https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/14372993-74/developer-westmoreland-mall-casino-could-deliver-152-million-annual-economic-impact

I wonder if this will become a trend for struggling malls?

[mixedday]

A mini casino is also proposed for York Galleria first floor Sears space, as well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Galleria
http://www.cpbj.com/article/20180906/CPBJ01/180909953/penn-national-finalizing-york-galleria-deal-for-minicasino-plan

I visited the York Galleria once to check it out, and reviewing this article - I think the first floor Sears space is a peculiar space for a casino, even if it's a mini casino. I suppose I could think of it like an Arcade/entertainment complex replacing mall space, and instead of kids/young adults, imagine very old people who smoke as the crowd. I don't know about Westmoreland though, but maybe casinos could work for Century III and Pittsburgh Mills?

This type of proposal, casino as mall space replacement, won't work in New Jersey though, where casinos are legally only allowed to operate in Atlantic City, although there is a push for casino in the Meadowlands in Northern NJ.

[TheFugitive]

You could put a casino inside Century III that would be bigger than any existing casino in the state.  I think frankly that mall's biggest problem is that it just has more square footage than can ever be filled by the existing brick-and-mortar chains.

The other problem (which for some reason is not obvious to politicians) is that all of these casinos are eventually going to start putting one another out of business.

[deerwrecker2017]

You could put a casino inside Century III that would be bigger than any existing casino in the state.  I think frankly that mall's biggest problem is that it just has more square footage than can ever be filled by the existing brick-and-mortar chains.

I do absolutely agree with your opinion on how big any casino put inside Century III Mall would be (Could likely give any Casino in Atlantic City or Vegas a run for their money).

The other problem (which for some reason is not obvious to politicians) is that all of these casinos are eventually going to start putting one another out of business.

Regarding the other problem you have described in my opinion it would fall into the category of "Unintended Consequences" and the Politicians would likely be ignorant to the situation and I absolutely hate to say that (Others on this board could or would have different opinions on this).

[TheFugitive]

There are a lot of unintended consequences to opening a casino.

A friend of a friend (a lady stricken with MS who has since passed away)
had a caretaker steal $43,000 from her because the caretaker had a gaming
addiction and could not stay away from a newly opened casino.