Bethlehem Sands Casino Travel tips

Quote: pacomartin

Final numbers are in for both PA and NJ. Pennsylvania is now officially the largest of the two states in terms of gaming revenue (by just 2.44%). NJ still dominates in table games. Table includes promotional gaming credits, but with promotional credits removed it is still NJ $2.952 billion, and PA $3.024 billion.

The Borgata in Atlantic City is by far the casino with the dominant revenue in the mid-Atlantic.

The state of PA is collecting roughly $1.4 billion in direct taxes, while the state of NJ is collecting less that $1/4 billion.

CASINO	Slots	Table	Total
Mount Airy	$187	$40	$226
Presque Isle	$213	$21	$233
SugarHouse	$203	$74	$277
Penn National	$276	$38	$314
Mohegan Sun	$298	$42	$340
The Meadows	$312	$34	$346
The Rivers	$336	$67	$404
Harrah's Chester Downs	$333	$81	$413
Sands Bethlehem	$382	$106	$489
Parx	$467	$114	$582
Total PA	$3,006	$619	$3,625
CASINO	Slots	Table	Total
Golden Nugget	$98	$28	$125
Trump Plaza	$101	$36	$137
Resorts	$116	$38	$154
ACH	$113	$30	$164
Showboat	$213	$46	$258
Tropicana	$192	$85	$277
Taj Mahal	$229	$120	$349
Bally's	$264	$114	$378
Caesars	$242	$163	$404
Harrah's	$345	$94	$440
Borgata	$430	$221	$652
Total NJ	$2,343	$975	$3,318

That's a very interesting table. We must define "by far" differently. I'd say Parx is very close to Borgata's revenue. And Parx won't take as big a hit when Revel opens. Speaking of opening...Does NY report the revenues of their investor-owned casinos? I wonder where Genting's property at the Aquaduct would slot into this list.

Quote: rdw4potus

That's a very interesting table. We must define "by far" differently. I'd say Parx is very close to Borgata's revenue. And Parx won't take as big a hit when Revel opens. Speaking of opening...Does NY report the revenues of their investor-owned casinos? I wonder where Genting's property at the Aquaduct would slot into this list.

Well Borgata is still double PARX in table games. Borgata is really the only casino in Atlantic City holding it's own, with less than 2% change in slots or table game revenue last year. Although PARX had a 9% lead in slot revenue over Borgata, this table includes promotional plays. Pennsylvania has nearly double the promotional plays as NJ, since they are trying to get people to drive the short distances to the casino frequently, and play for sometimes very short periods of time.

Borgata is also the only casino in AC with a thriving non-gaming business. PARX is not going to add a hotel (there are several nearby already), and it is not going to add shopping or dining or large scale venue. The Sands Casino in Bethlehem seems the only PA casino actively building hotels, shopping, convention center and an entertainment venue to rival Borgata. Mount Airy built a hotel, but it is doing very poorly in gaming revenue due to not being located in an urban area.

I don't know if Revel will steal as much from Borgata. I think it will destroy the Taj Mahal.


Total promotional play in NJ is $366 million, and in PA it is $600 million. From what I can see, the PA casinos hope you will spend some time in the casino every week, so they have a lot of "free play" promotions that last one or two days. If you don't come, you lose it.

Quote: rdw4potus

Does NY report the revenues of their investor-owned casinos? I wonder where Genting's property at the Aquaduct would slot into this list.

Article on opening of Aqueduct

This article says that the VLT's at Aqueduct make by far the most daily profit per machine that I have ever heard of in the USA. For the first three days they made $618 per machine per day, which dropped to $585 for the next six days. That exceeds the revenue from a Megabucks machine in Las Vegas.

But there are only 2,500 VLT's at Aqueduct, far short of the 3,400 slot machines at PARX. Right now the Aqueduct would have trouble exceeding $350-$400 million in a year. But they may be adding some new machines before long.

Queens and Brooklyn are 4.735 million people in 180 square miles. The 5 counties in PA that constitute the Philadelphia area are 4.0 million people in 2200 square miles. Yet Philadelphia has about 8000 slot machines, and Aqueduct has 2500 VLTs.

Quote: pacomartin

Total promotional play in NJ is $366 million, and in PA it is $600 million. From what I can see, the PA casinos hope you will spend some time in the casino every week, so they have a lot of "free play" promotions that last one or two days. If you don't come, you lose it.

Harrah's Chester has offered me about $1,400 in promo credits in Feb. That's $60 every 2 days, plus $80/week, plus $120 on each of two seemingly random days. If I lived in Philly, I could probably pay my mortgage by going to Harrah's Chester 4 or 5 times a week for 10 minutes per trip. Of course, I don't live in Philly so I'm left asking my local host why my home casino gives me $50/month while a casino I've been to twice in my life (net loss of $500 in about 6 hours of play) is throwing $1,400/month at me.

I know there are probably better places to post this, but....


I was at the Sands this past Wednesday evening. There are three important good changes that people should be aware of.

1 - I don't know when they did it, but they stopped serving ice water in glasses and are now serving 10oz Sands brand bottled water. This is GREAT news to water drinkers like myself. Not only did there generally be too much ice and not enough water (in, I think, 8oz cups!), but even when requesting that they don't add a lemon, they often did. Bottled water is a huge improvement.

2 - They are in the middle of re-arranging part of the casino floor. They have removed (or moved) a bunch of slot machines near the poker room, and are expanding the poker room. When I was there, they had 6 new poker tables in the process of being installed. (They had padding but no felt, shuffler, rack, etc.) There was also a bunch of stacked chairs and slot machines, as well as column type decor on it's side, behind ropes.

3 - The poker room is planning on starting tournaments soon, probably shortly after the renovations are complete.

I was there Wednesday night myself (after my class)--not to play or anything but to observe.

The observing didn't really last all that long and I found myself exploring The Shoppes area. In actual fact, there is a very interesting store at The Shoppes called The Farmer's Almanac...but I also found myself wondering about the viability of these casino mall stores. I mean, it seems that retail stores have a difficult time surviving in an environment where the the major motivation for one to go to a shopping mall is to shop.

Clearly, one's major motivation isn't, I wouldn't think, to go to a casino to shop.

Simply put, when one considers shopping, are they more likely to think, Lehigh Valley Mall, etc. or Bethlehem Sands Casino?

So I wonder what the success rate is for these in casino retail outlets (I'm struggling for the proper vernacular for these stores).

Gang -

This is a Google satelite shot of the area. The red line is a Google measurement of exactly 1/2 mile.

The hotel front desk is at the left side of the hotel in this photo. The walk from there to the edge of the casino seems dreadfully long.

The walk to Steel Stacks is much longer. They're gonna have to add an enclosed walkway with conveyor belt people movers if they really want to connect it to the casino and/or hotel.



FYI: The name "Steel Stacks" as I understand it, is because the old blast furnace is being used as a backdrop for the main concert venue.

Also, yes, there is a roadway that goes over part of the building. When inside, you'd never know it. There are no visible support columns.

Sands Bethlehem Event Center projected to boost casino complex visitors with concerts, meetings

The center opened with Incubus on 16 May 2012. Judging by April's gaming numbers, Sands is now the clear leader in table games in Pennsylvania.

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Valley Forge's mini-casino seems to be doing very well. The 50 table games still allowed them to beat Presque Isle in table games. PI is the smallest racino in Pennsylvania. Because VF is legally limited to 600 slot machines, slot revenue can't help but be far below the other casinos. Since slot revenue is taxed at 55%, the casino is probably unconcerned.


Valley Forge mini casino is 63 mile drive from PA Sands in Bethlehem.