Parx Casino has scheduled Feb. 3 as the official opening of its new mini-casino in Shippensburg, with a soft opening days in advance of that to admit the first guests to gamble, eat, and drink.
The Parx website has begun advertising that first Friday in February as the date for the celebratory opening. PennLive.com reported that the venue in Cumberland County would actually open to the public starting at 10 a.m. on Jan. 26, and a casino spokeswoman confirmed that as the target date, subject to Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approval.
After multiple delays in siting and constructing the project, Parx owner Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc. is completing the hiring and training process of some 200 employees in order to open the state’s fourth mini-casino. It will be the third in central Pennsylvania, to the west of those opened by PENN Entertainment since 2021 in York and Berks counties.
Housed in part of a former Lowe’s home store near Interstate 81, the 73,000-square-foot facility is to contain 500 slot machines, 48 electronic table positions, sports betting kiosks, and a 100-seat restaurant and sports bar.
Legislation approved in 2017 created the mini-casino concept in addition to enabling sports betting and online gambling in Pennsylvania. The mini-casinos are designed to make legal gambling visits more convenient for those living a distant drive from the state’s metropolitan areas, where the bigger, original casinos with more amenities are concentrated.
The Parx Casino in Bucks County, with nearly 3,000 slot machines, earns more revenue than any of the 16 current casinos in the state. It is located some 150 miles east of Shippensburg, a college community where Greenwood Gaming bid $8.1 million at a gaming board auction for rights to develop the mini-casino project.
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