South Philly residents vow to fight gambling inside Chickie’s & Pete’s after recent court decision

A Commonwealth Court decision in the past week would allow Parx Casino to move its race- and sports-betting business from its current location, not far from the Live! Casino, inside the Chickie’s & Pete’s restaurant and bar in South Philadelphia.

However, the Packer Park Civic Association, which had sought to block a gambling venue inside what it says has traditionally been a family-friendly neighborhood bar, will now appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

For more than three years, the association has fought Parx’s plans to relocate its South Philadelphia Race & Sportsbook (formerly known as the Turf Club) from 700 Packer across Broad Street to Chickie’s & Pete’s, at 1526 Packer Ave.

The restaurant has been at that location since 2003, and the civic association said it has been the neighborhood spot where families take their children to celebrate birthdays, graduations, or simply enjoy a meal of pizza and crab fries.

In court documents, residents said they fear there will be an increase in petty crime and gambling addiction. While Chickie’s & Pete’s is inside a shopping center, the center is surrounded on three sides by residential streets.

On Monday, a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel ruled against the neighborhood organization, saying the residents had presented only “generalized testimony about the possible pitfalls of legal gambling and testimony from local residents that they oppose the relocation because they feel the character of the neighborhood may be affected.”

The court concluded that “the Association failed to meet its burden of demonstrating that the proposed relocation of the sportsbook to the New Location would detrimentally affect the health, safety, and welfare of the neighborhood than would normally be expected from the proposed use.”

Barbara Capozzi, president of the neighborhood association, responded to the court’s decision in an email Thursday:

“[We are] very disappointed that the Commonwealth Court ruled in favor of an invasion of gambling into a pristine Community that solidly does NOT want this use. We surely DID present ample proof, besides common sense, that gambling is an invasive cancer in a Community. Just the crime stats around such sites, which we showed, are proof enough. This is a community of hard-working, law-abiding, rule-following, kind and generous people.

“If the rest of the City wants to crumble, that is their decision but we here in Packer Park like our streets clean, our homes well-kept and our personal belongings secure. Gambling is BIG money for the proponents and heartbreak and grief for those addicted to it. The more tech involved in gambling, the more addictive and corrosive it becomes.”

“Gambling is BIG money for the proponents and heartbreak and grief for those addicted to it.”

Peter F. Kelsen, a lawyer with Blank Rome LLP, who represented Parx Casino in the case, provided a statement from Eric Hausler, CEO of Greenwood Racing Inc., the parent company of Parx Casino.

“We are pleased that the Court has affirmed the ruling. We find it ironic however, that while the Association spends its resources opposing our licensed, taxed and regulated betting operation, it has never taken action to oppose the numerous unregulated and untaxed, so-called skill game machines that operate in bars and restaurants in its home neighborhood.”

For his part, Kelsen also told The Inquirer: “We’re very pleased with the decision of the Commonwealth Court. It is well reasoned, thorough and comports with the facts of the law.”

Paul Boni, the lawyer who represents the civic association, said the dispute centered on two legal questions: whether a sports-betting operation at this location required a zoning variance or the easier-to-obtain “special exception.” And if it did, whether the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment was correct in refusing to grant a special exception because the operation would be harmful to the community.

While the Zoning Board found in favor of the community, the Court of Common Pleas reversed the Zoning Board and, now, so did the Commonwealth Court.

“The most shocking part is that the Court concluded that the Zoning Code ‘implicitly’ considers a sportsbook as not impairing the community’s general health, safety, and welfare when in fact sports betting wasn’t even legalized in Pennsylvania until well after the Zoning Code was written,” Boni, a Philadelphia zoning and land-use lawyer, wrote in an email to The Inquirer.

“The Court said that gambling is already so pervasive in society that a sports-book in a local shopping center wouldn’t increase exposure to gambling. This is a disturbing conclusion for a zoning case, where Parx is proposing a high-tech gambling operation with electronic gambling machines in a bar restaurant that caters so strongly to kids.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, records from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board show that the Turf Club, while operating at 700 Packer Ave., was handling $3 million in gambled funds per month, Boni pointed out.

That was how much was gambled, not how much was won or lost, he added. The same chart showed that the Turf Club had revenues of $400,000 to $500,000 a month.

“This is a huge operation designed to extract a ton of money from the community,” Boni said.

» READ MORE: Packer Park neighbors are fighting Parx and Chickie’s & Pete’s over plan to relocate the Turf Club

Now, the neighborhood residents hope the State Supreme Court will hear the case.

In documents and public meetings, lawyers for Parx Casino said the sportsbook business no longer needs the 36,000-square-foot space it has at 700 Packer Ave. Instead, it is planning to use a 2,600-square-foot, glass-enclosed portion of Chickie’s and Pete’s.

When Peter Ciarrocchi, who owns 16 Chickie’s & Pete’s restaurants in the country, attended a Zoom meeting with neighbors and lawyers for Parx Casino in February 2021, he said his South Philadelphia business was suffering because of the pandemic, and from competition from Xfinity Live! and the then-brand new Live! Casino that opened on Feb. 11, 2021.

» READ MORE: Pa. fines Chickie’s & Pete’s for serving intoxicated patrons at Parx Casino location

Parx officials have also said competition from the Live! Casino is a reason they want to move to Chickie’s & Pete’s.

“At some point, government will realize we’ve allowed the gambling industry to go too far.”

Boni said patrons will go into the glass-enclosed sportsbook area to pay tellers cash to load betting apps on their phone, or use high-tech kiosks “and go back into the restaurant and gamble at the table with their wife and kids.”

“At some point, government will realize we’ve allowed the gambling industry to go too far. That time has come, and we hope the state Supreme Court will indeed see the value in accepting our appeal,” Boni said.

This article has been updated to include quotes from Eric Hausler and Peter F. Kelsen.