Gaming board to weigh Foxwoods' future this week

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. Friday in Harrisburg to take up whether to extend the slots license for Foxwoods Casino.

Foxwoods received one of two casino licenses for Philadelphia and was supposed to have had 1,500 slot machines operating by now.

But on May 22, the Foxwoods partnership requested an extension of its license on grounds that it now wanted to shift its project to the old Strawbridge & Clothier department store.

The Foxwoods developers had originally planned to build a casino on Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia. Last August, facing intense neighborhood and political opposition, they agreed to move off the waterfront.

Lawyers for the gaming board have argued against granting an extension, saying the Foxwoods group has failed to demonstrate why it is moving its location or why it could not build a temporary facility at the original Columbus Boulevard site.

Richard McGarvey, a spokesman for the gaming board, said the seven-member board could decide on Friday to grant or deny a license extension — or extend a license with conditions.

A failure to approve an extension would technically doom the project.