Ex-department store becomes casino

The $150m refurbishment of the Bon-Ton department store at Westmoreland Mall, Pennsylvania, US, into a casino has been completed.

The 100,000sq.ft space has been redeveloped by The Cordish Company of Baltimore, a gaming and hospitality company. It held a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week at the newly named Live! Casino Pittsburgh.

It will open to the public next Tuesday, November 24. It is one of the Category 4 gaming venues in the state, designed to be satellite casinos under the Pennsylvania Expanded Gaming Act. It will bring more localised gaming and also taxation revenue for the state.

The Cordish bid won the auction for the licence. Penn National Gaming won two satellite licenses and is building in York and Morgantown. Parx Casino is building at Shippensburg and businessman Ira Lubert is building close to Penn State University.