EVENTS:
Tuesday, Nov 16, 11 AM-3PM Mason-Dixon Suitability Hearing, Pennsylvania State Museum located at the corner of Third and North Streets in Harrisburg, Pa.
Please attend to show your opposition to the casino ½ mile from the GNMP.

Agenda:
Opening remarks by the Board Chair and/or Board Staff
A presentation by Mason-Dixon (anticipated to be up to 2 hours) which should include, but is not limited to, evidence regarding the applicant’s eligibility and suitability as defined by the Gaming Act, the gaming facility plan, any comparative presentation to the plans by other Applicant for this license, plans on the mitigation of any traffic or social concerns, diversity plans, compulsive and problem gaming plans, and other information that it believes is important to the Board.
Questions to the applicant by the Board’s Office of Enforcement Counsel and by the Board members, though the Board may also ask questions at any time during the hearing;
Statements by Board staff
Short closing argument by the applicant
The public is welcome to attend and observe the hearings. We expect good press coverage of the event. Mason-Dixon is providing at least one bus for their supporters to demonstrate local support.
NCG is providing a bus from Gettysburg as well, (e-mail Ride to Museum email if you want a ride, or call Susan at 717-334-3303) and people will also carpool to the Museum to demonstrate opposition. If you are driving please bring along friends.
Please wear a No Casino t-shirt or button. If you need one, we’ll have some on the bus and at the museum. We’ll have doughnuts, coffee and juice but you may want to bring a lunch. Driving directions are here State Museum Directions
and parking garages are under Strawberry Square Mall and the 6th St. Garage.

Nov 20, 2010. Remembrance Day Parade. The entire schedule of Nov 19 and 20 is here:

Rememberance Day Schedule

The Parade begins at 1 pm and we plan to pass out period-correct mourning bands that re-enactors can wear as a remembrance of the fallen and in solidarity with No Casino Gettysburg. They are simple black bands with no writing on them, in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion. We need volunteers to help us pass these out (several units of re-enactors have agreed to wear them). We will have a booth next to Aces High at 433 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325 . Our booth will offer the Legacy video for a minimum $10 donation and free mourning bands. If you are in town that day and want to help pass out arm bands to the marchers meet us at 10:45AM at our table. Some people can also staff the table before and after the march. (and watch it during the march)
Volunteers needed:

Nov 16, Attend the Hearing

Nov 20, Come get and wear a morning band at the No Casino Booth and watch the parade.

Write to the PGCB:
Pa Gaming Control Board
PO Box 69060
Harrisburg, PA 17106 or e-mail: PGCB email

Donate to our Cause!
The PGCB says they will make the decision before the end of the year, possibly at their Dec 16 meeting.

Donation email

Filmmaker Ken Burns, author David McCullough, actors Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick, Stephen Lang, Medal of Honor recipient Paul W. Bucha, President Eisenhower’s granddaughter Susan Eisenhower and Susan Star Paddock share their thoughts on why a casino at Gettysburg is unthinkable and unacceptable.

Musical Score by Academy Award-winning composer John Williams

Click to Play Video

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Filmmaker Ken Burns, author David McCullough, actors Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick, Stephen Lang, and Medal of Honor recipient Paul W. Bucha recite one of the most famous speeches in American history.

Musical Score by Academy Award-winning composer John Williams

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Although Mason Dixon officials have pointed to Gettysburg businessman David LeVan as the principal partner in the casino proposed for Cumberland Township, a report filed with the state Gaming Control Board indicates a different investor has by far the majority ownership.

The report states LeVan’s partner, Joseph Lashinger Jr., is the major partner in the casino plan and, as a result, a group called Concerned Citizens of Cumberland Township has raised issue with the ownership.

“The idea presented has been that LeVan’s the main guy,” said group leader Al Ferranto. “But the report talks about this Lashinger guy and why hasn’t he been around? Where’s he been?”

According to the report, Lashinger has a 98-percent ownership interest in Mason-Dixon Resorts GP, LLC while LeVan has a 2-percent interest. Mason-Dixon Resorts GP, LLC is the “general partner” and one of seven investors in Mason-Dixon Resorts LP, the company that would own and operate the proposed casino.

According to experts in corporate law, the “general partner” is important because it’s the entity that’s empowered to make decisions on behalf of the casino, while the other six investors — known as limited partners — have lesser roles.

“The idea is that limited partners will make their investment into the entity and in exchange they’ll have limited liability. They’ll only be on the hook for the amount of their contribution,” said associate professor Michael Hussey of Widener Law school. “What
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Mason Dixon is doing is fairly standard. They’ve made the general partner (Mason-Dixon Resorts GP, LLC) responsible for the day-to-day management of the limited partnership. They’re the entity that has the ability to sign contracts on behalf of the limited partnership.”

In the past, casino proponents have pointed to LeVan’s magnanimous track record in Gettysburg — he’s made large donations to Gettysburg College and the Majestic Theater, among others — as evidence that the casino would be run in conjunction with the best interests of the surrounding townships.

But because LeVan has a 2-percent ownership interest in this “general partnership,” Hussey says LeVan would be expected to have little decision-making power.

“It’s expected that Joseph (Lashinger) is the controlling individual in this capacity,” he said. “He’s always going to win. He’ll vote his 98 percent and LeVan will vote his 2 percent. He’s going to cause Mason-Dixon to take whatever action he wanted.”

But a Mason-Dixon spokesman has said a private agreement has been reached that grants LeVan the final say, even if the ownership split would suggest otherwise.

“They split all costs and Dave (LeVan) has the final decision in all matters,” said spokesman David La Torre. “To say otherwise is simply untrue.”

According to La Torre, Lashinger — a former Penn National Gaming executive — was enlisted in the project because he had extensive experience in the gaming industry.

“Joe was brought in to assist with the formation of the project. The understanding has always been that the long-term ownership of this project would be with David LeVan,” La Torre said. “Upon licensure, David LeVan, a lifelong Adams County resident, will purchase Mr. Lashinger’s interests. That will ensure Dave’s vision for job creation and investment in the local economy.”

The report also breaks down the “net” ownership interest for the seven individuals that have invested in Mason-Dixon. These figures typically show how much investors have contributed and how much they stand to gain financially, Hussey says. Among the investors, Lashinger’s total ownership interest is 76.4 percent of the casino and LeVan’s is 17.5 percent.

Apart from Lashinger and LeVan, five other individuals are identified in the report as having ownership interests in the proposed casino. They include LeVan’s wife, Jennifer, who would have a 2-percent net ownership interest and two trust funds that have been established for minors, each of which owns 1 percent. LeVan’s longtime accountant Michael Jackson and attorney Bernard Yannetti each are listed with 1 percent net ownership interests in the casino.

Hussey says if LeVan has the final say in all decisions, this discrepancy in ownership makes for an aberrant business model.

“In theory it’s possible. But what’s confusing about this is why Lashinger would put in 76 percent of the money and turn over control to LeVan,” he said. “It’s unusual that someone with such a large ownership interest and with so much capital at risk would turn over control entirely to someone else.”

According to Hussey, a signed operating agreement for the general partnership would disclose such an arrangement, but Mason-Dixon officials said any such document will not be released. La Torre also said neither Lashinger nor LeVan would be available to comment on their business relationship at this time.

“People can focus on the structure and these agreements, but it’s much to do about nothing,” La Torre said. “From day one, this project has been formulated, organized and run by Dave LeVan.”

La Torre continued, “There are some who wish to make this out to be something more than it is. Their intent is to distract from one basic fact: Mason-Dixon will create 900 jobs and pour millions of dollars into the local economy.”

But the Concerned Citizens group has also raised issue with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Lashinger and the chairman of Cumberland Township. The memorandum guarantees at least $1 million to the township and the supervisors pledged support for the Gaming Control Board hearings, which will be held to consider public testimony on the casino.

“If LeVan’s calling all the shots why didn’t he sign the MOU? That’s the indication of who really is the owner,” said Ferranto. “I think it’s a good strategy because Lashinger is an outsider and LeVan is the person everyone knows. He’s done a lot of good things for this community, so he’s the front man.”

Hussey agrees it’s atypical that Lashinger signed the memorandum, especially if he plans to sell all of his interests in the casino.

“I think you would want LeVan to sign it,” Hussey says. “Maybe it’s not in the legal structure and Lashinger is just deferential. On the face, it’s very confusing.”

La Torre said it was a matter of legality.

“I can’t speculate on those matters and I’m not privy to those conversations,” he said.

Apart from his executive position with Penn National Gaming, Lashinger is also a former state representative from Montgomery County and the lead partner in Harrah’s Chester Casino & Racetrack, located south of Philadelphia. The Delaware County harness-racing track was one of the first operations in the state to open a slots facility.

In 2005, LeVan and other investors attempted to launch a slots casino called the Crossroads Gaming Resort and Spa, but were turned down by the Gaming Control Board, which cited significant public opposition as the reason for the rejection.

The Crossroads proposal was funded by a nine-member group of investors, of which LeVan was president. In the proposal, LeVan had a 12.75-percent net ownership interest while a private investment firm, Silver Point Capital, L.P., had a 75-percent net ownership interest.

MASON DIXON RESORT

Gettysburg businessman David LeVan and former Penn National Gaming executive Joseph Lashinger have proposed converting the Eisenhower Inn and Conference Center along Emmitsburg Road, located about 0.8 miles south of the Gettysburg National Military Park, into a gaming resort with 600 slot machines and 50 table games.

The state’s Gaming Control Board will hold its first hearing on Aug. 31 to consider public testimony on whether to award the pair the last remaining Category 3 gaming license. The location of the hearing has not yet been determined.

Their proposal is expected to face competition from three other applicants including the Holiday Inn Harrisburg West in Cumberland County, the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Fayette County and the Fernwood Hotel and Resort in the Poconos.

2005 PROPOSAL

In 2005, Gettysburg businessman David LeVan and other investors attempted to launch a slots casino called the Crossroads Gaming Resort and Spa, but were turned down by the Gaming Control Board, which cited significant public opposition as a major reason for the rejection.

The Crossroads proposal was funded by a nine-member group of investors known as Chance Enterprises, of which LeVan was president.

Born in Gettysburg, LeVan earned a bachelor’s degree from Gettysburg College and went on to earn a degree in advanced management from Harvard Business School. He spent 10 years with Coopers and Lybrand and 20 years at Conrail Inc., where he served as president, then CEO, then COB until his retirement in 1998. He resides in Gettysburg. He and his wife, Jennifer, are managing partners in Battlefield Harley-Davidson.

The investors in the Crossroads proposal were mostly state business leaders and included, among others, Dan Vorum, founder of president of City Motors, in Washington, Pa., and J. Edward Clouse, of Carlisle, who started Clouse Trucking, a family-owned milk-hauling company.

As of August 2005, LeVan had a 12.75 percent ownership interest as a limited partner in the Crossroads proposal. A private investment firm based in Greenwich, Conn. called Silver Point Capital, L.P. had a 75-percent ownership interest.

Silver Point Capital, which was founded by former Goldman, Sachs & Co. partners, became involved in the proposal after Morgan Stanley withdrew its support as the largest financial backer for Crossroads.

At the time, a Morgan Stanley spokesperson said only it wasn’t the right deal for the investment bank. LeVan was also criticized by No Casino Gettysburg for being a “minor” investor in the Crossroads casino.

By Tim Prudente

Copyright © 2010 – The York Dail Record

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On the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg’s 147th anniversary, a group of prominent American historians sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board stressing that a proposed casino near Gettysburg battleground will “unavoidably conflict” with the area’s historical significance.

Urging board chairman Gregory Fajt to deny the proposed casino’s application, the letter kindles a modern-day battle between preservationists and casino supporters that opened in 2005, when another application for a casino in the area from the same developer was put forth.

Building a casino close to the battleground “would be an insult to the men who died there,” said James McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era” and professor emeritus of United States history at Princeton University.

Some 160,000 Union and Confederate troops fought and 50,000 died at the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest and largest of the Civil War. It started on today’s date in 1863 and ended on July 3.

“The idea of a gambling casino on or even near [the battleground] is totally incompatible with the nature of that historic site, which is special and unique,” Dr. McPherson said.

“A casino can be put anywhere, but there’s only one Gettysburg,” he added, a message echoed in the letter that he and 271 other historians signed.

Many historians claim the battle was a pivotal part of the Civil War, not just because it was the largest and bloodiest but also since President Abraham Lincoln four months later uttered his famous “Gettysburg Address” there at the dedication of a national cemetery.

If granted a state license, Mason-Dixon Resorts & Casino will be at the existing Eisenhower Hotel & Conference Center in Cumberland Township.

The casino would be a half-mile from the 6,000-acre Gettysburg National Military Park, five miles from the borough of Gettysburg’s center and three miles north of the Mason-Dixon line. The application — asking for a gambling parlor with up to 600 slots — is currently being reviewed by the state’s gaming control board.

Though the casino would not be placed within Gettysburg National Military Park, the letter contends that putting a casino “so close to the Battlefield at Gettysburg is simply incomprehensible.” The casino’s proposed site would be next to where Union cavalry advanced toward the South Cavalry Field, which saw substantial fighting on July 3, according to the Civil War Preservation Trust. Claiming “that history stops where the park ends is a modern idea, and it just isn’t true,” said Mary Koik, spokesperson for the battlefield preservation organization.

The letter alludes to a similar debate in 2005, when David LeVan, a Gettysburg businessman and a developer of the proposed casino, applied for a 5,000-slot casino a few miles northeast of Gettysburg’s town center. The state did not grant that casino a license at the end of 2006, largely because of widespread public opposition, said Richard McGarvey, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesperson. Historians, including Dr. McPherson, expressed similar opposition over the last application in a debate that lasted 20 months.

Other historians signing yesterday’s letter include Garry Willis, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America”; Carol Reardon, who directs Penn State’s graduate studies in history; and Edwin C. Bearss, chief historian emeritus of the National Park Service.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hopes to reach a decision by the end of the year, but it first needs to have public meetings — where people can voice concerns and approval — for the proposed casino’s application and the three others that have filed for the same license, Mr. McGarvey said. No more than one license will be granted, and it’s possible that none will be, he added.

So far, though, this proposed casino has gotten support in the region, said David La Torre, spokesperson for the proposed casino. The Gettysburg-Adams Chamber of Commerce last week expressed support for the casino, and the Cumberland Township Board of Supervisors did the same in April, Mr. La Torre said.

Pro-Casino Adams County has backed the proposed casino, claiming that the area has suffered job losses and could benefit from the gambling parlor’s 900 jobs. And 62 percent of those in Adams County support the proposal, according to a study conducted by Franklin & Marshall College that polled 600 county residents.

But others claim that the casino would have a negative impact on the area, namely in pushing away heritage tourists, who are different from typical tourists because “they travel for meaning,” said No Casino Gettysburg spokeswoman Susan Star Paddock.

“Those tourists have told us in droves that they are offended [by] the casino,” she said. “I don’t believe that anyone in this country outside of these investors and their cheerleaders would be OK with a casino at Ground Zero or at Arlington Cemetery or the sight of Pearl Harbor.”

Mr. La Torre said that there wasn’t the same kind of outcry when a Comfort Inn was recently built in a spot close to a cemetery and where Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address, or when a 120-acre parcel of land in the national park was purchased recently by a high-density housing development.

Ms. Paddock said, however, that these points are insignificant in light of bigger issues.

“All the major Civil War historians have come out in opposition. That’s the real story,” she said in response. “The rest is just distraction.”

By Dante Anthony Fuoco

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Among the well-known historians who signed the letter are James McPherson, Edwin C. Bearss, Garry Willis, Jeffrey Wert and Carol Reardon. A coalition of six historical organizations, jointly representing more than 35,000 historians and researchers, has also joined in the effort.

Their message is this: There are many Pennsylvania sites for a casino but only one Gettysburg.

Although the site of the proposed casino is outside the Gettysburg National Military Park boundaries, it is still within the Gettysburg battlefield. The area, known as the South Cavalry Field, saw substantial fighting on the third day of the battle.

McPherson, best known for his Pulitzer prize winning book,”Battle Cry of Freedom,” said of the South Cavalry Field, “This ground is as hallowed as any other part of the Gettysburg battlefield, and the idea of a casino near the fields and woods where men from the North and the South gave the last full measure of devotion is simply outrageous.”

The joint letter-writing effort was organized by the Civil War Preservation Trust, National Parks Conservation Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Pennsylvania.

This is round two of an attempt to locate a casino near Gettysburg. In 2006, after a deluge of public criticism of another proposed casino also near the battlefield, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board turned that applicant down. The principle investor involved in the latest bid for a casino license, Gettysburg native and business owner David LeVan, was also involved in the first attempt.

LeVan’s business venture, the Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino, has an option to purchase the existing Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center just south of the national park and has said it would transform it into an estimated 600-slot casino and luxury 300-room hotel offering live entertainment and dining.

LeVan maintains a casino would be good for Adams County because it would generate local jobs, increase the number of visitors to the area and give the state much needed revenue.

The state gaming authority, founded in 2004 when casino gambling was introduced to the state, has accepted five applications for the one license available for a slots-only casino. No date has been set for a public hearing.

By Linda Wheeler

Copyright © 2010 – The Washington Post

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The resort would include 600 slot machines and 50 table games and would be located at the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center in Cumberland Township, south of the Gettysburg battlefield. The location of the public hearing hasn’t been announced, but it will be at 10 a.m.

Written comments will be accepted for 60 days after the public hearing. To submit a comment, visit www.pgcb.state.pa.us.

Hearings for the other three applicants vying for the class 3 license will be on Aug. 30, Sept. 2 and Sept. 8.

Copyright © 2010 – York Daily Record

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