Barden Thrilled Over Slot Machine License

The Majestic Star has been announced as the winner of the slot machine license for Pittsburgh by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The board chose Don Barden’s group for the slot machine license, and Barden could not be happier. Barden has big plans for the slot machine casino, although it is not his first foray into the slot machine business.

The casino will be his largest, coming close to equaling the 5,800 slot machines that he has at all of his other properties combined. He has four other slot machine casinos under the names of Majestic Star and Fitzgeralds. He has slot machine casinos in Las Vegas; Gary, Indiana; Tunica, Mississippi; and Black Hawk, Colorado. Barden employs almost four thousand people and is planning on hiring 99% of the employees for his new slot machine casinos from the state of Pennsylvania.

Barden is the sole name on the slot machine application, but he actually has 17 other investors including Smokey Robinson and the mother of former Steelers Jerome Bettis. There are other local investors who are interested in being a part of the slot machine casino, including former Pittsburgh Steelers Andy Russell and his business partner Jeffrey Kendall; the children of Angelo Lamatrice, Jr. who owns Clark Bar and Grill on North Shroe; and Lamatrice’s business partner Deborah Doucette. Lamatrice thinks that this is the best thing that has happened since Heinz Field and PNC Park opened.

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