Groups Still Fighting Philly Casinos

With the Pennsylvania Control Board approving two large slot machine casinos for Philadelphia, neighborhood residents are angry and upset that the state will not take them into consideration. They say that they tried to get the state to put them out of the heart of Philly, on the outskirts so that they would not have to deal with the traffic and crime that will come with them. However, the state is refusing to budge.

The City Council tried earlier in the year to pass legislation that would keep the casinos away from neighborhoods, schools and churches, but the state government would not allow them to pass it, siding instead with the revenue hungry members of the Board. Residents say that they have enough problems with crime and gun violence in their city, and these casinos are going to make a bad situation worse.

Many have joined a group called Casino Free Philadelphia, and they are hoping to slow down the progress of the casinos if not stop them from coming in altogether. They hope that they can become enough of a nuisance that they will walk away from their proposed sites and do what the people of Philly are imploring them to do.

They are also stressing that with the two casinos and all of the slot machines that would come with them; they will pass Detroit and become the largest city in the country with a casino. In a city known for its history as well as its cheese steaks, they say that this is not a distinction they are interested in having.
 

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