On Aug 31, 2010 at 10 am, a civil war is about to erupt at the Comfort Suites in Gettysburg, PA, where the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is holding a public input hearing on the Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino project.

Mason Dixon Resort, Gettysburg, PA

The proposed $27 million casino will be operated by Mason-Dixon LP, whose main promoter is local businessman David LeVan. It would offer Gettysburg visitors a casino with 600 slots and 50 tables, plus a 307 room hotel with 20,000 sq ft of event space and all kinds of resort facilities.

The project has split Gettysburg right down the middle, with Civil War preservationists and businesses claiming it will sully Gettysburg’s image, brand it as a casino town and destroy existing tourism. The casino would occupy the site of the current Eisenhower Hotel & Conference Center, just a mile south of Gettysburg National Military Park. 

Local rebels and businesses fighting against the project are supported by outside groups such as the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

This coalition put out a well timed report a few days back which systematically tears down all the arguments and statistics quoted by proponents of the project and the Mason-Dixon Local Impact Report. The NPCA’s Cinda Waldbuesser says that “Licensing a casino so close to the battlefield would put a known economic engine at risk in favor of an unknown venture.”

In 2008 (latest available figures) Adams County got over 3 million visitors. Visitors spend over $300 million each year and the County gets tax revenues in the vicinity of $85 million.   

On the other side are the casino promoters, Gettysburg borough officials who expect visitors to spend more and the casino to create more jobs for locals, and Adams County – which has been promised an additional $1 million in tax revenue every year. Gettysburg Park officials have stated the casino does not directly impact the park.

Mason-Dixon Casino map

Promoter David LeVan claims that the casino is actually closer to the Maryland border than Gettysburg.

In a public letter on the project’s website, he says that “Mason-Dixon will protect the jobs currently in place at the Eisenhower and create hundreds more.  That doesn’t even include the number of jobs that will be created by areas businesses that will be hired to assist with construction or provide other goods and services.”

This is LeVan’s second attempt at putting up a casino in Gettysburg. The first project, a 3000 slot casino resort & spa, was rejected by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006 after similar protests.

A casino may be tasteless to those who consider Gettysburg as hallowed ground, but the recession’s impact and drop in tourism revenues mean that the casino project has a better chance of being approved this time.