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 Queen Peggy Steinman and the possibility of a casino in downtown Lancaster by Ron Harper, Jr. Friday, 02 May 2008
Miss Steinman, 72, has more than dabbled in the $15 billion horse racing gambling industry. With a dozen brood mares and twenty horses in training at two different Kentucky horse farms, Peggy's investments in the gambling industry do not stop there. It includes two homes - one in Sarasota Springs, New York and one in Camden, South Carolina both near their respective race tracks. Peggy also lists on her resume, board memberships on the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and The National Steeplechase Museum. Peggy's full time job? A Time Union [NY] newspaper article in 1999 said racing is Steinman's full-time occupation! Her racing colors are pink and green, and, according to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association website, Peggy's favorite horse is named Colstar, who has won her over a million dollars. Now that's something you won't read in her Lancaster Newspapers. You won't because Lancaster Newspapers is 50 percent of Penn Square Partners, the private part of the convention center and hotel project in downtown Lancaster.
In 2005, Lancaster's J. P. McCaskey's high school student newspaper, The Vidette, published a front page article entitled, "Casino Built in Lancaster: Would it really benefit residents and school children?" As Peggy Steinman has devoted countless hours of her life and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, on the gambling industry - would it appear she would have a problem with turning a failed convention center into a casino? Peggy refused multiple opportunities to answer our questions about her racing and gambling interests over the past eight months.
On November 14, 2001, the Buffalo News reported the local convention center's failure and its conversion to a casino. The demise of the convention center began in 2000, when the Niagara Convention Center fell short of its projected revenue, and the city fathers had to come up with $337,000 on top of the $1.2 million that it was already giving to cover the center's losses. With an uncertain future, and now mistrust of the center's previously glowing projections, the city of Niagara sold their convention center to the Seneca's to avoid the annual $1.4 million taxpayer-funded deficit that was growing every year. What about Lancaster's Convention Center? Currently, the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority is controlled by bond-holder, Wachovia bank, which has placed the Authority on a slim $59,000 per month budget. This is the same authority board that routinely spent between $250,000 to $500,000 per month on consultants and legal fees, so this is a significant decrease. With the construction cost already projected to be $6,000,000 more than projected by the sponsors, the question of how bills are going to be paid will soon become a reality. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the slots law, but struck down a provision that allowed local municipalities from controlling or regulating casinos so no amount of opposition can prevent a casino from coming to town. So, will a casino find a home in Lancaster? If you are Peggy Steinman, you just might bet on it. |
© Copyright 2008 by Lancaster Post. All Rights reserved.
Is Peggy Steinman's decades-long, intimate relationship with horse betting a sign that the project will morph into a gambling den if it fails as a convention center?
While there is speculation of a casino in Lancaster County, it is still speculation. But it wouldn't be the first convention center to transition into a casino. A publicly-owned convention center located near the United States side of the Niagara Falls, was sold to Seneca Indians, a full casino, featuring 3,238 slot machines, 97 table games, including blackjack, craps, and roulette, 16 poker tables, and keno.