Sports and race bets via Parx Casino could be coming by year’s end to a Chickie’s & Pete’s location under construction in Chester County.
Parx obtained Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission approval Tuesday afternoon to relocate its closed Oaks Race & Sportsbook OTB operation in Montgomery County to the planned sports bar site at The Grove Shopping Center in East Whiteland.
Parx still must obtain approval from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board before it can commence the sportsbook operations. If that occurs, it will restore Parx to two OTB/sportsbook locations, as the Oaks site was closed permanently in the wake of COVID-related shutdowns across the gaming industry a year ago.
Parx currently operates just the South Philadelphia Race & Sportsbook, which it has been rebuffed in relocating to within another Chickie’s & Pete’s, on Packer Avenue in South Philadelphia. A grassroots group of neighborhood residents opposed having any gambling in their midst, and Philadelphia’s Zoning Board of Adjustment voted June 9 to reject the Parx request for special zoning approval to relocate there.
There is a Chickie’s & Pete’s within the Parx Casino in Bucks County, and officials have described plans for a Chickie’s & Pete’s inside their planned Cumberland County mini-casino, which is also to have a sportsbook.