Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin: Gambling At The World-Class Nemacolin Woodlands Resort Tucked in a part of Southwestern Pennsylvania well known as a five-star vacation destination since the early 1900s, Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin is a rather small PA casino operation that represents just one of many guest amenities that are a part of the Nemacolin. From penny and nickel slots to high-limit slots, Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin offers guests an array of thrilling fun. Maybe today's your lucky day. Gift cards cannot be used at Lady Luck Casino. Only resort guests and members can redeem a gift card for on-property experiences, amenities, boutiques, or restaurants. Gift cards are non-refundable and cannot be redeemed for cash. Gift cards cannot be redeemed at the Wooflands Pet Resort & Spa or the Woodlands Animal Care Center.
Tucked in a part of Southwestern Pennsylvania well known as a five-star vacation destination since the early 1900s, Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin is a rather small PA casino operation that represents just one of many guest amenities that are a part of the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort.
The property seems content to stay a small, local operator. It did not apply for any online casino licenses. Additionally, it is the only casino in Pennsylvania not to apply for a $10 million sports betting licenses.
Here is some background on the property, which is currently owned by Eldorado Resorts, but managed by Churchill Downs.
The Laurel Highlands area became a popular retreat for wealthy Pittsburgh industrialists and merchants in the early 1900s. In the 1930s, a number of vacation retreats and summer homes were built.
Pittsburgh industrialist Willard F. Rockwell built a summer home and hunting and fishing area on 60 acres of land in the Laurel Highlands that became the Nemacolin Trail Hunting Game Reserves by 1968.
The 12-suite Nemacolin Inn opened on the property in September 1970. An 18-hole golf course, swimming pool, and tennis courts were added two years later. The property was then sold to Cordelia Scaife May, who turned it into a private conference center.
However, the Rockwell family bought it back in December 1981, making it a public resort once again. Over the next six years, the property was transformed into a full-service resort. The Nemacolin Inn was upgraded to feature 26 rooms andtwo restaurants. Plus, an 18-hole course and pro shop, two tennis courts, two swimming pools, and a private airstrip were added.
Lumber king Joseph A. Hardy bought the Nemacolin property at auction in June 1987. Hardy and his daughter Maggie Hardy-Magerko have since transformed the property into a 2,000-acre, world-class resort. Hardy-Magerko took over full ownership in 2002.
Nemacolin Woodlands Resort now features 335 luxurious rooms and suites spread out across a number of townhouses, private luxury homes, a boutique hotel, and a clubhouse.
The property also includes the Woodlands Spa, the five-star Lautrec Restaurant and 36 holes of golf on two championship courses.
In January 2010, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort announced plans to apply for a resort gaming license with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. It also announced it had reached a casino management and marketing agreement with Isle of Capri Casinos to manage the proposed casino.
Nemacolin Woodlands was granted the final Category 3 resort gaming license offered by the state in April 2011 and plans for Lady Luck Nemacolin were revealed.
The $50 million casino project was expected to include 600 slot machines, 28 table games, a casual dining restaurant, and lounge fully integrated into the guest experience at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort.
The entire project was to be funded by Isle of Capri Casinos and complete within nine months.
The project was expected to boost Laurel Highlands tourism. Hardy-Magerko said her family had built the crown jewel of Pennsylvania tourism over the past 20 years. The addition of Lady Luck Casino was expected to give guests an important new amenity that would attract even more people to the resort.
Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin opened to the public on July 1, 2013. The final construction costs of converting a bowling alley and arcade at Nemacolin Woodlands into a casino was upwards of $60 million. The Category 3 resort casino now features 600 slot machines, 27 table games, and two restaurants: Otis at & Henry’s and Lone Wolf.
Isle of Capri called the property the flagship of the Lady Luck casino brand.
In 2017, Nevada-based Eldorado Resorts Inc. acquired Isle of Capri and all its gaming operations, including Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board unanimously voted to renew the Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin’s Category 3 casino operator’s license in December 2016. The license was renewed for an additional three-year period.
At the time, it was revealed that Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin had generated $112 million in gross revenue from the play of slot machines and table games since it opened. Plus, it had paid more than $53 million in gaming tax revenue over that same three-and-a-half-year period.
Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin posted $33,981,632 in gaming revenues in 2016. This included $29,326,854 in total slots revenue and $4,654,778 from table games. Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin is the lowest grossing casino of the 12 operating in the state of Pennsylvania.
With 600 slots, Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin doesn’t offer as many titles as some of the state’s larger casinos. However, there is still a good variety featuring everything from pennyandnickel slots to high-limit slots. Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin is also committed to offering new slot games on a regular basis.
With close to 30 table games, Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin has all the table game basics covered and more. The casino features blackjack with side bets, craps, roulette, criss-cross poker, four card poker, Mississippi stud, and let it ride games.
Unlike most Pennsylvania casinos, Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin has no plans to offer an online casino.
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Eldorado Resorts Inc. now owns and operates 19 casino and gaming properties in 10 states. This includes Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The company’s casino brands include Lady Luck, Eldorado, and Isle of Capri.
Eldorado’s properties feature more than 20,000 slot machines and VLTs, more than 550 table games, and more than 6,500 hotel rooms.
In Pennsylvania, Eldorado also owns and operates the Presque Isle Downs and Casino in Erie. This property features 1,500 slot machines, more than 40 table games, and seasonal live thoroughbred racing.
Eldorado Resorts was founded in Reno, Nev., in 1973.
Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin is not one of the state’s largest casino properties and it isn’t very close to any of the state’s major city centers. However, its advantage lies in not trying to be anything it is not. It is a Category 3 resort casino and it knows it.
Like the bowling alley and arcade it replaced, Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin is simply an amenity for guests of the 2,000-acre, world-class Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and other vacationers in the Laurel Highlands region where it lies. Revenues may be low, but so are operating costs. It may not be to the same scale that Parx Casino or Sands Resort Bethlehem are, but Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin is certainly still a success regardless of that fact.
Guests of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort on a rainy summer weekend will certainly attest to that.
Nemacolin Woodlands Resort | |
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General information | |
Address | 1001 Lafayette Dr |
Town or city | Farmington, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | 39°48′17″N79°33′05″W / 39.8047°N 79.5515°WCoordinates: 39°48′17″N79°33′05″W / 39.8047°N 79.5515°W |
Opened | September 1970 (as Nemacolin Inn) 1987 (as Nemacolin Woodlands Resort) |
Owner | Maggie Hardy Magerko |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 320 |
Website | |
http://www.nemacolin.com |
Nemacolin Woodlands Resort (formerly known as Nemacolin Inn) is a four seasons resort in Farmington, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.[1] The resort is owned by Maggie Hardy Magerko, president of the 84 Lumber Company, and was founded by her father, Joseph Hardy.[2][3]
It includes The Lodge at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, a Tudor Revival-style hotel which is a member of the Historic Hotels of America. Located at the center of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, it was the hunting lodge of Pittsburgh businessman Willard F. Rockwell, who had it built in 1968.[4][5] The resort also includes a casino called Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin.
The resort is named after Chief Nemacolin, a native Delaware Indian who in 1740 trailblazed a route through the Laurel Highlands mountains between what is now Cumberland, Maryland and Brownsville, Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh industrialist Willard Rockwell established a private game reserve on the property called Nemacolin Trails Hunting Reserve in 1968. The Rockwells established a hunting lodge along with a golf course and airstrip. Lakes Louise (named after the wife of Mr. Rockwell's youngest son) and Carol (named after the wife of Mr. Rockwell's second son) were added and Beaver Creek was developed and stocked into a trout fishing stream. In September 1970, the hotel was opened to the public under the name Nemacolin Inn.
In 1979, the property was sold to Cordelia Scaife May, but was returned three years later to the Rockwell family when Kent Rockwell repurchased the property and opened it to the public. By 1987, the 400 acre complex consisting of one hotel and a nine hole golf course was in bankruptcy. Joseph A. Hardy III, founder of the 84 Lumber Company, bought Nemacolin at an auction that year and reopened the complex as an upscale hotel and resort. In the following years Hardy expanded the property to encompass 2000 acres.[6]
In 2002, Hardy transferred full ownership of the resort to his daughter, Maggie Hardy Magerko. In 2007, Nemacolin's boutique hotel, Falling Rock, received AAA Five Diamond status. In 2009 Nemacolin's fine dining restaurant, Lautrec, received a Five Star rating from the Forbes Mobile Travel Guide and held that distinction until 2015.
In 2008, the resort housed the largest wine cellar in Pennsylvania with a collection of approximately 17,000 bottles.[7]
On July 1, 2013, Isle of Capri Casinos opened Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin on the property, under a lease agreement with the resort.[8] The casino operated under a Pennsylvania Class 3 'resort' gaming license, meaning that casino patrons had to first be customers of Nemacolin in order to access the casino floor--either by staying overnight at the resort, purchasing an annual membership, or purchasing a $10 resort gift card. In 2019, Churchill Downs Inc. bought the casino operating business for $100,000 from Eldorado Resorts (which had previously acquired Isle of Capri).[9] In June 2019, Churchill paid a fee of $1 Million to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to eliminate the access fee requirement, allowing the general public to enter the casino at no additional charge. [10]In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic the resort was rented out as the set for the 25th season of The Bachelor.[11]
Nemacolin Woodlands became host to PGA Tour event the 84 Lumber Classic in 2003. Contested on Nemacolin's Mystic Rock golf course, the event came to an end in 2006.[12] The four winners of the 84 Lumber Classic tournaments held on Mystic Rock at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort were:
In July 2017, Nemacolin unveiled a second golf course on top of the Allegheny Mountains called Shepherd’s Rock. The layout was designed by Pete Dye and Tim Liddy.[13]
Exterior of resort
Lady Luck Casino building in 2006 prior to its use as a casino