Live! Casino Pittsburgh Targeted for Westmoreland Convention Center and Hotel
Posted on: August 15, 2025, 09:51h.
Last updated on: August 15, 2025, 09:55h.
- A feasibility study suggests that a convention center should be located near Live! Casino Pittsburgh
- Live! Casino Pittsburgh is a mini-casino in Westmoreland County
Live! Casino Pittsburgh could welcome an adjacent convention center and hotel in the coming years after a county-commissioned study concluded that the gaming facility is perhaps the best location in the region for a meeting and hospitality development.
Last December, the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce set aside $25K to commission a study on where a possible convention center and hotel might make sense. The independent study was funded through private donations and a $5,000 grant from Hempfield Township, which is home to the Live! Casino in Greensburg.
Dallas-based CBRE, a global commercial real estate services group, conducted the study. CBRE’s conclusions and recommendations, first obtained by TribLive, suggest that a meeting space and hotel be located at the Westmoreland Mall.
Researchers proposed that a 50K-square-foot convention center and 200-room hotel be built or implemented at the Westmoreland Mall or nearby. CBRE projects that such facilities would generate almost $270 million in direct revenue over the first 10 years, generate more than $16 million in local taxes, and create over 120 new jobs.
Live! Casino Pittsburgh
Opened in November 2020, Live! Casino Pittsburgh is a Category 4 “satellite casino.” Baltimore-based Cordish Companies, which operates a standalone, full-scale casino in Philadelphia, invested $150 million to transform a former Bon-Ton department store at the Westmoreland Mall into a 24/7 mini-casino, which today features 750 slot machines and 40 live-dealer table games.
Of the four satellite casinos in the commonwealth, Live! Pittsburgh is the top revenue generator. The Westmoreland casino generated 2024 gross gaming revenue of more than $116.2 million, with $101.7 million coming from its slots.
Cat. 4 casinos are limited to 750 slots and 40 tables. They can also house retail sportsbooks, though Live! Pittsburgh encourages its in-person players to utilize Live!’s online FanDuel Sportsbook.
Westmoreland County is within the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. Greensburg, the county seat, is roughly 20 air miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh, the second-largest city in Pennsylvania.
Convention Center Benefits
Westmoreland has been without a convention center or designated meeting space since the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in Hempfield closed in 2015. State and local government-owned convention centers have historically been thought to help generate local economic activity. However, that thinking has changed in recent years.
Robin Hunden, a consultant in destination real estate, told The New York Times last fall that most of the 175 major convention centers in the United States operate at a loss. The massive facilities, which cost millions of dollars a year to maintain, are competing for a dwindling number of large-scale events, she explained.
The US Travel Association said MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions) events generated about $119 billion in economic activity in 2023. That’s down 14%, or $20 billion, from 2019 when conventions were thought to have created $139 billion in economic activity.
Large-scale conventions and their planning, however, were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry continues to recover, though even in marquee markets like Las Vegas, convention traffic totaled less than six million attendees last year — still down 10% from 2019.
Last Comment ( 1 )
The Cordish family team are casino ownership rock stars! Because they wisely located Live! Casino Pittsburgh in a perfect spot near the large urban area of Pittsburgh, they raked in that 2024 gross gaming revenue of more than $116.2 million, with $101.7 million coming from its slots. On the other hand, the Happy Valley Casino near Penn State in State College faces doubtful success. Its local developers have already realized that and have requested the PA Gaming Control Board to approve passing off a majority interest to Saratoga Casino Holdings in New York. Most folks will strongly agree that nobody would do that 10 months prior to the Happy Valley Casino's planned grand opening in April 2026. Who's gonna be flashing beaming smiles at that ribbon-cutting ceremony?