State committee considers no-casino zone around Gettysburg

HARRISBURG -- The House Gaming Oversight Committee held a hearing today on a bill that would impose 10-mile no-casino "buffer zone" around the Gettysburg National Military Park and the Flight 93 Memorial Park.

House Bill 2082 is needed, said Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, to protect the "sacred memory" of the soldiers who died in battle at Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863, which he said was the "turning point of the Civil War," and of the heroic passengers on Flight 93 that stopped terrorists from crashing the plane into a building in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001.

The National Civil War Trust, the Gettysburg Battlefield Association and Preservation Pennsylvania supported the bill, which the committee will vote on at a later date. Some business advocates in Gettysburg favor a casino, saying it would bring additional jobs and visitors to an area already popular with tourists....