While Pennsylvania gaming officials review applications to build Philadelphia's next casino, some politicians are floating an unprecedented idea. They'd like to see a nonprofit own two-thirds of the gaming hall with the expectation that it would help fund the city. But Temple historian Bryant Simon, an expert on gambling's impact in Atlantic City, has concerns about the proposal. "I can see why this is attractive to people, but it's exactly what casinos have started everywhere else," he said. "They seem like good ideas to…painlessly fund things.

Philanthropy often takes place privately, but at the Fox School of Business' Musser Awards, hundreds of local business leaders got to see philanthropy on full display as honoree Steven H. Korman surprised 20 School of Tourism and Hospitality Management sophomores with $12,000 scholarships. "It was an electrifying moment," said CNBC vice president Tyler Mathisen, th event's master of ceremonies. "The only thing better than seeing the faces of the kids who received the gifts was seeing the joy in Steve Korman's face as he did the giving.

In a nod to regionalism, the minor league hockey team that will play in Allentown starting in 2014 won't be named after the city but instead will be called the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. And keeping the team name Phantoms could help attract fans who followed the team when it played in Philadelphia a few years ago. "It's pretty hard to make a hockey fan," said Daniel Funk, a sports marketing expert at Temple's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management. "It's easier to borrow a hockey fan."