Live! Casino apologizes after misspelling Bruce Springsteen’s name on a Philly billboard

Will the real Bruce Springsteen please stand up?

That’s what local Springsteen fans asked after a puzzling billboard went up at Live! Casino in South Philadelphia that welcomed Bruce Springstein — yes, you read that right — to Philadelphia.

Journalist and Springsteen chronicler Stan Goldstein posted a photo of the typo on X that has been viewed more than 145,000 times.

The message was also spotted by Jon Wurster — the Bucks County-born drummer (the Mountain Goats, Bob Mould Band, Superchunk) — who posted the typo to Instagram on Monday. “Tired of people saying Philly doesn’t put in the work,” Wurster captioned the photo, which has since gone Philly viral.

The electronic billboard has since been replaced with a punny apology as of Thursday afternoon, Live! Casino confirmed. “Never gamble on spell check! Sorry, Boss,” it reads above a corrected welcome message.

“We’re an entertainment destination where people come to leave the stress of the day at the door and relax, enjoy, and have fun. Today that means having fun at our own expense. Sorry, Boss,” Jake Joyce, senior vice president of marketing at Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia, said in a statement. The casino is also offering Springsteen free dinner after Friday’s show.

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The billboards are meant to promote Springsteen and the E Street Band’s long-awaited two-night stint at Citizens Bank Park. The shows were initially scheduled for last summer and postponed at the last minute after Springsteen was sidelined with peptic ulcer disease.

Commenters under Wurster’s post cheekily dubbed the mistake “SpringsteinGate” and referenced the Mandela Effect, a social phenomenon in which group-think causes people to misremember historic events or pop culture tidbits.

“It’s always been the Springstein Bears,” wrote one Instagram user, riffing on the commonly misspelled Berenstain Bears. Others joke that Philly was “finding ways to keep the Boss humble” and that we “were too busy blowing up the Chicken Man” to hire a proofreader.

While Springsteen is one of three universally beloved entities from New Jersey, the iconic rocker has always had strong ties to Philly. WMMR was the first radio station to play “Born to Run,” and his discography is filled with references to our gritty city. Locally, his fandom spans generations — including Gen-Zers who became familiar with the Boss by way of Philly-adjacent country crooner Zach Bryan; the two released the duet “Sandpaper” earlier this year.

» READ MORE: Around Philly, loving Bruce Springsteen is a family affair

This isn’t the first time Philadelphia would fail a regional spelling bee: When a portion of I-95 was rebuilt earlier this year, a road sign for the Cottman Avenue on-ramp initially read “Cenrtal Phila / Chester” instead of “Central Phila.” The transit powers that be here have also misspelled Delaware Avenue (left out the A) and our own namesake (Philadelephia, anyone?) in the past.

Well, if you’re out there, Bruce Springstein, we hoped you like the welcome.

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