How popular will Happy Valley Casino be? Here’s what the first test day looked like
A little more than 30 minutes before Happy Valley Casino opened its doors Friday, staffers emerged to toss blue T-shirts into the waiting, mostly elderly, crowd.
“Best HR team ever!” someone shouted. After throwing maybe 20 shirts, the staffers returned inside. Except the doors were locked.
So it went for Happy Valley Casino’s first test day Friday. Despite a few hiccups, the roughly 500 people who lined up seemed happy to be there.
Bob Vail, a retiree from Houtzdale, wanted to see what “the hoopla is all about.” He brought $100.
“Hopefully, maybe take home a couple bucks more than I spend,” Vail said of his goals for the afternoon.
Christina Wise, wearing a polka dot outfit, drove three and a half hours from Philadelphia on her day off. She described herself as “pretty much a gambler everywhere.”
“So, a new one pops up, I drive to see it,” Wise said. She said she likes a diverse array of table games, and what Happy Valley Casino offered on its test days was “good enough.”
After 2 p.m. and 10 minutes of technical difficulties (casino manager Eric Pearson told the CDT the state’s self-exclusion list wasn’t cooperating), the doors opened. The crowd hooted and hollered. The rain was beginning to pick up. A few Penn State bros joined the line.
It took around 90 minutes for the line to clear up. Casino employees said they were scanning every ID. Pearson said everything ran smoothly.
“It was a great turnout,” Pearson said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
Nittany Mall, which the casino is attached to, was marginally livelier than is typical. Jessi Molina, co-owner of La Caribbean Corner, said her year-old Dominican restaurant saw about 10 more people than usual — she might see close to none on a weekday.
“Better when it opens,” Molina said of the casino’s mall-facing doors.
Ling Vu, filing a woman’s toenails, said it was business as usual at her salon. Appointments were booked up for Blue-White weekend.
