A public hearing on the proposed Nittany Mall casino is fast approaching. Here’s what you should know
A public hearing will soon be held on a proposed $120 million mini-casino at the former Macy’s in the Nittany Mall, giving area residents an opportunity to voice their support or objections to the project.
The deadline to register to speak at the hearing, or have written communication shared there, is noon Thursday via the appropriate page on GamingControlBoard.Pa.Gov. The hearing itself will take place 4 p.m. Monday at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel and will be streamed live on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s (PGCB) website.
Here’s what you should know:
What’s the point of this public hearing anyway?
The main reason is to simply collect public input for the record. No final decision will be made Monday, or simply based off Monday.
But the opinions gathered Monday will be taken into account during a separate public hearing in Harrisburg — the date for that is still not yet known, though it’s expected to occur later in the fall — where casino representatives, PGCB’s board members and the PGCB’s Office of Enforcement Counsel will be on hand. Evidence (e.g. public opinion) will be offered there, and board members will be able to ask questions. The board will then vote during, or shortly after, that Harrisburg hearing on whether to formally approve the application. If it’s approved, construction can then officially begin.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First comes Monday, one of the final opportunities for the community to publicly share its thoughts. Monday’s hearing will not be a dialogue. Instead, a 5- to 10-minute presentation will open the meeting and those registered will then simply take turns sharing their opinions.
Although the casino will be located within College Township, everyone — including those who live outside the township — are welcome to attend or register to speak.
What’s the casino going to look like?
The project, which was initially proposed last fall, is technically for a Category 4 license, or “min-casino” for short. That license caps the casino’s size, meaning it wouldn’t be able to have more than 750 slot machines or 30 table games.
That’s about one-quarter to one-half the size of most other casinos in the commonwealth.
Specifics on the look of the Nittany Mall casino are still unknown. But Bally’s, which has partnered with Penn State alum Ira Lubert, has said it plans to include sports betting at the location in the future. Other public correspondence has also pointed to a restaurant and “entertainment facilities.”
According to an open March letter from College Township, construction is expected to start before the new year and will last about one year. Bally’s did not immediately respond to a CDT request for updated timelines.
The current casino that most resembles the Centre County project is likely Live! Casino Pittsburgh, a Category 4 casino that opened at Westmoreland Mall last November. Hollywood Casino York, also located inside a mall, officially opened to the public noon Thursday.
How much money could the area make from this?
A PGCB spokesperson previously told the CDT that the casino’s host municipality — College Township, in this case — would get 2% of gross revenue from slot machines and 1% of table games. The same goes for the county.
Sports wagering revenue does not specifically go to a municipality or county, however.
How much would that amount to? A consultant hired by the company overseeing the casino estimated College Township would earn about $1.6 million in its first year of operation — a sizable amount, considering the municipality’s annual General Fund Budget is about $10.5 million.
The aforementioned consultant, Econsult Solutions Inc., anticipates the casino would directly support several hundred jobs while also providing numerous indirect benefits.
One of those indirect benefits could be more businesses coming in and around the Nittany Mall, something that’s already been observed in similar situations elsewhere. Management at the mall housing Live! Casino Pittsburgh told College Township that interest was initially “slow” from outside vendors but pointed to several new businesses in March and said interest now “seems to be growing” because of the casino.
Local Republicans and Democrats have also jumped on board on Nittany Mall casino due in large part to the anticipated economic impact, with support from both state Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, and state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Benner Township.
“This is something that College Township has been looking to achieve for some time and, obviously, anything that can bring activity to the Nittany Mall will be helpful since it’s obviously a shopping center that has come under tremendous challenges lately,” Corman said in March.
Added Conklin: “I’m looking at this as a way of giving very good, family-sustaining jobs to central Pennsylvania and Centre County. That is the reason why I am happy to see that this venue will be something that will not only save that portion of the commercial industry for College Township, but will also bring revenues to restaurants and small little stores that will be able to come back and have a steady flow of people.”
What are the downsides to a casino?
It’s incredibly difficult to say with absolute certainty whether crime might increase — something many detractors point to — or what the long-term effect of a casino might be. Even PolitiFact, which is charged with sorting fact from fiction, had difficulty reaching a conclusion.
When looking into the statement “Crime rises in communities with casinos,” it eventually settled on rating the statement for a particular casino as “half-true.” It wrote the following, “To say the least, the evidence is mixed. Crime has gone down in some areas with casinos. It has increased in others.”
But that doesn’t mean all downsides are entirely unclear. Economists from the National Association of Realtors say the impact of casinos on neighboring property values are “unambiguously negative.” And the Institute for American Values showed people who live close to a casino are twice as likely to become problem gamblers as those who live more than 10 miles away.
Studies suggest at least 40% of casino revenues are earned from problem gamblers, and those age 50 or older make up about half of casino visitors.
Even the extent of a casino’s economic impact is debated. Some studies say the more rural and/or depressed the town, the more positive the impact. Others say any public benefits decline over time (usually quickly).
Sometimes, a casino can be good for a community. Other times, it can be devastating.
And Monday is an opportunity to let the PGCB know where you stand.
