Local impact study completed for Happy Valley Casino. Here are the findings

With the Happy Valley Casino eyeing a spring opening, the College Township Council reviewed a local impact study Thursday that was recently completed to offer insight into what to expect from the Category 4 mini-casino.

The study, which was carried out by New Orleans-based casino consulting firm Convergence Strategy Group, took more than four months to complete. It’s available to view on the township’s website.

This is the second study carried out on the casino’s local impacts. The first was done in 2021 by Philadelphia-based Econsult Solutions and was paid for by SC Gaming, the casino’s parent company, but it didn’t fully explore the topics that the township’s council was looking for.

That, combined with a lack of data available on mini-casinos in Pennsylvania in 2021 and SC Gaming getting a new partner for the casino in April, led the council to seek out another study by an independent company.

“With the previous study, Category 4 [casinos] were just starting out, and I don’t think there were as many data points available, which is why I was curious if there were any changes,” council member Rich Francke said.

Convergence’s co-founders, Suzanne Leckert and Scott Fisher, presented the results to the council. The analysis details the casino’s potential positive and negative social, economic and real estate impacts.

The study found that the casino would create about 350 jobs in the township, with an additional 52 created across the rest of the county. It was also estimated that the casino would bring anywhere from $1.4 to $1.6 million to the township in new tax revenue, with the casino’s projected visitation numbers sitting at just over 600,000 annually.

Additionally, it was projected that the slot and table game tax revenues from the casino would bring another $1.2 to $1.5 million to the Commonwealth Financing Authority annually, which would then be redistributed as Local Share Account grants, eligible to applicants throughout Centre County.

“We also anticipate [State College Area School District] receiving around $540,000 annually through taxes after the casino’s first year, and around $560,000 after the casino’s stablilization,” Fisher said.

Convergence does not anticipate that real estate values of properties in the township will be negatively impacted, a conclusion reached by examining the values of properties in townships where the state’s four other mini-casinos are located.

According to an online summary of the study included in the township’s agenda, “in some host communities, the casino has stabilized or increased commercial real estate activity. In others, there has been no discernable impact.”

Social impacts on the casino were included in the report, though Leckert cautioned that because there is so little data available on the social impacts of mini-casinos in Pennsylvania, the actual impacts could differ from what was presented.

Starting with problem gambling, Leckert hypothesized that little to no increase in that issue would be observed due to the population already having access to nearly every type of online gambling, along with Pennsylvania Skill machines.

The study also projected that the casino’s arrival would not translate to an increase in suicide, divorce or bankruptcy rates, although because Centre County’s domestic violence rate is already so low, a slight increase in that statistic may be observed.

The study indicated there could be a slight increase in crime around the casino, specifically related to drunk driving, fraud and disorderly conduct. The study projected it would add only one additional weekly call to the police station, two monthly calls to the fire department and less than one call to emergency medical services.

“We have done these studies in a multitude of markets, and officials in these casinos’ host communities almost always tell us the same thing — that the casino is just like another big box store, and that they usually get more [police] calls to their local Walmart than the casino,” Leckert said. “For the other four Category 4 [casino] host communities, we see call volumes that are nearly identical to when those facilities were a box store.”

But Leckert and Fisher suggested that the council still take some of the tax revenue from the casino to establish collaborations and programs with local health care facilities to mitigate potential negative impacts.

It was also recommended that the council continue to monitor and collect data on social impacts in the years after the casino opens, as there currently is limited data available on those topics.

Three people opposed to the casino spoke during Thursday’s meeting and strongly urged the council to take all necessary precautions for the casino’s potential negative impacts — although they weren’t sold on all of the findings.

“In my opinion, the casino will not be successful, it will struggle financially and it will close by 2028 — that said, I commend Convergence Strategy Group for presenting such a thorough and outstanding analysis,” said Walker Township resident Dan Materna, who then explained his issue with a disclaimer in the study that states the actual impacts could differ from the what the study estimated.

Andrew Shaffer, a State College Borough resident and a leader of casino opposition efforts, read from a 16-page speech where he pointed out what he believed were research-backed fallacies within each of the study’s projected impacts. He questioned the casino bringing in as many tax dollars as expected, said there were inaccuracies in how the problem gambling statistics were presented, shared doubts that the Nittany Mall’s owners would work well with the casino, and more.

He said he hopes that the council will do what it can to help mitigate potential negative impacts.

“You have the opportunity to be better than those other host community officials who take the benefits of hosting a casino while leaving others to deal with the fallout,” Shaffer said. “If College Township’s government truly considers itself to be representative, just and inclusive, then show us what you really are by using some of the tax revenue you will receive from the casino to protect these most marginalized of your citizens.”

After the township voted unanimously to accept the report, council member Susan Trainor affirmed that the township would not only continue to collect data on all impacts following the casino’s opening, but would also look into how to mitigate any negative impacts.

“I do think that this gives us an opportunity to do something as a community that other communities have not yet even thought about,” Trainor said. “We will do periodic checks [on the collected data], look at our community partners and do what we can.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2025 at 5:41 AM.