Pennsylvania Township Commissioning Impact Study for Casino Near Penn State
Posted on: January 24, 2025, 09:22h.
Last updated on: January 24, 2025, 09:34h.
Pennsylvania’s College Township in Centre County near the main campus of Penn State University is commissioning a study to determine what sort of impact a more than $100 million casino coming to the Nittany Mall will have on the area.

During the lengthy legal challenge of allowing Pennsylvania businessman and former PSU trustee Ira Lubert to transform the former Macy’s department store at the shopping mall just miles from the university campus, the College Township Council didn’t commission its own independent, third-party study on how casino gaming might change the community. Instead, in 2021, Lubert’s company, SC Gaming OpCo hired Econsult Solutions, a Philadelphia-based economic, planning, and public policy consultancy, to render such a forecast.
Four years later, the township is moving forward with its review. The request for proposal went out weeks ago, with bids due Friday. The council will soon determine the winner and expect the report sometime this fall.
The findings will have no bearing on Lubert’s project, which is amid early construction. Fencing has gone up around the former Macy’s anchor store and all state and local permits have been secured.

Casino Study is for Planning Purposes
Lubert, who donated $10 million to the $700 million renovation of Beaver Stadium, home of the Penn State Nittany Lions football program, secured the rights to open a commercial casino in Centre County through a September 2020 auction round held by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). Lubert’s little more than $10 million bid outbid an undisclosed offer from Baltimore-based Cordish Companies.
Cordish sued the PGCB on grounds that it wrongly allowed Lubert to bid as a consortium with investors unqualified to participate. In the case that ran several years, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court resolved the litigation last summer when it sided with the PGCB in determining that Lubert maintained 100% control of SC Gaming OpCo at the time of bidding.
The Econsult report found that a casino at the Nittany Mall would have a “net positive impact on College Township tourism, helping to revitalize the Nittany Mall and attract other retail and hospitality operators to the area.” The study concluded that crime would increase only minimally, with an additional 6.2 calls for police each month, or a 1.7% increase in non-traffic related police calls for the State College Police Department.”
Critics of the casino — and there are many in State College — say the study was biased. They believe a casino so close to the state’s largest university will deliver increased rates of problem gambling, substance abuse, financial distress, broken relationships, college dropouts, and suicide.
College Township believes its own study will better provide insights into the casino’s true impact. Township Manager Adam Brumbaugh said this week that the local government will use the findings to determine how to best offset negative consequences.
We Are … Nameless
Lubert had hoped to open his casino at the Nittany Mall, with Bally’s running the place. Soon after winning the gaming license, Lubert, who was an early investor in the Valley Forge Casino Resort, and who retains a 3% stake in Rivers Casino Pittsburgh, the latter of which qualified him to bid in September 2020, announced Bally’s as his partner.
Bally’s announced its exit from the project in September. Facing financing concerns for its nearly $2 billion investment in Chicago, the casino operator said it was focusing its energies elsewhere.
Lubert wasn’t fazed. He said he has the “resources and capability to independently develop and operate” the casino “without reliance on a third party.”
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Last Comments ( 54 )
The gambling industry targets young men. The proximity of this proposed casino to Penn State is clearly not happenstance. Shame on the gambling pushers who want to profit off the suffering of our youth and destroy their futures while simultaneously destroying the integrity college athletics, and causing the athletes themselves to be threatened and harassed by angry bettors!
There can be no positive outcomes from a casino coming to State College. Pure greed. Ira Lubert cares nothing about the impacts to the local community. Bet he doesn’t ever plan on living within walking distance of the casino. What about those of us who do? Who have worked hard to make homes here? To build a safe, family-centered community. This casino will never be welcome. Ira Lubert makes me sick.
There are plenty of people who live here who do not view this as an “amenity”. Long term, small communities suffer when casinos are installed. The cost paid by our municipalities in problems stemming from gambling addiction, increased traffic congestion, increase in crime, and demand for municipal services will not be sufficiently offset by the relatively low number of jobs and tax revenue generated. It may not just be concerns in Chicago that drove Bally’s away. This would be a stain on our community and a bad business venture for all concerned.
Greed has no shame. Ira Lubert's pursuit of this casino shows his greed and that he has no shame. The community doesn't want this casino, but he will build it anyhow.
A pox on Mr. Lubert's unseemly casino enterprise, 2.9 miles away from Penn State's 30,000+ student flagship campus, would be just desserts for the myopic greed & indefensable behavior by an ex- chairman of the Penn State Board of Trustees. Shame on him!
I am concerned about students and others becoming addicted to gambling if the casino is built, and I'm also concerned about the possibility of nearby governments becoming addicted to the revenues from gambling, revenues which may not cover the societal costs of the gambling.
It can't happen, just like at Coney Island, NY. They build them, make all these promises of the good they'll do and then let them get run into the ground. Open your eyes to Atlantic city, NJ.
Lubert probably wants to have a place to play craps when he visits town for PSU board meetings. WHAT A MISERABLE LEGACY TO LEAVE THE PENN STATE COMMUNITY. I hope that the impact study is planning for the casino-associated increases in crime and neighborhood deterioration, as well as the economic cost to the region as the casino sucks the remaining lifeblood out of the mall...
Mr. Lubert is eager to make lots of money with a casino in State College, in College Township where I live not far from the proposed location. But, what will the cost be for this casino? For Mr. Lubert, the cost will be minimal. And then he'll start raking in the bucks. But what about Penn State students whom you would think Mr. Lubert might be concerned about? Some of these students will pay a great cost. Some will have their lives significantly messed up as a result of a gambling addiction. What about some of my neighbors and local people? Unfortunately, the casualties of gambling are people. Some area residents will also develop gambling addictions that will not end well. This seems like too great a sacrifice for too many people (who will have their lives messed up), while one person rakes in most of the money. What ever happened to the needs of the many are greater than the needs of the few (or the one)?
It is too bad that "Happy Valley" will now become known for the unhappiness and poverty that follow gambling addictions. I would not want any of my relatives that I care about to attend Penn State now.
A terrible blight to our family friendly Happy Valley.
Gambling and casinos have NO place in our community, especially right next to a large university. Margaret Terry
This casino will not be good for the, community or the college students. The sign says it all!
In mid-2026 the legacy of Ira Lubert and his business partners will be celebrated at the Nittany Mall casino’s grand opening. The morning event will include beaming smiles, high-fives, and a televised ribbon-cutting ceremony. The casino will operate on a 24/7 operating schedule that will continue until that 24/7 plan proves to be both unrealistic and overly optimistic. Happy Valley is not a major urban area. The residents of Penn State’s bucolic college town know better than to throw away their hard-earned money by spending hours at casino table games and in front of charming slot machines. That's especially true since all of those thrills are now available online. Nobody really needs to know that we can use our phones 24/7 for that right now even from our office cubicles. The unanticipated surprise will become obvious by early 2027 when the casino floor becomes as empty as a ghost town between the hours of 2:00 AM and 2:00 PM every day. In Happy Valley, the casino patrons need to go to work in the morning. Make a note of this now and anticipate watching it unfold later.
The sign in the picture at the casino construction site says it all - Ira Lubert's relentless push to develop this casino has brought shame to the Penn State community. More than anything else, he will be remembered by his fellow Penn Staters for having brought gambling addiction and academic failure to his alma mater for the sake of further enriching himself. No amount of donations to the University can ever erase this blemish from Mr. Lubert's legacy.