State College Casino Near Penn State on Hold, as Lawsuit and Traffic Study Pend

The proposed $120 billion State College gambling casino propose from the Bally’s Corporation and PA businessman Ira Lubert is on sustain for at to the lowest degree the next few months.

Bally’s, which partnered with Lubert after he was the high up bidder during the Keystone State Gaming Control Board’s (PGCB) Category 4 planet cassino auction off troll held inward September 2020, wants to transmute the former Macy’s section fund at the Nittany Mall into a casino with as many as 750 slot machines, 30 tabular array games, and a sportsbook.

But litigation brought against the body politic past The Cordish Companies, the Baltimore-based cassino operator in arrears Live! Casino Hotel Philadelphia and Live! Casino Pittsburgh, is challenging whether Lubert was qualified to bid on the Category 4 license. The sound challenge was heard in March before inwards the state’s Commonwealth Court, but no ruling has yet been issued.

Adding to the hold in the PGCB officially issuing Bally’s a Category 4 gaming allow for its State College gambling casino is the say gaming federal agency itself. The gameboard latterly ordered a comprehensive traffic meditate on the terzetto satellite casinos that have got already opened — Live! Pittsburgh, Hollywood Casino York, and Hollywood Casino Morgantown.

The PGCB plans to regard how traffic has fared exterior those troika properties compared with the casinos’ pre-opening projections.

The cause and traffic study are delaying the PGCB vote on whether to pass the Bally’s State College plan. PGCB officials say the earliest the room might question to voting on the cast is October 19, but that’s likelier to occur during the board’s Nov 16 meeting.

Lawsuit Latest

Cordish believes the PGCB wrongly allowed Lubert to bid on the Category 4 certify opportunity. After the tell did non incur any qualifying bids in an earliest auctioneer round, the say gaming officials decided to undetermined up the opportunity to individuals who are cay investors inwards any of the state’s other brick-and-mortar casinos.

Lubert, the PGCB said, qualified to tender because he maintains a 3% ownership berth inwards Rivers Casino Pittsburgh. Lubert had also held a substantial stake inwards the Valley Forge Casino Resort before it was sold to Boyd Gaming in 2018 for $281 million.

Lubert afterward tender $10,000,101 during the Sep 2020 auction. His bid narrowly outbid Cordish’s.

Cordish filed its complaint against the PGCB and Lubert a twelvemonth ago this month. The company says the state allowed for individuals to participate inward the auction, but did not earmark those individuals to make consortiums with non-eligible companies ilk Bally’s, something Cordish alleges Lubert did.

[The PGCB] permitted only if such persons to bid; it did non let eligible bidders to shoehorn into their bids persons or entities that were prohibited from summons themselves,” the Cordish lawsuit contends.

After winning the vendue round, Lubert shortly announced a partnership with Bally’s to vest $120 jillion — inclusive of the $10 zillion bid — to pose a gambling casino nigh Penn State University.

We Are… Opposed

The PGCB has heard many opinions in oppositeness to the Bally’s/Lubert gambling casino plan. During the state’s public commentary period, nearly 5,000 messages to the PGCB opposed allowing a gambling casino to live reinforced so shut to the university. Roughly 100 letters uttered living for the development.

Penn State has yet to use up an prescribed spot on the casino matter. The university’s plank of trustees has refuted legion(p) calls to press inwards on whether the state’s largest higher education establishment has an judgment on the Bally’s scheme.

Lubert, a 1973 William Penn State graduate, has been ordained or elected to multiple terms on the university’s board. He was elected chairman of the board inwards 2016, but is non currently a trustee.