The owner of the casino that is slated to be built near the Nittany Mall in College Township, Pennsylvania, acknowledged Thursday night to the neighborhood that he is aware of their worries.

Real estate mogul Ira Lubert established SC Gaming OpCo, LLC, whose CEO is Eric Pearson, in order to participate in the September 2020 auction round held by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in order to get a Category 4 casino license. With a bid of slightly more than $10 million, Lubert—a Penn State alumni and former member, vice chair, and head of the board of trustees—won the auction for a fictitious "mini-casino."

The project has encountered ongoing delays over the past four-plus years owing to a legal challenge initiated by the proprietors of Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia against the PGCB on charges that Lubert violated bidding procedures. The lawsuit was eventually dropped in July, even though it made it all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

During the court process, thousands of furious neighborhood people spoke out against Lubert’s desires to introduce a casino with slot machines, table games, and sports betting a few miles from the Penn State University Main Campus. Pearson stated he's willing to having continuous conversations with locals to resolve their issues during a College Township City Council meeting on Thursday.

"We might not agree on everything, but I’m a part of this community just like you and it’s important to us that you are heard,” Pearson said.

Anyone wishing to voice their opinions about the initiative is welcome to meet with Pearson. However, the seasoned consultant and veteran of the gaming business, who also teaches part-time on the casino industry at the university in the School of Hospitality Management, wasn't sugarcoating the future of the Nittany Mall casino.

"The casino is coming. I’m going to be running it,” he said.

According to Pearson, renovations to the old Macy's department store in the Nittany Mall will start early in 2019 and result in the opening of an unnamed casino. The first half of 2026 is when the gambling floor is anticipated to be completed.

We're Here... Against 

Hundreds of messages from locals voicing their strong objection to Lubert's casino idea have been received by Casino.org. The few supportive comments have been few. Many people were left with a bad taste in their mouths after reading about Lubert's $10 million donation to Beaver Stadium's renovations.

At the meeting on Thursday, a large number of opponents showed their displeasure with both Lubert and the township councilors, who failed to make a move to withdraw from the Cat. 4 casino license process.

It appears that Pearson is in charge of bringing down the public's temperature.

Pearson's presence in College Township comes after Bally's Corporation declared last week that it was pulling out of the casino construction at Nittany Mall. Bally's, a Rhode Island-based corporation, stated that its objectives had shifted and that its $2 billion project in Chicago and potential new casino on the Las Vegas Strip were probably the causes. Bally's had been Lubert's longstanding State College development copartner and was scheduled to manage the site.

Last night, Andrew Shaffer—whom Casino.org speaks with nearly every week regarding the most recent attempt to thwart the casino plan—was among the numerous opponents of the Nittany Mall casino that Pearson personally spoke with. According to Shaffer, having a casino so close to an institution of higher learning will lead to compulsive gambling and even suicide.  

Extended Period Ally Lubert

As per the profiles on LinkedIn and Copper Star Gaming consulting firm, Pearson started his career in Las Vegas and worked his way up the ranks at multiple Strip casinos. In October 2016, Pearson took over as Lubert's president and CEO at Valley Forge Casino Resort, having previously held the position of vice president of gaming at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.

Pearson held the position until 2018 when Boyd Gaming purchased the King of Prussia site from Lubert and his fellow Valley Forge Convention Center Partners, L.P. investors for $280.5 million.

Pearson identified himself as Lubert's "casino guy" on Thursday.

For its investors, the Valley Forge Casino Resort represented a significant financial gain. The casino was the first in Pennsylvania to be granted a Cat. 3 license, which restricted access to the establishment for hotel guests and the quantity of gaming jobs the establishment could provide. Those who did not stay overnight were required to acquire a $10 gift card or make another purchase somewhere in the resort.

$5 million is the price of the Cat. 3 licenses, which is $45 million less than the $50 million required for the solo Cat. 2 casino licenses. The state permitted Cat. 3 casinos to pay a $1 million fee to do rid of the admission and gaming position restrictions as part of the state's 2017 gaming expansion. However, Cat. 3 casinos were initially not allowed to place a bid on the recently approved Cat. 4 mini-casino prospects.

Lubert qualified because he still owns 3% of Rivers Casino Pittsburgh when the PGCB decided to open the auction to people with substantial stakes in Cat. 2 slot licenses following a halt in the bidding process.