Opposition to Casino in Centre County

A casino will not help build our community in a positive way at all- increased crime, drug use, and gambling addiction will all be a problem.

College Twp. Does not need or want a casino!

I am opposed to having a casino in our community as I am concerned about increased crime, drug and gambling addiction as well as the increased impact on our already stressed law enforcement and other social services.

No to the Casino. There is no net positive in this scenario. Put in a KidsEmpire instead.

Having lived in New York for 40+ years before moving to Bellefonte, I have observed the "rise" of the Native People's casinos. I understand that there are some jobs created, but no net gain in living conditions around the Casinos. Hence, I am not in favor of one in this area.

I believe a casino will draw money away from Centre County. People have limited funds to spend, and it would be better for that money to go towards supporting local businesses. I believe a casino would also be dangerous for college students. There is already a large problem in the area because of the excessive drinking done by students. I would not want to see gambling addictions added to those problems.

For the safety of our children, youth and community do not allow a casino in Centre County. No dollars can buy back the wasted lives that are lost in gambling and debt that follow this hopeless form of entertainment that results in more homelessness and suicide in communities.

Discretionary spending in Central Pennsylvania is limited, and a casino would compete with our area's existing businesses both for local customers' spending and also for employees - redirecting our community's resources away from productive economic activity into wasteful spending on addictive forms of entertainment. By reducing the amount of money available for non-casino spending and increasing the cost of labor in our region, the casino would gradually drive some of the existing companies in our region out of business. This would deprive our area’s residents of the goods and services that these existing businesses already provide. The proposed casino would not attract significant numbers of tourists or significant amounts of tourism income from other nearby cities to offset these losses – those cities already have larger casinos of their own, and casino patrons’ choices about where to gamble are driven primarily by locality and convenience. Furthermore, tourists from farther away would have to travel past those larger casinos to get here, and few people are going to travel hundreds of miles from out of state to gamble at a mini-casino in the Nittany Mall. Instead, a casino would siphon tens of millions of dollars out of our local community each year and cause significant numbers of Penn State college students to become addicted to gambling. If a casino is developed at the Nittany Mall, it will blight College Township and the other nearby municipalities, leading to increased gambling addiction, poverty, and crime. These costs will be borne not only by the customers of the casino who choose to gamble, but also by numerous other people who never gamble themselves but who nevertheless depend upon those who will become addicted to gambling at the casino – including their children, spouses, neighbors, employers, and co-workers. All of these who depend upon each person who becomes addicted to gambling at the casino will be negatively impacted when these people