Six years after the Happy Valley Casino announced its plans to open in the former Macy’s store at the Nittany Mall, it officially opened its doors on Monday. Before that could happen, though, the casino held testing days mandated by the Pennsylvania Gaming Board during Blue-White weekend.

These testing days took place on Friday, April 24, and Saturday, April 25, from 2 to 10 p.m., and as a fan of casinos, I decided to check it out.

I arrived at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, and the parking lot was almost full. After security checked my ID, I was amazed at the number of people already there and the sheer number of slot machines.

The casino has 600 slot machines, 30 table games, and two dining options. They had table games like craps, roulette, baccarat, poker, blackjack, and many more. I didn’t try the dining options there, but they seemed popular.

As someone who enjoys playing blackjack, I headed there first, but I had to wait a while since all the tables were full. The minimum wager for the table was $5, which I enjoyed because it allowed me to play longer.

After finally getting to a table, I put in $30. It was enjoyable to play with others who were as enthusiastic as I was. Also, the dealers were very nice, well-trained, and always trying to get our spirits up whenever the entire table was losing. I ended up playing for an hour and a half and didn’t win anything. Despite that, I had a lot of fun.

I used my last $10 on Huff N’ Puff, a slots game. After that, I decided to call it a night and go home. If you gamble responsibility, this is a place that I recommend. I plan to go back at some point and even try the dining options there.