Economic Impact Study

Economic Impact for Erie County

What is the value of gaming revenue to an inner-city entrepreneur with little collateral who, thanks to innovative lending, can now manufacture her invention?

Or to a child with no access to music education in his public school who can experience the thrill of live orchestra for the first time?

Can Erie County afford to not fund a program that trains at-risk young adults for their first job and connects them with open positions at local employers? 

While in some ways, it is impossible to measure the impact of a dollar invested, this economic impact report makes it clear that in Erie County, local share gaming revenue is helping deliver on the legislative promise made when lawmakers enacted Pennsylvania’s Racehorse Development and Gaming Act in 2004.

When the gaming law was drafted, the goals of its authors included generating additional state revenue, offering property tax relief for PA residents, and providing host municipalities with funds to meet needs generated by casino development. The authors also intended for local share gaming revenue to afford economic and community development initiatives that would otherwise be left unfunded. The Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority is doing just that.

Detailed in this first economic impact report, ECGRA strategically invested more than $38 million in local share gaming revenue from 2009-2016 in education, workforce development, neighborhood and municipal innovation, inner-city renewal, business growth, and community and cultural assets. Our community is in a period of rebirth and local share gaming revenue is inextricably woven into the process.

Three years have passed and now ECGRA has invested more than $56 million dollars throughout Erie County in just over ten years.  ECGRA's 990 strategic investments in 244 Erie County organizations have generated an economic impact of $128.4 million, supported 838 jobs, and created $4.6 million in state and local tax revenue.  Please view the second economic impact report here.

Fifteen years after ECGRA's inception in 2008, it has dedicated more than $77 million to impact investments and grants that touch every corner of Erie County.  By utililzing gaming funds to fuel economic growth and build community, ECGRA has created an accessible process for consistent engagement with organizations countywide that has a significant economic impact throughout Erie County and Pennsylvania.  You can view our most recent 15 year impact report here.

An impact investing organization, ECGRA's mission is to empower the nonprofit sector, municipal governments, and economic development agencies to revitalize Erie County.  ECGRA is endowed with local share gaming revenue from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania via the Horse Race Gaming Act.  Local share gaming revenue is an assessment of the licensed gambling industry in Pennsylvania.