Mountaineer Cuts Purses

Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort announced that they will be cutting their purses by 20% across the board starting July 10th. The track has been having difficulty maintaining the purses for some time now, and experts say it was only a matter of time before they would have to be cut anyway.

However, they will need additional money for a new breed development program, as well as statewide workers’ compensation deductions. The track will be bringing in more revenue come this fall when they start offering table games in addition to their slot machines, but unfortunately, the money won’t come in time to save the cuts that they need to make.

The purses have been averaging around $140,000 a night, which was more than they could already afford. Officials said that the underpayment in the account that the purse money comes from had already dropped t about $2 million, so they said that the announcement of the drop in purse amounts was not a surprise.

The accounts are responsible for contributing to the workers’ comp program, and Mountaineer is responsible for about $3 million this year. Initially the purses were in good shape when slot machines were legalized, but the above programs have reduced the amount that was going into those accounts. Mountaineer said that the purses were cut so that they would not have an overpayment in the purse account and that the move was simply temporary. They expect the purses to go back up “when feasible.”


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