Where Does the Money Go?

With the first of three elections past, and one of the racetracks gearing up for table games, West Virginia residents are wondering where the money will go when it starts coming in.

House Bill 2718, the bill that allows the table games to exist at all, is broken down into who gets what, and for how long. According to the bill, the state will get a $1.5 million license fee from each racetrack that applies for the table games license, for the first year. Every year after that, the state will get $2.5 million annually per license. All of the license fees will go to in-home health care for seniors.

In addition to the licensing fees, the state will also get 35% tax on all proceeds after winnings have been paid. That amount is broken up among pretty much everybody else.

The biggest chunk goes to state debt relief – with them getting 76%. Then 10% gets split evenly between each of the non-racetrack counties, and other 10% split evenly among the non-racetrack municipalities.

Then 4% goes to racetrack employee pensions, 3% to the lottery commission, 2.5% to the purse fund, 2% to thoroughbred and greyhound breeders, another 2% to municipalities in counties with racetracks, 1% going to the counties with racetracks – which gets divided based on racetrack revenues, and finally 0.5% split between Nitro and Wheeling – as they are the only two municipalities that have a racetrack within their city limits.

 

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