Wheeling Affected by PA Slots

The racetracks near Wheeling are feeling the pinch from the slot machines coming into Pennsylvania. Much of West Virginia’s racetrack and slot machine business comes from Pennsylvanians, and with them legalizing slot machines there is going to be a drop in slot machine revenue.

The Wheeling Island gaming facility, as well as the Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort, have both already had to do layoffs because a very large chunk of their slot machine revenue comes exclusively from Pennsylvania. On November 14^th, when the first slot machine casino is officially opened in Pennsylvania, they are going to see another huge drop in revenue. Pennsylvania has given the green light to bring in a maximum of 61,000 slot machines, which is a huge chunk of change. It now has others in West Virginia thinking that perhaps slot machines are not the only way to go.

There has been much talk of adding table games to the racetracks, for that is one thing that Pennsylvania does not have. They have left the door open to adding them at a later time, but for the first few years at least, West Virginian’s are confident that they can keep out pacing them with a combination of slot machines and table games.

With many citizens supporting table games, they are looking at passing a referendum that would allow for table games to be voted on individually county by county, this way if one county does not want it and another does, it can still be a possibility.

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