Post by thanksforthecash on Jan 26, 2008 8:59:35 GMT -5
New horse-racing track, casino planned in Pennsylvania
Valley View Downs site not far from Youngstown
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Peter Krouse Plain Dealer Reporter
Ohio's economy leaves little to chance.
Not so with its neighbors.
Yet another casino and race track within easy driving distance of Cleveland is in the works.
Centaur Inc. has permission from the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission to build a mile-long harness track and casino called Valley View Downs on a 250-acre site near New Castle, Pa., about 12 miles east of Youngstown and not far from Interstate 80 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The $428 million project awaits approval from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Centaur hopes to be up and running by summer or fall of next year.
Valley View Downs would join the already-operating Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie, Pa.; Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in Chester, W.Va.; The Meadows Racetrack and Casino near Pittsburgh; and Wheeling Island dog track and casino in Wheeling, W.Va., to create a phalanx of gaming along Ohio's eastern border.
Valley View Downs expects to draw at least half its business from Ohio, said Jeffrey Smith, managing director of racing for Centaur of Indianapolis. Centaur also owns Hoosier Park, a horse track in Indiana that will offer slot-machine gambling by this summer, and a casino in Colorado.
Ohio horse tracks, including Thistledown and Northfield Park near Cleveland, offer wagering on horses, but by law cannot offer casino-style gambling, a restriction that the state's horse industry says puts it at a disadvantage. Valley View would make it even harder for those tracks to compete for the gambling dollar.
"It's going to devastate Northfield," said Tom Aldrich, the track's chief operating officer.
The harness track has already cut its work force from about 400 full-time and part-time employees to about 220 over the last three to four years, Aldrich said.
Valley View would offer a minimum of 150 days of live racing, along with year-round betting on horse races broadcast from other tracks around the country. It also would have 3,000 slot machines with the ability to expand to 5,000.
The track would put 1,500 people to work during construction. Once built, it would provide about 1,000 mostly full-time, permanent jobs.
Pennsylvania's legislature approved slots in 2004 to provide tax relief for property owners and to revitalize that state's horse-racing industry. In little more than a year, the state has taken in $632 million from slots, not including an additional $550 million in license fees, said Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The state taxes slots revenue at 55 percent.
Ohio's horse industry craves a similar shot in the arm. It has been struggling for years. Track revenue has dropped and the number of foals born in the state has declined sharply as trainers and owners take their mares and stallions to other states where there's more money to be made.
Purses at Ohio tracks averaged slightly more than $8,000 a race in 2007, compared with a little more than $20,000 per race in Pennsylvania, according to information provided by the Jockey Club. West Virginia purses averaged almost $17,000 a race.
Thistledown is up for sale by Magna Entertainment Corp., a Canadian company that says the lack of casino gambling in Ohio made the track expendable.
And so, the industry in Ohio points to neighboring states that have embraced casino gambling and asks, why not us? State political leaders aren't sympathetic.
State Rep. Lou Blessing, a Cincinnati-area Republican who supported a recent state referendum on casino gambling that failed, said the issue is dead because Gov. Ted Strickland and leaders in both the Ohio House and Senate oppose expanding gambling.
Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said the proposed Valley View Downs project does not change the governor's thinking.
"Governor Strickland has faith in the ability of Ohioans to innovate and do the things that need to be done to create a strong economy," he said.
Without extended gambling as an option, Sam Zonak, executive director of the Ohio State Racing Commission, is seeking other means to help the industry. He wants to hire a firm to study what can be done.
One possibility involves Internet betting, which has grown dramatically. It's not taxed by the state, despite siphoning away a large chunk of wagering that would otherwise occur at Ohio tracks.
Last year, Ohio tracks handled nearly $372 million in wagers, but as much as $200 million was bet in-state over the Internet, according to the state racing commission.
Arizona recently outlawed Internet wagering on horse racing in that state, Zonak said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
pkrouse@plaind.com, 216-999-4834
Valley View Downs site not far from Youngstown
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Peter Krouse Plain Dealer Reporter
Ohio's economy leaves little to chance.
Not so with its neighbors.
Yet another casino and race track within easy driving distance of Cleveland is in the works.
Centaur Inc. has permission from the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission to build a mile-long harness track and casino called Valley View Downs on a 250-acre site near New Castle, Pa., about 12 miles east of Youngstown and not far from Interstate 80 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The $428 million project awaits approval from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Centaur hopes to be up and running by summer or fall of next year.
Valley View Downs would join the already-operating Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie, Pa.; Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in Chester, W.Va.; The Meadows Racetrack and Casino near Pittsburgh; and Wheeling Island dog track and casino in Wheeling, W.Va., to create a phalanx of gaming along Ohio's eastern border.
Valley View Downs expects to draw at least half its business from Ohio, said Jeffrey Smith, managing director of racing for Centaur of Indianapolis. Centaur also owns Hoosier Park, a horse track in Indiana that will offer slot-machine gambling by this summer, and a casino in Colorado.
Ohio horse tracks, including Thistledown and Northfield Park near Cleveland, offer wagering on horses, but by law cannot offer casino-style gambling, a restriction that the state's horse industry says puts it at a disadvantage. Valley View would make it even harder for those tracks to compete for the gambling dollar.
"It's going to devastate Northfield," said Tom Aldrich, the track's chief operating officer.
The harness track has already cut its work force from about 400 full-time and part-time employees to about 220 over the last three to four years, Aldrich said.
Valley View would offer a minimum of 150 days of live racing, along with year-round betting on horse races broadcast from other tracks around the country. It also would have 3,000 slot machines with the ability to expand to 5,000.
The track would put 1,500 people to work during construction. Once built, it would provide about 1,000 mostly full-time, permanent jobs.
Pennsylvania's legislature approved slots in 2004 to provide tax relief for property owners and to revitalize that state's horse-racing industry. In little more than a year, the state has taken in $632 million from slots, not including an additional $550 million in license fees, said Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The state taxes slots revenue at 55 percent.
Ohio's horse industry craves a similar shot in the arm. It has been struggling for years. Track revenue has dropped and the number of foals born in the state has declined sharply as trainers and owners take their mares and stallions to other states where there's more money to be made.
Purses at Ohio tracks averaged slightly more than $8,000 a race in 2007, compared with a little more than $20,000 per race in Pennsylvania, according to information provided by the Jockey Club. West Virginia purses averaged almost $17,000 a race.
Thistledown is up for sale by Magna Entertainment Corp., a Canadian company that says the lack of casino gambling in Ohio made the track expendable.
And so, the industry in Ohio points to neighboring states that have embraced casino gambling and asks, why not us? State political leaders aren't sympathetic.
State Rep. Lou Blessing, a Cincinnati-area Republican who supported a recent state referendum on casino gambling that failed, said the issue is dead because Gov. Ted Strickland and leaders in both the Ohio House and Senate oppose expanding gambling.
Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said the proposed Valley View Downs project does not change the governor's thinking.
"Governor Strickland has faith in the ability of Ohioans to innovate and do the things that need to be done to create a strong economy," he said.
Without extended gambling as an option, Sam Zonak, executive director of the Ohio State Racing Commission, is seeking other means to help the industry. He wants to hire a firm to study what can be done.
One possibility involves Internet betting, which has grown dramatically. It's not taxed by the state, despite siphoning away a large chunk of wagering that would otherwise occur at Ohio tracks.
Last year, Ohio tracks handled nearly $372 million in wagers, but as much as $200 million was bet in-state over the Internet, according to the state racing commission.
Arizona recently outlawed Internet wagering on horse racing in that state, Zonak said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
pkrouse@plaind.com, 216-999-4834
People want to be entertained, but they don't want to have to think for 3 hrs, VLT's make it easy, put in your money, hit the button, instant results. Play as long or short as you want. 
). I wil argue that we still have ond of the better racetrack management teams in the biz and that given the advantage of slots, we could really make hay--not just financially and for our horsemen, but on the Cleveland Sports/Entertainment landscape.
