West Virginia Pari-Mutuals Open Poker Tables

After a long hard fight with anti-gambling groups, two West Virginia pari-mutuals today took the first step to becoming real gambling casinos.

With voter approval to expand the offerings in certain West Virginia slots/tracks, Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center was the first to offer table games starting today. The first table game offered is, of course, Poker. The Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort will be the second to offer poker in West Virginia later in the day.

The Wheeling track will host 20 tables and Mountanieer will feature 37, seating ten players at each table.

Roulette, craps, and blackjack will be offered at both tracks on or about January 1, 2008.

The long-anticipated table games are a welcome to area residents and track officials.

"It just puts us in a whole different light, we're a casino now. We couldn't say that yesterday," Wheeling Island general manager, Bob Marshall, said.

Opponents of the expansion continue to warn of the social ills of problem gambling and warned of the state's increasing reliance on such revenues. Marshall cited the new hires manning the poker room and the signs of construction in the facility stating that, "What we said is going to happen, is going to happen," referring to promises track officials made when campaigning for the expansion.

A local construction worker said "I'll come a lot more often, it's tough to beat the computer, but you can beat another mind."

Fred Miller, a retired coal miner and maintenance worker from Ohio, was there for the 10 am opening, on his way to an afternoon doctor's appointment and said that he liked what he saw, "I'll come here all the time, now that they have this."

The tracks in West Virgina already offer 12,000 video-slot and poker style machines for the Lottery. West Virgina saw the need for expansion to stop losses from competing slots venues in its neighboring state, Pennsylvania. Between 14 and 48 percent of the panhandle tracks business comes from Pennsylvania and both tracks have seen a decline in revenue since Pa. installed slots.

October 19, 2007
Posted By Susan Torres
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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