Table games vote could be June
Northern racetracks may be first to set date for local referendum

By The Associated Press

Two northern West Virginia counties with sluggish economies and strong cross-border competition for gamblers could vote early this summer on whether to allow poker, blackjack and other table games at racetrack casinos.

Ohio County is working with Wheeling Island Racetrack & Gaming Center to hold a special election by June 20, while Mountaineer Racetrack & Gaming Resort is aiming for a vote in Hancock County sometime after June 9.

Both tracks are in the Northern Panhandle, where thousands of steel jobs have been lost and little new industry is moving in. At the same time, the tracks are preparing to lose customers to the 61,000 slot machines coming online in Pennsylvania.

Themes of job creation and benefits to local businesses will dominate the campaigns the tracks will wage by word of mouth and advertising. But the West Virginia Council of Churches will be in the battle, too, arguing that people should vote against the measures on moral and economic grounds.

“Yes, the jobs card will be played hard,” the Rev. Dennis Sparks, president of the council, said Monday. “But in the 20 years since gambling came to West Virginia, West Virginia has continued to decline economically, not keep up with the rest of the country. This is creating a false economy.”

Legislators voted last week to let four host counties decide whether to allow table games at their tracks, which are authorized to operate 13,900 slot machines.

The West Virginia Family Foundation says it will sue to block the votes, and Sparks said his organization has not decided whether to join that case. However, the council will try to rally gambling opponents who may have felt powerless to stop the legislation in Charleston.

Barring a court injunction, track owners have two choices: They can have the question placed on a 2008 primary or general election ballot or seek a special election this year at their own expense.

Election costs range from $30,000 to $250,000, according to clerks in the host counties.

Kanawha and Jefferson counties have healthier economies and could face more opposition from anti-gambling groups, so Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center in Nitro and the Charles Town Races & Slots are taking things slower.

Neither faces an imminent competitive threat and neither has committed to a timeline. However, Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said in Monday’s Charleston Gazette he would expect a referendum on table games “no later than fall, possibly as early as July.”

Economic issues likely won’t resonate with voters in the comfortable Eastern Panhandle, where unemployment is low and residents can commute to high-paying jobs in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

“People like jobs,” said Charles Town executive John Finamore, “but they’re not as important here.”

At Wheeling Island, a subsidiary of Delaware North Companies of Buffalo, N.Y., general manager Bob Marshall says table games would create hundreds of jobs, draw more conventioneers and form partnerships with area businesses.

Table-game players, for example, might want to golf at Oglebay Resort & Conference Center. And an influx of employees could benefit the housing market.

“While we hear anecdotally that people will vote for this, we need to educate people about what the benefits are,” Marshall said. “We don’t want to take anything for granted.”

Ted Arneault, president of Mountaineer, said his campaign began 13 years ago, when Hancock County voters first approved slots.

Table games could add 500 jobs in Chester and jump-start plans for indoor parking, a shopping mall, a golf course and housing, Arneault said. Mountaineer, owned by MTR Gaming Group Inc., also is promising a new synthetic track that would be easier on horses and require less maintenance.

Tri-State wants to build a 200-room hotel, 100,000 square feet of gambling space, a billiards room and a spa, but would likely use existing casino space for table games while those areas are under construction.

“Obviously, we’d like to get going as soon as possible, but it involves some further discussion,” said Daniel Adkins, vice president of Michigan-based parent Hartman & Tyner Inc.

Table games could add nearly 1,000 jobs in Kanawha County, where Adkins says most voters see the tracks as key tourism attractions.

“As far as running campaigns, I’m not nervous about it at all,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting our message out.”

Adkins has already faced anti-gambling groups in bigger battles, helping to pass a 2004 constitutional amendment in Florida that allowed slot machines at racetracks in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Finamore, senior vice president of regional operations for Penn National Gaming Inc., said Charles Town also feels less urgency. The nearest Pennsylvania track getting slots — Penn National Race Course in Grantville — is already part of the corporate family.

Arguments against table games in Jefferson County could focus on moral issues, traffic congestion and harm to historic tourism attractions.

But Finamore said others will eventually win over voters.

The table-game bill allocates money for schools and in-home care for senior citizens, as well as funds for breeders and horsemen. Preserving the horse industry helps preserve green space in a county being overrun with subdivisions.

“It’s a compelling story,” he said, “and people really rally behind it and say, ‘This is a good thing for the county.’”

(Reported in the Charleston Gazette - Copyright 2007)