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#31
10-19-2007, 05:40 PM
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Re: Mountaineer Status?
[ QUOTE ]
Minor threadjack, but is any of the other WV casinos getting poker? Quite a drive from MD (although its probably shorter than Atlantic City).. just trying to find one closer to go to. [/ QUOTE ] Dont know what part of MD you are in, but it seems for those of us in the annapolis/Balt. area AC is closer. Its only 2.5 hrs for me, everything in WV is 4+ hours, but i still might go up there to check it out. 
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#32
10-19-2007, 06:30 PM
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Re: Mountaineer Status?
I wish Charles Town races would get off its butt and offer tables. It is only an 90 minutes away and would get killer business from the DC/Virginia contingent. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
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#33
10-19-2007, 06:37 PM
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Re: Mountaineer Status?
[ QUOTE ]
Dont know what part of MD you are in, but it seems for those of us in the annapolis/Balt. area AC is closer. [/ QUOTE ] Like hammer said, it was Charles Town that could have made the big difference. They put it on the ballot and lost in the referendum. They can try again, but I think the wait period is at least two years.
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#34
10-19-2007, 07:26 PM
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Re: Mountaineer Status?
[ QUOTE ]
I wish Charles Town races would get off its butt and offer tables. It is only an 90 minutes away and would get killer business from the DC/Virginia contingent. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] [/ QUOTE ] Unfortunately, you're blaming the victim. Charles Town Races would love to offer tables games, but unfortunately, their voters said no. I believe that the statute says that they can try again in only two years.
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#35
10-19-2007, 07:35 PM
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Re: Mountaineer Status?
[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately, you're blaming the victim. Charles Town Races would love to offer tables games, but unfortunately, their voters said no. I believe that the statute says that they can try again in only two years. [/ QUOTE ] From the article: Charles Town Races & Slots last year had about 4.5 million customers, about two-thirds of whom came from Virginia and Maryland, said John Finamore, a Penn National executive. About 5 percent were from West Virginia. Its a shame that the vote was put to the WV county... And since when do counties rights matter [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I know the state would have loved it, as well as MD/VA.
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#36
10-19-2007, 09:19 PM
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Re: Mountaineer Status?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] Its a shame that the vote was put to the WV county... And since when do counties rights matter [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I know the state would have loved it, as well as MD/VA. [/ QUOTE ] That was the only chance it would have had. The main try by the opponents of this bill was to make it a state wide vote.
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#37
10-19-2007, 10:41 PM
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Re: Mountaineer Status?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] Its a shame that the vote was put to the WV county... And since when do counties rights matter [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I know the state would have loved it, as well as MD/VA. [/ QUOTE ] That was the only chance it would have had. The main try by the opponents of this bill was to make it a state wide vote. [/ QUOTE ] For many years, the statewide legislation was always successfully blocked - too much opposition. The breakthrough came early this year, when the legislature passed a bill that allowed the four individual counties that already had races/slots to vote on an expansion to table games. One key motivator was that just across the border, Pennsylvania had begun to extend their own gambling into slots casinos, and racetrack/slots casinos. Once western PA had "racinos", the WV racetrack casinos would begin to lose business, as obviously PA customers wouldn't be driving west/south-west into the WV panhandle if they could get the same thing locally. Metropolitan Pittsburgh, for example, accounted for 50-60% of Wheeling Downs customer base. So those counties in the WV panhandle lobbied really hard - essentially getting WV to save their jobs. And it worked - they found the county-vote compromise.
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#40
10-20-2007, 01:11 AM
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Re: Mountaineer Status?
[ QUOTE ]
Ah. Awesome history, thanks. Still a shame Charles Town failed by such a close margin. =\ [/ QUOTE ] I think what happened in Charles Town is twofold: 1. That area is doing pretty well, so you don't have the pressure of the local jobs issue. When things are OK, the moralists and the authoritarians seem to have the upper hand - nobody is fighting back. 2. The legislation added greater revenue sharing throughout the state for all track/casinos, and there was a group that felt it would be unfair for the highest draw (Charles Town) to "subsidize" all the others - never mind that a set-aside for gambling and a favorable geographical location isn't exactly an earned asset. Of course, point #2 is silly thinking, essentially amounting to rejecting a smaller slice of a much bigger pie - at a net deficit. But some folks who learned how to take their ball and go home as kids never forgot the experience. If you're interested in the history, you could try searching around the WV threads in the Legislation forum. But you probably heard all you need to know: two more years (maybe)!
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