Racetracks: We pay enough taxes
WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) – As Northern Panhandle lawmakers prepare to introduce a table game bill and open the door to reviewing tax rates, the state’s casinos are sending a message: The current rates are high enough. Racetracks in West Virginia keep about 43 percent of their revenue from slot machines, which the president of MTR Gaming Group Inc. says is seventh among the nine states that have similar racetrack casinos.
That means the state is “getting more than its fair share,” said President and CEO Ted Arneault, whose company owns Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Chester.
Tracks in New York keep the smallest share at 20 percent, while Louisiana tracks keep the most at 67 percent, Arneault said.
Rhode Island’s tracks also keep less money than West Virginia’s, but Arneault said the New York and Rhode Island facilities do not buy their own machines and pay the costs of installing, maintaining and inspecting them. There, the state covers such expenses.
Geoff Andres, president and general manager of Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center, urged legislators to remember the thousands of jobs the tracks have created and the hundreds of millions of dollars they’ve invested in the state.
Future investment depends on whether the tracks can generate returns for investors, he said.
Jim Buchanan, a spokesman for Charles Town Races & Slots, said his track would likely spend $100 million on improvements if table games are approved in West Virginia.
Several lawmakers have scheduled a March 3 news conference to unveil a bill they say is needed to help fend off competition from new slot parlors coming to Pennsylvania.
On Friday, the threat of competition from the east also grew: A bill to legalize slot machines in Maryland cleared the House of Delegates. If reconciled with a significantly different Senate bill, it would go to Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who has campaigned for slots since 2002.
“The competitive landscape changes and we have to compete,” Buchanan said. “We’re just as concerned as the other tracks about saving jobs and preserving revenue – and preserving revenue for the state – but it won’t do us any good to have a table game bill if the tax rates don’t make it profitable.”
The table game bill was drafted by the West Virginia Racing Association, but neither the sponsoring lawmakers nor association President John Cavacini will comment on proposed tax rates.
Buchanan, however, said it will cost the tracks millions to create space for table games, which are also more expensive to operate than slots. They require more security, as well as training and salaries for dealers.