W.Va. Voters To Decide on Expansion Of Gambling

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Just down Jefferson Avenue, less than a mile from the entrance to Charles Town Races & Slots, Charlotte Bennett was out in her back yard pulling weeds in the garden and getting the soil ready for tomato plants.

Bennett, 63, who has lived in town for 26 years, said she sometimes heads over to the casino to eat at the "Epic Buffet" and then, maybe, spends $5 playing the slot machines.

"But I'm not really a gambler," she said.

On June 9, Bennett and her neighbors in Jefferson County will go to the polls to decide whether blackjack, poker, roulette and other forms of table gambling should also be allowed at the casino, which caters to customers from nearby Virginia and Maryland. Similar votes are scheduled the same day for three other racetrack casinos in West Virginia.

"I'm still undecided how I'm going to vote," Bennett said, "but I think it will pass."

The West Virginia legislature approved a bill this spring legalizing table gambling at the four racetrack casinos, contingent on local approval. It was the third straight year the legislature took up the issue, which never had enough support until this year. The other tracks are in Hancock, Ohio and Kanawha counties.

About two-thirds of the 4.5 million customers at Charles Town come from Virginia and Maryland, said John Finamore, an executive of the company that owns the racetrack casino. Only 5 percent are from West Virginia.

He said the operation generated about $485 million in revenue last year. If the June 9 ballot measure is approved, Finamore said, Penn National Gaming Inc. plans to open 75 to 80 gambling tables in the first phase of operations, creating hundreds of jobs.

"If things go well, we will invest $200 million at the property to build a 500-room hotel with meeting spaces, a third parking garage, restaurants and bars. That would add about another 500 jobs," Finamore said. When the expansion is completed, he said, Penn National would employ about 1,500 people, about 1,200 more than the current level.

The casino has about 5,000 slot machines, and the horse track runs about 220 days a year.

"We make our money on slots," Finamore said. "We break even on horse racing, and table games are typically half as profitable as slots."

Residents in Jefferson County would benefit from the table gambling because about $1.5 million in revenue from poker and blackjack would go to the fast-growing Jefferson County school system for construction and teachers' salaries. About $170 million would go to the state.