Video Poker 247
- Fair Grounds Adds Slots
Many residents of New Orleans are excited by the opening of another
slots room in the area. They know that the other tracks, Gulfstream
Park in Hallandale, Florida and Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas
are their competition in the winter months for being considered the
premiere racetrack – but this time they know that they stand a chance
of getting that title.
Oaklawn legalized video poker about a year ago, and has been using the
money from both the video poker and blackjack to fund their purses and
get a head start on what they will be able to offer. This makes it
even tougher for the Fair Grounds to compete as they know that the
horses follow the purses, and if they can’t get their purses up then
they won’t get the horses.
They have had many delays in getting their slots up and running –
first there was the sale of the track, then there was Hurricane
Katrina, and then they had to convert an area of the property to bring
in the 245 slot machines that they are hoping to have up and running
next week.
The track is hoping to open a full casino with slots and video poker,
etc. come next November, and they are right on track to do so. They
expect that these slots will bring them in around $2.8 million
annually. Once they go on to the video poker, etc. in a full casino
they expect that number to increase dramatically. They say that the
slots won’t make a huge difference this year, but next year there will
be.
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November 2007 Archive
