Hawthorne Park in Chicago plans to cancel its spring meet in 2020 to build new facilities

Illinois: Fairmount Park to invest USD 50 M in adding slots, casino games and sports betting

Gov. J.B. Pritzker declined to predict an opening date for the Fairmount expansion, pointing out that the gaming board has yet to begin work on regulations it needs to put together under the new law and other details.
2019-08-06
Reading time 3:08 min
The Collinsville racetrack's President said the new gambling expansion bill is "really going to save the place." Racing days at Fairmount increase to 100 a year from the current 41, and it's allowed to have as many as 900 gaming positions at slot machines and table games, plus sports betting. The expansion could happen as soon as next year.

Plans to add slot machines, casino table games and sports betting to the Fairmount Park horse track under a statewide gambling expansion law promoted in Collinsville last Tuesday by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker could spur at least $50 million in new facilities.

“There’s going to have to be new buildings” to house the additional gambling options, Fairmount president Brian Zander said, as reported by St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We’re looking at $50 million to start with.” Zander’s statements came after Pritzker spoke briefly to the afternoon race crowd and then to reporters about the expansion bill passed last month by the Illinois Legislature with the governor’s support.

Pritzker, in his remarks to the crowd, focused on the likely expansion of racing days at Fairmount to 100 a year from the current 41 under the bill. The governor said the measure means “more horses, more races, more days, and that means more jobs to this area.” The governor also thanked several Metro East lawmakers for supporting the bill.

Fairmount and two Chicago area race tracks had been pushing for decades for the legal authority to offer casino-type games as a way of expanding their market and revenue bases. Zander said Fairmount had struggled in recent years partly because of its inability to offer purses for winning horses closer in size to those available at race tracks in some nearby states where slot machines already are allowed. “Essentially it’s really going to save the place,” Zander said of plans to add slot machines, casino games and sport betting.

The new Illinois law will allow Fairmount to have as many as 900 gaming positions at slot machines and table games, plus some sports betting. Zander said he doesn’t know yet how many of each type of gaming positions would be sought by Fairmount from the Illinois Gaming Board, which would make the decision.

Fairmount spokesman Jon Sloane said track officials hope that the expansion at the 94-year-old facility could happen as soon as next year but “that this is not etched in granite.” Pritzker declined to predict an opening date for the Fairmount expansion, pointing out that the gaming board has yet to begin work on regulations it needs to put together under the new law and other details. “We want to make sure we’re doing it the right way,” he said. “I don’t want to put a time on it but it will be as soon as we possibly can.”

Asked whether the expansion may result in an oversupply of gambling availability in the two-state metro St. Louis market, he said his goal is to expand the gaming market “and not cannibalization.” “A lot of the people who are interested in horse racing are also going to be the people who are gaming on those other new machines that are here,” the governor said. “They may not have gone to these other casinos.”

The Metro East area has two casinos, the Casino Queen in East St. Louis and Casino Argosy in Alton. There also are four casinos on the Missouri side, in downtown St. Louis, Lemay, Maryland Heights and St. Charles. Zander said without the added gambling options allowed at Fairmount under the new law, “it would have been very tough” to continue operating without reducing the number of racing days in the future. Eventual closure could have been a possibility, he said.

The gambling expansion bill also increases by 800 the maximum gaming positions allowed at each existing Illinois casino; authorizes six new casinos, all outside metro St. Louis, and a new Chicago area race track. The measure also allows more video gambling terminals at restaurants, bars, veterans’ halls and truck stops.

Meanwhile, Hawthorne Park in Chicago plans to cancel its spring meet in 2020 so it can build new gaming and sports betting facilities, according to the BloodHorse.

“This is going to be a hardship for Thoroughbred horsemen,” said David McCaffrey, executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. “But it's a short-term pain, long-term gain situation, and Hawthorne has pledged to work with us while we get through it.”

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