Churchill Downs Inc. is divulging particulars as to why it believes spending almost $2.5 billion to accumulate on line casino operator Peninsula Pacific Leisure (P2E) is a sound guess. It largely has to do with the Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent, Virginia.
Horses escape of the gate at Colonial Downs Racetrack throughout a 2021 race. Churchill Downs has grand plans for the Virginia horse racing venue. (Picture: Colonial Downs Racetrack)
Talking with the Richmond Instances-Dispatch, Churchill Downs CEO Invoice Carstanjen says regardless of horse racing’s decline over the previous many years, he believes the game has a everlasting place within the US. He explains that Churchill Downs sees an amazing alternative with Colonial Downs.
I’m the primary to acknowledge that I’m biased, as a result of I actually get pleasure from it,” Carstanjen stated of horse racing. “I feel it has a extremely vibrant future as a enterprise and … has a spot in US society.”
Colonial Downs ceased operations in 2013. Reside racing resumed in 2019 after Virginia lawmakers agreed to legalize historic horse racing (HHR) terminals. The pari-mutuel wagering machines mimic conventional slots, however their spin outcomes are based mostly on beforehand run horse races and related odds — not a random quantity generator.
Virginia is for Playing
P2E was a part of the possession group that agreed to spend $20 million in 2018 to accumulate Colonial Downs and resume stay racing in change for the HHR privileges.
Virginia’s dipping its toes into playing, included permitting the P2E group to construct as many as 10 off-track HHR gaming parlors. Six such venues have since opened beneath Rosie’s Gaming Emporium model.
Carstanjen says Churchill Downs plans to make the most of all 10 HHR location permits by constructing 4 further properties. The growth is headlined by The Rose Gaming Resort in Dumfries, roughly 30 miles south of the nation’s capital. The $400 million resort is on observe to open late subsequent 12 months.
Churchill Downs can even purchase P2E’s growth settlement with City One to doubtlessly construct a on line casino in Richmond, Va.
The Virginia capital was one among 5 cities that certified to think about a single on line casino beneath laws handed in 2020 — the state’s second growth of economic gaming. However Richmond voters rejected City One/P2E’s $565 million on line casino proposal through the 2021 election. Efforts to re-ask metropolis voters are underway.
Carstanjen defined that Churchill should be taught extra concerning the Richmond scenario earlier than the corporate can categorical a place on the continued matter. Virginia’s 2020 gaming payments moreover legalized sports activities betting, each retail and on-line. Cellular sportsbooks started working in early 2021. Retail sportsbooks are reserved for the forthcoming brick-and-mortar casinos.
Churchill’s $2.485 billion takeover of P2E lastly consists of possession positions and/or working agreements for del Lago Resort & On line casino in Waterloo, New York, and a Onerous Rock Lodge & On line casino in Sioux Metropolis, Iowa.
Rejuvenating Racing
Carstanjen is most desperate to carry new life to Colonial Downs. And that mission can be simpler for the corporate that owns and operates essentially the most well-known horse racetrack on the planet.
Churchill Downs’ namesake venue is dwelling to the Kentucky Derby. Carstanjen instructed the Richmond Instances-Dispatch that Colonial will host as many as 50 stay racing days a 12 months as soon as it assumes possession. The Churchill boss additionally revealed that Colonial Downs might develop into the positioning of a Kentucky Derby qualifier sooner or later.
“We actually liked what we noticed in Virginia, which is the rebirth of the equine enterprise,” Carstanjen stated. “It was traditionally an essential a part of the US [horse racing] scene. However within the final variety of many years, it hasn’t been.”
