Pa. slot handle over $1B

Anton Leppler, executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission, is pleased to report that the “fledgling” Pennsylvania slot industry is on schedule to go over $1 billion in handle sometime late Friday or early Saturday.

Yes, that’s $1,000,000,000 fed through the one-armed machines at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Harrah’s Chester, and Philadelphia Park since slot wagering started at Pocono on Nov. 14. Over $150 million of the total was bet in the seven-day period from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4. The Pocono and Chester facilities, on the harness side, have themselves bet over $500,000,000 so far.

And the benefits to harness racing have been immediate, and decisive, pointing towards a great future for the sulky sport in the Commonwealth.

The Harness Commission administers both the Sire Stakes and new Harness Breeders Development Fund on-site, and each of the two programs has had slot-infused revenue of almost $480,000 so far, with nearly $280,000 of that this year. Those figures promise a big season for the Sire Stakes in 2008, which gets its funding from money generated the previous year, and they also point to a big Breeders Fund distribution when the Fund makes its first disbursements early in 2008.

The major portion of the slot money directed to Pennsylvania harness racing goes into the horsemen’s overnight purse account. To date Pocono has earned approximately $3.7 million for their purse account, while Chester’s fund has increased to the tune of over $1 million already. Purses at both tracks during the 2007 racing seasons (Pocono March 31 – Nov. 17; Chester July 9 – Dec. 20) should entice many of the leading horsemen and horses to the eastern side of the Keystone state.

The Meadows, the harness facility in the western part of Pennsylvania, is progressing rapidly with construction of their temporary slots facility, and are pointing towards a May 1 opening – and what should be a sizable boost to their purse structure for racing. (PHRC)

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