• Lawmaker changes stand on table games

• Racetrack officials: Table games would bring jobs to Jefferson County

• Measuring impact part of table games equation

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Al Britton is betting Jefferson County residents will vote “yes” on table games on Dec. 5. If they do, he predicts the first card will be flipped in June.

Britton, general manager of Charles Town Races & Slots, will know on the night of the vote whether table games will be added to the more than 5,000 slot machines already in place at the sprawling gambling mecca on the outskirts of Charles Town.

In 2007, county voters defeated table games by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent.

This time, Britton, 53, believes they have the support of the community, including the Charles Town Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and promotional groups such as the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, Jefferson County Development Authority, Jefferson County Convention and Visitors Bureau and Gateway New Economy Council.  

Britton had said Penn National Gaming Inc., owners of Charles Town Races & Slots and the third largest gambling consortium in the country, was not going to push for a referendum until it had a good read on local support.

“We would not run another referendum unless it was loud and clear that the residents wanted it,” he said.

For and against

Green signs, small and large, urging residents to vote for the games, are prevalent across Jefferson County.

Track officials have held public forums outlining the benefits they say the games will bring to the area. Brochures are everywhere.

On the other hand, there is www.Votenotablegames.org, a Web site created by a loosely organized cadre of opponents who have launched an effort to defeat the games. Heading the opposition is the Rev. Douglas Fraim, a quiet-spoken pastor of Bolivar (W.Va.) United Methodist Church.

“We’re grass roots. There is no membership list,” he said. “Speaking for myself, I’m against gambling on moral grounds. It’s an addiction.”

The Methodist Church is on record as opposing gambling.

Also on the opposition side is Janene Watson, a horse owner and breeder. She was executive director of the Charles Town Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) and her husband, Dick Watson, was president until both were voted out of office in 2003, she said.

“I’m now an honorary member, but I’m speaking for myself, not the HBPA,” she said.

Britton has cautioned residents that table games are needed to offset competition from the introduction of slot machines, which have been approved in Maryland. One expected location is an-as-yet-unopened slots parlor in Cecil County in northeast Maryland near the Delaware state line owned by Penn National.

The fear among Charles Town Races & Slots officials is that Maryland slot parlors will compete for players from the Washington/Baltimore area who represent the lion’s share of customers who travel to Charles Town.

“People won’t drive by a slot parlor for another one that is an hour a way,” said Karen M. Bailey, director of public affairs for Penn National.

The revenue

If the slots business drops, the Jefferson County Commission and the county’s five municipalities — Charles Town, Ranson, Harpers Ferry, Bolivar and Shepherdstown — stand to lose some of the annual slot revenue windfalls that is their share of the more than $400 million the track takes in every year. Those shares currently come to about $4 million for the county, and $3 million shared by the towns, based on population.

If table games are approved, they would generate an additional $6.5 million in local tax revenue — $4 million per year for the school board and $2.5 million for local governments, including half for the county commission and half for the five towns.

From 1998 to Oct. 31 of this year, the county has received nearly $35 million, and the five towns shared more than $24 million, according to track officials. So far this year, from July 1 to Oct. 31, the county received $1.8 million and the five towns about $900,000.

Britton said when table games are brought in, slot machine activity increases. He predicted there were be about a 10 percent hike in slots revenue at Charles Town with table games.

Opponents, however, say table games reduce slot machine play. When table games were introduced at Mountaineer Park — a slots and thoroughbred race track in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle — slot machine revenue dropped by about 13 percent.

Charles Town Races & Slots officials counter that slots revenue is down at Mountaineer Park due to stiff competition from casinos across the state line in Ohio, not because table games were introduced.

Racing purses

The horsemen, too, have shared in the largess from slot machines, which can operate only where there are horse or dog racing tracks.

In 1976, according to track statistics, an average race-day purse was $21,000 and about $3.6 million for the year. Last year, the average purse per day was $172,000 and about $35 million for the year.

Slots revenue for schools goes directly to the state and is redistributed through the state School Building Authority. So far, Jefferson County has received about $50 million in those funds.

In addition, under the new table games bill passed by the West Virginia Legislature this year, an estimated $4 million in table games revenue would go directly to the Jefferson County School District to be spent exclusively for capital improvements. The bill requires that table game revenue to the towns be spent on capital improvement projects as well.

“We probably won’t have to ask the voters for another school construction bond issue,” said Peter Dougherty, president of the Jefferson County Board of Education.

The addition of table games revenue would free up enough budget funds to give teachers a $1,000 raise, he said.

Charles Town Races & Slots pays 59 cents of every dollar it takes in from slot machines for taxes and fees. The new bill will take 35 percent of what table games gross.

A ‘better deal’

State Del. John Doyle, D-Jefferson, said he voted against the games in 2007 because the proposal didn’t offer the right financial benefits for Jefferson County. He supports the new bill, which “is a better deal,” he said.

“The county will get twice as much revenue,” Doyle said.

Janene Watson pointed out what she saw as a flaw in the new bill, dealing with the amount the horsemen take from table games. Doyle agreed with her.

Under the bill, all revenue from the games at Charles Town and Mountaineer would go into one pot to be shared 50/50.

It has been predicted that Charles Town would take in at least three times as much money from its table games as does Mountaineer, which has had the games since 2007.

The 50/50 pot was included in the new bill to help Mountaineer, Doyle said. His opinion: “It’s unfair.”

It could cause the table games referendum to be defeated Dec. 5 because many Jefferson County residents have close ties to horsemen and might take their cues from them when it comes time to vote for the games, he said.

Doyle said one reason he opposed the 2007 referendum was because table games revenue was to go into a single pot to be shared by all four state racetracks.

“We would have had to split the money with Charleston, Wheeling and Weirton,” he said.

The HBPA’s board of directors voted 6-5 to support the games, although the association’s rank and file was not allowed to vote on that issue, Janene Watson said.

Watson said the new bill pre-empts all local laws and ordinances from taking effect on Charles Town Races & Slots properties.

“I know this bill inside and out and that’s right in there,” she said.

Doyle said the law always has been in effect in table games legislation. State law governs the tracks, he said.

The impact

Britton said Charles Town Races & Slots will add 500 new employees if table games are approved. Included will be 350 dealers, most of whom will be hired from the area, he said. Blue Ridge Community and Technical College will help with the training.

If the games are approved, the number of employees at the track would increase from about 1,200 to about 1,700. The current payroll is about $24 million per year, $34 million with benefits.

Table games will add an amenity to what Charles Town Races & Slots can offer its customers. Britton believes they’re needed to keep gamblers from the Washington/Baltimore metropolitan areas, who account for about 80 percent of Charles Town Races & Slots’ business, returning to Charles Town, especially after slots come to Maryland.

If approved, the track will open with about 85 games — poker, blackjack, craps and roulette — sometime around early summer, Britton said. Charles Town Races & Slots opened its first slots parlor with about 200 machines in 1997, a number that has grown “incrementally” to more than 5,000 today, Britton said.

Fraim said table games “will bring a new entity to Jefferson County. They attract young men, from college age to about 40. That’s been proven at Mountaineer Park. It’s older people, many are women, who play the slot machines.”

Penn National has “tons of money” to promote and push the referendum, Fraim said.

The No Vote effort relies on small donations, he said.

So far, the group has collected enough money to buy about 200 signs urging voters to defeat the games. The group, like the proponents, is holding forums around the county. It also plans a prayer vigil.

Fraim said while he’s speaking for himself and not his local church, the Book of Resolution of the United Methodist Church opposes gambling.

Early voting on table games is under way at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Charles Town. It continues through Tuesday.

Polls will be open Saturday, Dec. 5, from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Governments get millions from gambling

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Last year, Charles Town Races & Slots grossed $411 million from gamblers working the resort’s slot machines. It kept 41 percent of the total take.

The other 59 percent was paid out in state and local taxes and fees.

Jefferson County’s government and its five incorporated municipalities shared about $8 million of that 59 percent. The money enabled the local governments to pay for capital projects, buy equipment, augment their local budgets and keep taxes down, county commissioners, city mayors and administrators said.

Jefferson County’s government took in more than $4 million on VLT (video lottery terminal, or slots) revenue, a healthy chunk of its $21 million annual budget, said F. Mark Schiavone, the county’s director of capital planning and management.

He said $1.4 million in slots revenue went to the county’s emergency services. The rest went into the general fund.

Dale Manuel, president of the Jefferson County Commission, said the county’s VLT share represents 23 percent of the county’s annual budget. The extra money keeps the county from increasing taxes, Manuel said in a statement in the Gateway New Economy Council’s October study on Charles Town Races & Slots’ economic impact on the county.

Jefferson County’s population is estimated at about 50,000 people, a gain of more than 20 percent since the 2000 census, according to the Gateway study.

The county’s five municipalities — Charles Town, Ranson, Shepherdstown, Bolivar and Harpers Ferry — shared more than $3.6 million in VLT revenue. Each municipality’s share is determined by population.

The City of Charles Town budgets about $1.2 million per year in VLT revenue, City Clerk Joe Cosentini said.

The money goes into the general fund to offset tax increases, pay for capital projects and staffing needs, he said.

Charles Town’s population is estimated at about 3,500, up from 2,900 listed in the 2000 census, Cosentini said.

Ranson, like Charles Town, has been annexing and growing at about the same pace over the last decade. The city’s unofficial population is pegged at about 4,000 people.

Dave Mills, Ranson’s city manager, budgets about $1 million in VLT revenue each year.  

Over the years, the money has paid for seven new parks and additional police officers. The police department grew from eight officers in 1998 to 14 today, Mills said. The city also bought more police cruisers and equipment, and renovated City Hall and the civic center.

In five years, the city hopes to use all of its VLT revenue exclusively on capital improvement projects, Mills said.

Shepherdstown Mayor Jim Auxer said his city takes in about $520,000 in slots revenue. The money has paid for major equipment purchases such as garbage trucks, dump trucks and a backhoe.

Shepherdstown spent more than $300,000 in VLT funds on a streetscape project this year.

“The money allows us to pay cash for what we need,” Auxer said.

Shepherdstown’s population is about 1,200, including around 400 Shepherd University students who were added in 2000 when the city annexed the university’s East Campus.

In Bolivar, with a population of 1,100, Town Administrator Laura Whittington said most of its annual budget of $585,000 comes from its $430,000 share of slots revenue.

“It keeps taxes down,” she said.

Sherry Cain, Harpers Ferry’s treasurer, said the city’s annual VLT share of about $138,000 goes into the general fund budget of $375,000 for operating expenses.

Harpers Ferry, the county’s smallest municipality, has a population of 311 people.

On the Web

For table games

• Charles Town Races & Slots Web site (www.yesforjeffersoncounty.com)

Against table games

• Vote No for Table Games organization’s Web site (www.VoteNoTableGames.org)

More information

• The Gateway New Economy Council’s economic impact study is on the council’s Web site at www.gnec.org

In Monday’s Herald-Mail

Two years after three West Virginia counties voted to allow table games at area casinos, community leaders say their fears of crime and addiction were all for naught, unlike hopes for jobs and revenue.