On November 21st, 2007, the officials of the Wheeling Island Racing Track and Gaming Center and the Mountaineer Casino Resort announced that they would hold charity nights on December 17th, 2007-December 18th, 2007 to start off their new casino table games. It is certain that casino games will be offered to the public after the approval of the West Virginia Lottery Commission.
The roulette and blackjack games at the racing tracks would join poker, which began on October 19th, 2007. The racing tracks have also forgotten about their video lottery machines. The officials also announced that those gaming machines will be opened 24 hours a day beginning on Friday at 7:00 a.m.
At the moment, the games are programmed to be closed down from 4:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. everyday but now the software has been modified by the State Lottery Commission so the video lottery machines can function together with the twenty-four hour casino table games. The president and general manager at Wheeling Island Racing track, Robert Marshall commented that the 24 hour change was a good one since they do not have to ask their customers to leave every night when the gaming machines are shut down.
Marshall added that they have widen their hours of gaming so that they could compete on equal ground with the slot establishment in Pennsylvania. Wheeling racing track spokesperson Kim Florence said that the poker games have turned out well. The poker room can host as many as 200 poker players and there are also 2,000 video lottery machines at the racing track.
A spokesperson for the Mountaineer Casino Resort and Racetrack Tamara Pettit commented that when they host their charity nights with roulette and blackjack games, profits will be given to the Weirton Area United Way. Additional information regarding the opening of the Wheeling Island Racing track will be announced later on.
12/09/2007 06:30 PM
Ann Pettersson