West Virginia County Votes for Table Games

This doesnt seem to be big news, perhaps other places in West Virginia had them? In any case this means Charles Town Races and Slots will have poker, craps, blackjack, and more with dealers. The site is close to the DC area and has gotten plenty of action from that city and the surrounding area.

BTW there seems to be no information out there for slots or video poker at Charles Town, in the way of the kind of info on vpFREE2. Why would that be? The gaming control board seems to be the "West Virginia Lottery Commission". Does it have a good reputation? Or is it like the Indian Casinos, where there is some doubt?


Here's an Article

Quote: odiousgambit

This doesnt seem to be big news, perhaps other places in West Virginia had them? In any case this means Charles Town Races and Slots will have poker, craps, blackjack, and more with dealers. The site is close to the DC area and has gotten plenty of action from that city and the surrounding area.

BTW there seems to be no information out there for slots or video poker at Charles Town, in the way of the kind of info on vpFREE2. Why would that be? The gaming control board seems to be the "West Virginia Lottery Commission". Does it have a good reputation? Or is it like the Indian Casinos, where there is some doubt?


Here's an Article

There is indeed table games in WV, in Wheeling and Weirton. Not sure but they are probably the same county. Also they have them in Charleston, which seems to be the WV version of "Getting a job at the Sands" because both a pit boss and dealer I asked about working there said, "You can get to work in Charleston after a year or two."

I agree with you that it looks like the Lottery runs the deal, though the racing comission may be involved because they are technically "racinos" in those two places at least.

Quote: AZDuffman

There is indeed table games in WV, in Wheeling and Weirton. Not sure but they are probably the same county. Also they have them in Charleston, which seems to be the WV version of "Getting a job at the Sands" because both a pit boss and dealer I asked about working there said, "You can get to work in Charleston after a year or two."

I agree with you that it looks like the Lottery runs the deal, though the racing comission may be involved because they are technically "racinos" in those two places at least.

All very interesting. I am stunned by the lack of info on Charles Town Races and Slots. Reviews I have come across seem to generally pan the place as having stingy slot machines. Seems to me VideoPoker is likely there, too, but I have found no online info. It's about an hour away from me, but I have never been there since I don't play slots. Now when they get table games....

Note that Charleston and Charles Town are not the same place btw

I used to go to Charles Town a few years ago...mostly for the racing. The slots were pretty tight if I recall, and the Video Poker looked like "Pong" type graphics. That was around 2006 though. I remember hoping the table games bill would pass, but it failed at the same time it passed in the other locations (it was a referendum in each county). Because the Jefferson County economy was actually growing nicely in 2007 (it was close enough to DC to commute, but far enough away that it was still cheap to live), enough people didn't feel the economic pressure to pass it. Also the local religious organizations waged a pretty strong push to prevent it. I believe it went down 55-45 at that time. Flashforward to last month...the economy is now poor in that area too, they fiddled with the funding formula (more money to schools this time), and they had waited the required 2 years, and now it passed. They don't expect to have table games until the late Spring/Early Summer of "twenty-ten".

I could be wrong, but some searching on Google seems to indicate that the machines in West Virginia are Class II video lottery terminals (VLTs), which seems plausible considering that the lottery commission controls them.

If that's the case, then there is no need for a database of their "video poker" machines, since they aren't video poker machines at all -- they are bingo machines. What appears to be an element of skill or control over the outcome (choosing cards to hold or discard) is simply an illusion because the outcome is already determined before the draw.

Quote: JB

I could be wrong, but some searching on Google seems to indicate that the machines in West Virginia are Class II video lottery terminals (VLTs), which seems plausible considering that the lottery commission controls them.

If that's the case, then there is no need for a database of their "video poker" machines, since they aren't video poker machines at all -- they are bingo machines. What appears to be an element of skill or control over the outcome (choosing cards to hold or discard) is simply an illusion because the outcome is already determined before the draw.

If I get there in the next month or so for poker I'll check the machines out and report back.