Poker Wins Big Vote in West VirginiaPennsylvania feeling the pressure?
There was a little referendum this weekend that puts some more poker on the map in Darvin Moon Country …
Jefferson County, WV, approved “table games” — including blackjack, craps, roulette, three-card poker, and real poker — at the sure-to-be-renamed Charles Town Race and Slots. In fact, the poker room will likely open before the rest of the new-and-improved “racino” … with cards looking to get in the air by June 2010. The big cities likely to be feeding it players are Baltimore and Washington, DC.
It was a close-ish vote landslide victory, with 6,279 out of 10,622 votes cast supporting the measure — enough for poker to win in 29 out of 32 precincts.
Jefferson County had put the same issue to a vote in 2007 and it lost. Watch the commercial(s) below to see how one race track with a need for gambling was able to make a poker difference:
And though it’s not mentioned in the ads, on the go-table-games website ( http://www.yesforjeffersoncounty.com ) they do discuss competition from neighboring states as one of the reasons they needed to act now. Indeed, though Pennsylvania legislators have been dilly-dallying for nearly a year on their poker expansion, their House will be debating the practicalities of expanding gambling (in a way that includes poker) today.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, a Pennsylvania company got the contract to supply all the tables to Charles Town.
ALT HED: Poker = Jobs
Kevin Mathers says:
December 8th, 2009 at 11:15am
From articles I’ve read, roulette, blackjack and craps are the first games to be added at Charles Town (and that’s six months away).
DanM says:
December 8th, 2009 at 11:25am
From the first link in the post:
Kevin Mathers says:
December 8th, 2009 at 11:28am
Well, that’s what I get for not reading the link. Thanks for the pwning Dan.
DanM says:
December 8th, 2009 at 11:30am
It’s a pleasure to take one down every once in a while, Kevmath.
I’m pretty confident when it comes to politics (though I initially wrote this post thinking Jefferson County was in Maryland) … and I think you’ve usually got me when it comes to Poker on TV stuff.
zachdealer says:
December 8th, 2009 at 2:42pm
I’ll be looking into this, I know people that are from west virginia and it’s the most peaceful/beautiful state in the U.S
I might visit and see if it’s good for me.
BJ Nemeth says:
December 9th, 2009 at 3:43pm
West Virginia is one of only six states that I haven’t visited yet. Now I have a reason to go.
BJ Nemeth says:
December 9th, 2009 at 4:27pm
Question — What allows this to be decided on the county level? Is there a bill at the state level that allows counties to determine the extent of gambling allowed? Does anyone know the limits of the statewide legislation?
Kevin Mathers says:
December 9th, 2009 at 6:14pm
In 2007, the WV state legislature allowed each county that had a racetrack a vote on adding table games. Jefferson County, where Charles Town Races and Slots is located, had a vote earlier to allow table games, and it was voted down.
DanM says:
December 9th, 2009 at 7:00pm
Mathers is correct. WV has had legal poker (and casino games) for a couple years … Charles Town is just one place that voted against the gambling expansion two years ago. I guess the economy was different then.