CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - They still race thoroughbreds at the historic Charles Town horse track. But that isn't what draws thousands of visitors every day to this rural town in the West Virginia panhandle.
They come to bet on slots in a facility that has been transformed into a glitzy, Las Vegas-style casino. People arrive by car and bus from Baltimore, the Washington suburbs and elsewhere in the region to try their luck.
Last year, they lost $190 million playing slots here. That sum, called the "take," is the money left after players are paid any winnings. The track's owners and others in the racing industry get more than half of that - and the rest goes to state and local government.
As Maryland officials consider whether to legalize slots at four state tracks, fans and critics of West Virginia's gambling enterprise have plenty to offer to the debate.
Supporters say that slots have been a boon to Jefferson County, where Charles Town Races & Slots is located. With 1,100 full- and part-time workers, the business has become the county's largest employer.
"There is a great spinoff effect in terms of people coming into the area, patronizing our hotels, restaurants and other businesses," said Jane Peters, director of the county's economic development agency.
"The increase in traffic is the only real negative. Everything else is pretty positive," she said.
But gambling opponents such as the Rev. Michael A. Withem of First Baptist Church of Ranson say county leaders see the racetrack casino through rose-colored glasses because of the money it generates.
"They don't want to look at the negative part of it," said Withem. "Gambling does nothing but destroy lives and marriages. It's not worth any amount of money that it brings in."
As an example of the problems, he pointed to recent articles in a local newspaper detailing the arrest of two women accused of embezzling $24,000 from a Charles Town restaurant where they worked. They told police they spent the money gambling on slots.
Maryland has not fully engaged in a public discussion of the pros and cons of slot machines, but key legislative leaders would like to allow them at tracks. Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. says he'll push to get slots - and the money they would bring to the state's treasury - if he is elected governor. Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is a staunch opponent.
If Maryland legalizes slots, the state's tracks could end up looking a lot like Charles Town Races & Slots. And what Charles Town looks like is a casino, much like those in Las Vegas and Atlantic City - minus table games such as blackjack and craps.
The owner, Penn National Gaming of Wyomissing, Pa., operates horse tracks in Pennsylvania and casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in Louisiana. It has poured $160 million into the Charles Town site, according to company officials.
The money paid for a 1,500-car parking garage, a huge slots emporium that adjoins the track's grandstand and other amenities. A total of 2,567 slot machines and video gambling devices are packed into a space the size of a large Wal-Mart store.
Cocktail waitresses in skimpy outfits circle the carpeted floors, serving free drinks to slot players whose faces are bathed in the glow of the machines' colorful lights. The air is filled with the chink-chink-chink of quarters dropping into metal hoppers as machines hit for payoffs. Nearby, the heavier, $1 slot tokens drop with a louder thunk-thunk-thunk.
It's a busy place.
Mostly out-of-staters
"We get about 25,000 people a day on a Saturday and about half that on weekdays," says Roger R. Ramey, vice president of public affairs for the track.
The track's research indicates most of the players come from out of state - 36 percent from Virginia, 34 percent from Maryland, 17 percent from Pennsylvania and 6 percent from Washington and other areas, Ramey said. The other 7 percent are West Virginia residents.
The visitors leave behind a lot of cash. Charles Town generates more than twice as much revenue for Penn National as the company gets from its full-scale casino in Bay St. Louis, Miss., according to financial reports the publicly traded company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The money from slots at Charles Town eclipses by far that made from horses. Races produced $7.8 million in gross revenue for the track's owners last year, compared with gross revenue of $81.3 million from slots. The figures come from tabulations made after winnings are paid to bettors and after gaming taxes.
More slots next year
Business has been so brisk that Penn National plans to add 1,000 slot machines and video gambling devices next year, Ramey said. The track - one of four with slots in West Virginia - received legislative approval this year to have 3,500 machines.
The gaming devices include traditional reel-spinning slots and electronic touch-screen games. Some feature graphics with cartoon figures that resemble board games for children.
The devices are alike in offering rapid-fire, interactive play. Players can bet up to $5 per pull, and it isn't unusual to see people playing more than one machine at a time. The largest individual jackpot paid out at Charles Town has been $100,000, according to company officials.
On average, each of the machines generates a take of $267 a day, says the West Virginia Lottery, which oversees slot machine operations in the state.
For the fiscal year that ended June 30, slots at the four racetrack casinos - two at horse tracks, two at greyhound tracks - generated a total take of $596 million, say lottery officials.
The state got $229 million of that, or 38 percent, after deducting about $6 million in administrative expenses. West Virginia's annual budget is $9.5 billion. The state says its share goes into three major areas - education, services for senior citizens and tourism.
A small fraction of the money also goes to counties and cities where the racetrack casinos are located. The total was $11.2 million last year.
Jefferson County got $2.2 million as its share of the Charles Town take. That amounted to nearly a fifth of the county's $12 million annual budget.
"We keep it totally separate and use it for one-time capital projects," said County Administrator Leslie D. Smith, noting slots are an uncertain revenue source that could be affected by legislative actions in West Virginia or in neighboring states.
Among other things, the money enabled the county to buy a building it had been leasing for its judicial center.
The biggest share of slots revenue goes to West Virginia track owners and horsemen. They got $344 million last year, or 58 percent of the total. Of that, $256 million went to track owners and $74 million to subsidize purses, the prize money paid to top-finishing horses. An additional $14 million was designated for track improvements and similar purposes.
The money from slots, which came to Charles Town in 1997, has helped the state's horse racing industry tremendously, according to Dickie Moore, general manager of racing for Charles Town. "We were averaging around $30,000 to $40,000 a day in purses before, and now we're offering $130,000 to $140,000 a day," Moore said.
He said that with bigger purses, the three-quarter-mile track is attracting better horses and generating more bettors from around the country who watch the races on simulcast - gains Maryland's racing industry has watched with envy.
Moore said the bigger purses also draw more fans for live racing. "On Saturdays, the place is packed," he said. "On the racing side, we get close to 5,500. We used to get 2,000."
But the big draw at Charles Town these days is the slots.
Several Baltimore-area residents who were busy pumping coins into the machines on a recent weekday said they would rather not have to travel to play. They want slots in Maryland.
"I'm tired of seeing Maryland money going to other states," said Al Dawson, a Carney resident who works at Bethlehem Steel.
He said many of his co-workers play slots regularly here or in Delaware and, like him, resent that their money is paying for services in other states.
Dawson spoke as he sat in a TV lounge area at Charles Town, waiting for his wife on a Tuesday evening. He said he doesn't gamble, but she likes to play the nickel and quarter slots. It had been five hours since he last saw her, he said.
"I wouldn't put a nickel in any of these machines," Dawson said. "But she likes doing it, and that's fine with me."
Anna M. Lombardo, 82, of Lutherville, traveled by bus to Charles Town with her two sisters. "I bring about $200 and mostly play the nickel machines," she said. "You don't win as much, but it's more fun."
Sampling the casino's lunch buffet, Eileen Martindale, 75, of Halethorpe, said she was impressed with the entire operation. "My friends have all been coming up here," she said. "Until we get our slots at home, we'll just have to keep driving out here."
Prospects for Maryland
Gambling experts say slots at Maryland tracks, if approved, would probably generate far more money than at Charles Town because of their proximity to urban population centers.
"People gamble where it is the most convenient," said William Thompson, professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
He said those who travel once a month to Charles Town would be likely to play slots much more often if the machines were closer to where they live and work.
Also, putting slots in urban centers will attract new customers who don't play now. "These will be new gamblers, playing slots at the noon hour instead of having lunch," Thompson said.
While slots in a place such as Baltimore would likely generate more revenue, there also would be a bigger downside, according to Thompson. Casinos in urban areas tend to cannibalize existing businesses and cause greater problems in terms of crime and addiction, he said.
Valerie C. Lorenz, executive director of the Compulsive Gambling Center in Baltimore, says Maryland can expect to hear a lot about the problems of gambling addiction and other social ills if the state legalizes slots.
"The closer it is, the more addicts you are going to have - the more unemployment, crime, broken homes, bankruptcies, health problems and co-addictions," she said. "That's a given. That's indisputable."