Fair Grounds Track Faces Competition

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – As reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Churchill Downs Inc. may be able to install up to 700 slot machines at Fair Grounds Race Course, but the track's slots parlor will not be the only game in town.

"Since Louisiana lawmakers approved riverboat casinos in 1991, the state has been saturated with casino gambling. Today Louisiana has 14 casino boats, slots at three racetracks and video poker machines in 2,700 bars, restaurants, hotels, tracks and truck stops. Just more than an hour's drive east of New Orleans is a phalanx of Mississippi casinos in Gulfport and Biloxi.

"Less than a 10-minute drive from Fair Grounds are more than 2,000 slot machines, along with roulette wheels, blackjack tables and poker in Harrah's 115,000-square-foot casino.

"…If the casino's annual revenue exceeds $350 million — and it was $285 million last year — the Fair Grounds can add 200 machines to its initial 500.

"…But getting tourists to come for the slots could be a hard sale.

"Fair Grounds is wedged into a working class New Orleans neighborhood some three miles from the French Quarter. Meanwhile, Harrah's downtown casino sits on the edge of the Quarter and within walking distance of several major hotels and a convention center…"