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Churchill Downs Gets Slots at Fair Grounds

Churchill Downs is finally preparing to open a temp slots facility, more than two years after winning the right to. The company had won state and local permission to open a slots facility at the Fair Grounds track, which is owned and operated by Churchill Downs.

The facility will house 250 slots, and will be open before the end of the month. It will sit on the west end of the grounds until a permanent slots location can be completed.

The President of Fair Grounds, Randall Soth, said that they were not originally planning on having a temporary slots location. Soth went on to say that because of the damage that Hurricane Katrina had done, they were not able to open a new slots facility. Now that the permanent site is getting back on track, they thought it best to open a temp slots parlor to assist in some of the money they lost with Katrina.

The building that used to house simulcast racing will now be home to the slots. They are going to hire another 120 employees to help out with the temp slots location, and then add another 25 to 35 employees when the permanent slots location is completed.

The slots are going to help the struggling track, and keep it competitive with the other tracks in the state and nation. Churchill Downs has owned the Fair Grounds sine 2004 – they purchased it out of bankruptcy court.

 

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