Municipalities Will Get Charles Town Gaming Revenue

The recent controversy over whether or not local municipalities would receive their share of table game revenue generated during the month of July from the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races has been settled.

At the heart of the issue was the interpretation of the statue set by the West Virginia Lottery Commission that had Jefferson County officials not dividing July’s revenue with Charles Town, Ranson, Harpers Ferry, Bolivar and Shepherdstown until next year.

According to Sen. Herb Snyder, who had a hand in creating the statue said that it was not their intent to prevent the local offices from receiving the money if the casino launched table games after the start of the state’s fiscal year.

Penn National Gaming, the owners of the casino and racetrack waited until July 1, the first day of West Virginia’s fiscal year to obtain their license at 12:01 a.m in order to save “several million dollars”, according to Lottery officials.

However, the county is now agreeing to return to the original interpretation and share the $500,000 generated from the casinos table game operations during its first seven weeks.