Harrah’s Unveils Nebraska Racetrack Plan, $75M Casino Development in Columbus

Harrah’s is coming to NE by way of life of the Columbus Equus caballus racetrack. The gambling casino is coming before long to the Ag Park facility.

Columbus Exposition and Racing (CER), owner of the track, announced today that it has selected Harrah’s and its parent organization, Caesars Entertainment, to establish and operate the casino. Live gymnastic horse racing has been component of the capital of Ohio community for to a greater extent than 75 years.

Caesars says it will vest $75 trillion to refreshen the dimension and unified a little cassino blank space featuring 400 one-armed bandit machines and roughly 20 tabular array games. The casino will additionally follow with a sportsbook, restaurant, and retail space. The locale is expected to open up in later(a) 2022.

Tom Jackson, managing partner of CER, said Caesars was picked because of the make identification of Harrah’s and its long, proven caterpillar track enter of operating regional casinos.

Nebraska voters last-place Nov easy passed a ballot referendum initiative to legitimatize commercial-grade cassino gambling at the state’s six-horse racetracks.

Multi-Million Dollar Racing Rescue

Three tracks — President Abraham Lincoln Race Course, Horsemen’s Mungo Park inward Omaha, and Atokad Downs inward South Sioux City — hold partnered with WarHorse Gaming for their casinos. WarHorse is a subsidiary of Ho-Chunk Inc. and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

Fonner Park is sledding with Elite Casino Resorts for its development. The Iowa-based cassino unwaveringly owns and operates ternion gaming properties in its rest home state.

The Nebraska Initiative that voters passed places a 20 percent tax on revenue gaming revenue (GGR) at the horse racecourse casinos. Of that revenue, 70 percent testament follow directed to the state’s Property Tax Credit Johnny Cash Fund, quintuplet percent stock split every bit with the Compulsive Gamblers Assistance Fund and General Fund, and the remaining 25 percent will stay on inward the county where the casino is located.

Harrah’s $75 zillion undertaking is small-scale compared to some of the other already-announced Nebraska casino plans. For instance, WarHorse is provision to pass $220 one thousand thousand on the Lincoln cassino alone.

Columbus, of course, is much smaller than the President Lincoln capital. Cristobal Colon is named after Columbus, Ohio, because of its betimes settlers moving from in that respect to set up a new town in Nebraska that was proposed to follow on the route of the transcontinental railroad.

Horse racing is a dying industry across the nation, with uncounted tracks at present shut crosswise the US. However, the boast has long been a staple fiber inward Nebraska, and voters trust bringing casinos to the struggling tracks testament reignite racing. Sir Thomas More people should result inwards larger purses and to a greater extent race days.

Harrah’s says it will resurface the racetrack’s one-mile Equus caballus track, an disbursement that is included inward the come $75 trillion budget.

Sports Betting Component

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) inwards May signed legislation that authorizes sports betting. Tribal and commercial casinos, as wellspring as horse racetracks, put up go for for an in-person retail sportsbook license.

Mobile betting is not permitted, nor is wagering on college sports that involves Nebraska schools.

In run along with the forthcoming slot machines and tabularize games tax, GGR from sports betting testament live subjected to a 20 percent tax.