News

Tuesday, March 07, 2006
More racino licenses in US

According to new plans in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, race tracks would be given licenses to operate up to 2,000 slot machines.

The licenses would cost $25 million and high operation taxes would have to be paid. However, the slot machines are expected to generate $200 million in estimated annual revenue for each track. Each slotmachine generates around $100,000 of revenues per year.

Opponents of the plan, such as casinos, argue that the licenses are given away too cheaply. Slot licenses in other states have been much more expensive, up to hundreds of millions of dollars a year, they argue.

However, local government is looking beyond the immediate tax revenues and has received committments from the tracks that the extra funds would be used for new investments in the faciliies.