Published: February 27, 2008 12:27 am      

Owner of Tri-State track pushes forward with casino transition

NITRO — The owner of a greyhound track in Nitro is fast-tracking the facility’s move to a full-scale casino resort by bringing in experienced staff, giving the track a new name and revising construction plans.

Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center will soon be known as Mardi Gras Gaming, and by the end of the year should be offering table games and have begun construction on a new 250-room hotel, said Dan Adkins, vice president for track owner Harman & Tyner.

“It’s on a very fast pace,” he said Tuesday.

Mardi Gras Gaming is the same name the Michigan-based company uses for its dog track in Hallandale Beach, Fla. An official announcement will be made as soon as next week about when the new name will go into effect, Adkins said.

Changing Tri-State’s name will enable the company to use Mardi Gras Gaming on everything from cocktail napkins to promotions in Florida and West Virginia, he said. The same name also will allow the tracks to have one large marketing department and one large personnel department, he added.

Adkins also announced that Richard Tessler has been hired as the casino executive for the track. Tessler, a former executive with Foxwoods Resort & Casino in Connecticut, will be joined by other personnel with experience in table games operations.

Adkins said knowledgeable staff is needed to help the track add the games to its existing racing and video lottery operations.

Tri-State General Manager Cathy Brackbill will report to Tessler.

Following last year’s special election in which Kanawha County voters approved the addition of table games at the track, Harman & Tyner announced plans to invest between $250 million and $500 million to turn the facility into a destination resort.

The first phase of that plan was originally a parking garage, but Adkins announced earlier this month that the hotel would be built first. He said the hotel is “really what’s going to make this work” because it will attract people traveling from great distances.

Adkins said he wants to have poker tables available in July, followed shortly by other casino-style games, such as roulette, blackjack and craps.

“I really didn’t want to open up on this fast track,” said Adkins. “Unfortunately we’re going to have to.”

Two weeks ago, the company committed $1 million for a table games license fee, the entire amount of which is dedicated to the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services to provide seniors with in-home care and other services.

“Everybody is counting on the money,” Adkins said. “The sooner we write a license fee check, the sooner that money goes in. We couldn’t write it last year, we couldn’t be open in time.”

Officials had hoped to begin offering casino-style games in 2007 but those plans were postponed for various reasons, including a ballot recount and challenge. The addition of the games was then planned for the first of this year but again had to be postponed, this time because of problems with getting classes established for poker dealers. A new training program will be instituted this week, Adkins said.

When it opened in 1985, Tri-State was called Tri-State Greyhound Park. After a New Orleans, Mardi Gras-themed addition opened in 2002, the name was changed to Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center. The track has been owned by Harman & Tyner since 1990.

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Information from: Charleston Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.com