CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — The first four days of sports betting at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races took in approximately $640,000 in total bets.
The casino had a soft opening Thursday and Friday followed by a grand opening Saturday. The sports book was open regular hours Sunday.
Of the $640,000 wagered, 50 percent went back in payouts. The state’s take is 10 percent of what’s left.
“The taxable revenue produced off of this was about $32,000, a tax rate of 10 percent. There was $320,000 in cash, more cash taken in than paid out,” Hollywood Casino Racing Operations Vice President Eric Zimny said during an appearance Tuesday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Zimny said the numbers will fluctuate because payouts aren’t immediate in some cases.
.@ErichZimny joins @HoppyKercheval to talk about the first weekend of legal sports betting in West Virginia. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/VNWaNsrqwq
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) September 4, 2018
“There’s definitely going to be some swings. There’s a lot more volatility in this than there is in something like slots, table games or even racing,” Zimny said.
Zimny said there were more bets places on the WVU-Tennessee game than anything else but more money was actually bet on the Michigan-Notre Dame game.
The sports book is expecting even more business this week with the NFL opening its season.
“Whether that is 50 percent (more), 80 percent, 100 percent, 200 percent, that’s hard to say,” Zimny said. “That’s really when sports betting really kicks into high gear when you’ve got the full slate of college Saturday, the full slate of NFL on Sunday, that’s when seasonality really hits its peak.”