While other thoroughbred racetracks across North America are hungering for slot machines as attendance and pari-mutuel handles decline, Woodbine is getting more. Of everything.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has awarded the Toronto facility 1,000 more slot machines to go with the more than 2,000 the track already has.
The slots will be brought in over three phases, with completion by the end of the year, OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti said.
Woodbine Entertainment Group president Nick Eaves said the track and the OLG are currently in the planning stages of accommodating the slots.
More slots mean more money for horse racing purses. Ten per cent of the revenues from slots goes back into purses for both the standardbreds and thoroughbreds at Woodbine.
The current slot machines occupy 56,000 square feet on the eastern end of the grandstand on the facility's first floor. Woodbine will open up an additional 17,000 square feet of space on the western end for some of the new slots.
Using that space will cut out some access to the apron for patrons, so Woodbine began construction this spring on a new escalator from the second floor to the first. All external work to the grandstand should be finished by early June.
Bitonti said the OLG saw a need for more slots because research showed people standing in lines for a machine during peak hours on nights and weekends.
From last October to December, government revenue from the slots amounted to $152-million, down about 2 per cent from the same period the previous year.
However, there has been in increase in patrons to 12,904 on a daily basis, he said.
"We're well above the provincial average, well above any other market," Eaves said. "The performance would suggest that there is far more demand than there is currently supply."
Although wagering on standardbred racing has declined at Woodbine, the track is bucking all trends in thoroughbred wagering on the continent, enjoying an increase in pari-mutuels by about 7½ per cent last year.
"I think Woodbine was the only track in North America that showed an increase in its handle," Eaves said, adding part of the reason for the increase was larger betting pool sizes, helped by becoming a part of the TVG wagering network, the largest account wagering business in the United States.
TVG began carrying the Woodbine signal partway through last season.
"That had a pretty significant impact on the growth of our handle," he said.
With a number of American trainers now racing at Woodbine because of its large purses, average field sizes are close to nine horses per race. The more horses in a race, the more betting prospects there are, which increases the pari-mutuel handle.