Wild Rose Casino and Resort in Clinton, Iowa recently became the state’s first gambling operation to offer off-track betting without live racing. The venue installed 56 television monitors showing horse and dog races from 16 U.S. racetracks including Santa Anita Park, Aqueduct, Keeneland and Oak Lawn. Wild Rose Casinos President and Chief Operating Tom Timmons said, “It’s something new and fresh we’re offering to people on the eastern side of the state. We’re hoping to attract people from Clinton and the Quad Cities. We’re excited. Got everything finalized and tested everything.”
In 2014, the Iowa legislature approved a measure allowing state-regulated casinos that do not offer live racing to take bets on simulcasts of horse and dog races as part of a broader bill that permitted Iowa greyhound tracks to stop offering live racing. Iowa’s 18 casinos without live racing can offer off-track betting in exchange for signing a revenue sharing contract with the Iowa Greyhound Association, which hosts a hub that offers the simulcasts and will receive a share of the simulcast revenues. Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Administrator Brian Ohorilko said Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs plans to offer the simulcasts soon.
The IGA operates Iowa Greyhound Park in Dubuque. The state’s other greyhound track, Bluffs Run in Council Bluffs, closed in December 2015. Previously, Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona, Iowa Greyhound Park in Dubuque and Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel in Tama were the only Iowa gambling operations to offer simulcast betting.
Timmons said Wild Rose also will offer off-track betting at its Jefferson and Emmetsburg casinos. “We’ll be watching and see how it goes. There is an investment with it,” he said.
