Oaklawn Has Best EGS Gambling Month, Southland Second Best
by February 9, 2012 4:34 pm 121 views
And they’re off!
With the opening of Oaklawn’s live horse racing season, the ponies are off to the races, and so are other gamblers interested in video poker, blackjack and slot machines.
Electronic games of skill wagers for January 2012 were released Thursday (Feb. 9) by the Arkansas Racing Commission.
For the month EGS wagers topped $65.35 million at Oaklawn, a new all-time high and a huge leap from the $44.14 million gambled in January 2011. Payouts totaled $60.9 million for the month.
At Southland in West Memphis, the racino had its second biggest month on record. EGS wagers totaled $131.05 million, more than 83% higher than a year ago. Payouts exceeded $122.85 million during January.
For all of 2011, electronic wagers at the two casinos totaled $1,967,757,846, just $32.2 million short of $2 billion.
In 2011, Southland posted total EGS wagers of $1.311 billion, while payouts totaled $1.232 billion. The wager total is a 100% increase over 2010′s full year figures $673.7 million.
At Oaklawn, 2011 EGS wagers rose to $656.4 million, a 45% increase versus the previous year. Total payouts for the year topped $612.7 million.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and Southland Park in West Memphis are the only two venues allowed to offer casino-style gambling in Arkansas, although certain aspects of the games are electronic. EGS wagers include video blackjack, poker and slot machines.