The Altoona gaming facility will double the number of roulette tables and other table games. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission approved a $60 million expansion at Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino. Besides expanding the number of table games, there will be a total of 2000 slot machines, a new entertainment room and other improvements to its horse racing operations.
According to Altoona’s general manager, the plan to expand the casino should be completed by April 2007 and will increase gaming revenues to $200 million per annum.
The final plan is to have a hotel linked to the casino with parking space for 1,200 automobiles as well as a variety of chain restaurants on its complex. He claims that the community is the first to benefit from the expansion because the not-for-profit money is eventually returned to the community.
The first to approve the expansion plan were Polk County supervisors, the owners of Prairie Meadows. The nonprofit Racing Association of Central Iowa has leased it and held the gambling license since 1980’s. The five-member commission regulates the state's gaming industry, which includes 13 casinos and generated $250 million in tax revenue last year.
The expansion may probably affect businesses at Lakeside Casino in Osceola, southwest of Des Moines, where revenue went down nearly 30% after Prairie Meadows added Blackjack tables and other table games last month.
Prairie Meadows is the only horse track in the state, featuring live thoroughbred, quarter horse and harness racing from April until November. Expansion plans call for adding the jockeys' quarters and a walking ring for horses by the 2006 racing season.
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