Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack (formerly Wheeling Downs) is a greyhound racino located on Wheeling Island in the middle of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, which is a part of the city of Wheeling, West Virginia. It is located just off the Wheeling Island exit of I-70, 40 minutes west of Washington, Pennsylvania and about two hours east of

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. It is owned by Delaware North. It features slot machines, which are marketed under the term "video lottery" in West Virginia; live

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...

, and off-track betting for both greyhound and horse racing. In addition, a full complement of table games including

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...

, craps, and

roulette Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning ''little wheel'' which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi''.'' In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the ...

were recently added. Poker was added on October 19, 2007, and the other games on December 20, 2007 as a result of Ohio County voters approving a referendum in a June 9, 2007 special election. Wheeling Island features several restaurants and food operations as well, in addition to live concerts and boxing. The facility has a "tropical" theme, similar to that used by the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, but is unrelated. Its logo features a palm tree and tropical colors, although Wheeling Island is a residential part of the city and located far from the tropics. Smoking is permitted in select areas of the casino. As the casino is located on Wheeling Island, a low-lying area surrounded by the

, it is prone to flooding. The casino floor is elevated some ten-and-one-half feet above ground level, thus surmounting the hundred-year flood level. Wheeling Downs introduced greyhound racing in 1976, under the ownership of the Ogden Corporation, who bought the track in 1969. In 1988, Ogden sold Wheeling Downs to Delaware North. From 1994 to 2001, Delaware North co-owned Wheeling Downs with Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.Sportsystems Buys Out Racetrack Partner for $105 Million
/ref> The casino became the permanent location of the

Wheeling Jamboree The ''Wheeling Jamboree'' is the second oldest country music radio broadcast in the United States after the ''Grand Ole Opry''. The Jamboree originated in 1933 in Wheeling, West Virginia on WWVA, the first radio station in West Virginia and a 50,0 ...

in the fall of 2012. With its sister racino Mardi Gras Casino and Resort in

Nitro Nitro may refer to: Chemistry *Nitrogen, a chemical element and a gas except at very low temperatures, with which many compounds are formed: **Nitro compound, an organic compound containing one or more nitro functional groups, -NO2 **Nitroalkene, ...

, Wheeling Island is the only other live greyhound track in the United States as of the start of 2023.

References

External links

WheelingIsland.com - Official Site

arabiconlinecasinos - Official Site
{{Greyhound tracks in the United States Casinos in West Virginia Buildings and structures in Wheeling, West Virginia Tourist attractions in Ohio County, West Virginia Defunct horse racing venues in the United States Greyhound racing venues in the United States Casino hotels

See also

References

External links