Bally's Dover Casino Resort, formerly Dover Downs, is a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

, and

racetrack A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also us ...

complex in

Dover, Delaware Dover ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and the List of municipalities in Delaware, second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, Delaware, Kent County and the princ ...

. It has a harness horse racing track, which is surrounded by

Dover Motor Speedway Dover Motor Speedway (formerly known as the Dover International Speedway from 2002 to 2021 and as the Dover Downs International Speedway from 1969 to 2001) is a oval track in Dover, Delaware. The venue has hosted major events since its inaugu ...

, a concrete track used for

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

motor racing events. The complex is owned by

Gaming and Leisure Properties Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in casino properties, based in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. It was formed in November 2013 as a corporate spin-off from Penn National Gaming. The company ow ...

and operated by

Bally's Corporation Bally's Corporation is an American gambling, betting, and interactive entertainment company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. In the US it operates 19 casinos across 11 states, a horse track in Colorado, a golf course in New York, and ...

, excluding the motor racing circuit, which is owned by

Speedway Motorsports Speedway Motorsports, LLC is an American company that owns and manages auto racing facilities that host races sanctioned by NASCAR, NHRA, World of Outlaws and other racing series. The company was founded by Bruton Smith and has its headquarters ...

. Primary features of Bally's Dover include a 500-room hotel, dining options, over 2,700

slot machine A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...

s, 40 table games, and the Rollins Center, an multipurpose ballroom which features entertainment as well as hosting business conferences, conventions and banquets.

Steelman Partners Steelman Partners is an American international architecture and interior design firm specializing in entertainment architecture, interior design, lighting design, graphic design, 3D design, and master planning. The firm has designed casinos and ...

were the original architects and interior designers when it was constructed in 1995.

History

The horse track and the speedway opened together in 1969. The track opened its casino, Dover Downs Slots, on December 29, 1995, following the enactment the previous year of a law allowing slot machines at Delaware's horse tracks. The casino was managed by Caesars World. In 2002, Dover Downs Entertainment, the complex's parent company, spun off the horse track and casino as an independent company, Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment. The former parent company changed its name to

Dover Motorsports Speedway Motorsports, LLC is an American company that owns and manages auto racing facilities that host races sanctioned by NASCAR, NHRA, World of Outlaws and other racing series. The company was founded by Bruton Smith and has its headquarters ...

. Dover Downs assumed management of its own casino in 2004, when the management agreement with Caesars expired. A hotel expansion in autumn 2007 added 268 additional rooms, including 52 suites and 11 spa suites, for a total of 500 hotel rooms. This made Dover Downs the largest hotel in Delaware. Toppers Spa/Salon opened in the hotel on December 29, 2007. A $56-million casino expansion was completed in 2008, adding 500 slot machines, a porte-cochere and atrium lobby, and an upscale shopping area called the Colonnade. The casino added table games in 2010, when they were authorized by the state. Dover Downs began a venture into the online gambling realm in late 2013. In 2019, Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment completed a

reverse merger A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...

with Twin River Worldwide Holdings (later Bally's Corporation), a Rhode Island–based company with several casino and racetrack properties. Dover Downs shareholders were left with a 7 percent stake in the combined company. In June 2021, Bally's sold the land and buildings of Dover Downs to

for $144 million, and leased them back for $12 million per year. The property was renamed as Bally's Dover in November 2021, as part of Twin River's rebranding to Bally's Corporation.

Hotel

The hotel at Bally's offers upscale accommodations with rooms facing both the racetrack and the city. Amenities at the hotel include a full-service

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

, fitness room, indoor

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

room service Room service or in-room dining is a hotel service enabling guests to choose items of food and drink for delivery to their hotel room for consumption. Room service is organized as a subdivision within the food and beverage department of high-end ...

, and

concierge A concierge () is an employee of a multi-tenant building, such as a hotel or apartment building, who receives and helps guests. The concept has been applied more generally to other hospitality settings and to personal concierges who manage the e ...

. Dover Downs offers space for meetings, banquets, conferences, and conventions, including over of function space, the Rollins Center ballroom, several meeting rooms, and three hospitality suites offering views of the racetrack.

Casino

The casino at Bally's offers over 2,300

s, 41 gaming tables, and an 18-table poker room. Table games in the casino include

craps Craps is a dice game in which players gambling, bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, " ...

roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...

, and card games such as

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is 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 ...

Spanish 21 Spanish 21 is a blackjack variant owned by Masque Publishing Inc., a gaming publishing company based in Colorado. Unlicensed, but equivalent, versions may be called Spanish blackjack. In Australia and Malaysia, an unlicensed version of the game, wi ...

baccarat Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game. It is now mainly played at casinos, but formerly popular at house-parties and private gaming rooms. The game's origins are a mixture of precursors from China, Japan, and Korea, which then gained popularit ...

, three card poker,

pai gow poker Pai gow poker (also called double-hand poker) is a version of pai gow that is played with French-suited playing cards rather than Chinese dominoes. The game of pai gow poker was created in 1985 in the United States by Sam Torosian, owner of ...

, high card flush, 21+3,

heads up poker Heads-up poker is a form of poker (game), poker that is played between only two players. It might be played during a larger cash game session, where the game is breaking up and only two players remain on the table, or where two players are trying ...

, and Mississippi stud.

Racetrack

Bally's Dover offers live

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australia ...

from November to mid-April and simulcasts of harness and

thoroughbred racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in ...

year-round. The Race & Sports Book offers

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...

on live and simulcast horse racing along with single-game and parlay betting on professional and college sports (excluding Delaware college teams) including auto racing, baseball, basketball, boxing/MMA, football, golf, hockey, and soccer.

Dining, entertainment, and shopping

Bally's offers various entertainment options including entertainers, comedians, concerts, and musical acts. Entertainers and musicians that have performed at the venue include

Tracy Lawrence Tracy Lee Lawrence (born January 27, 1968) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Atlanta, Texas, and raised in Foreman, Arkansas, Lawrence began performing at age 15 and moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 19 ...

Boyz II Men Boyz II Men ( ) is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. Formed in 1985, they have been a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris, tenor Wanya Morris, Wanyá Mo ...

Howie Mandel Howard Michael Mandel (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian comedian, television personality, actor, and producer. Mandel is known for voicing Gizmo in the 1984 film ''Gremlins'' and the 1990 sequel ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'', playing rowd ...

, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and the

Glenn Miller Orchestra Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was an American swing dance band that was formed by Glenn Miller in 1938. Arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, and three other saxophones playing harmony, the band became the most pop ...

. Dining options at Bally's include upscale restaurants, casual establishments, a coffee shop, and a buffet. Bally's is also home to a variety of bars and nightclubs. Upscale shopping is offered at The Colonnade.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://casinos.ballys.com/dover, Bally's Dover Casino Resort Casinos in Delaware Hotels in Delaware Buildings and structures in Dover, Delaware Tourist attractions in Dover, Delaware Horse racing venues in Delaware 1969 establishments in Delaware Casino hotels in Delaware