• Contact (866) ERIE - FUN. Presque Isle Downs & Casino is located just south of I-90 Exit 27 in Erie, PA 8199 Perry Highway Erie, PA 16509.
• Where is Presque Isle Downs and Casino? Erie is home to Presque Isle Downs and Casino. Visitors give high marks for top attractions and activities such as the casino gaming and shopping in this beachside city. If you want to find things to see and do in the area, you may want to check out Millcreek Mall.

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After more than three months of being closed during the pandemic, one of Erie’s largest attractions is set to reopen its doors. Gambling is set to resume at Presque Isle Downs and Casino on.

The Erie-area Presque Isle Downs & Casino will be a part of a new online casino industry in Pennsylvania. But what will it look like?

Presque Isle and online gambling

When Churchill Downs purchased the property, online gambling was at the front of the announcement.

“Presque Isle will give us a foothold in Pennsylvania which has recently passed legislation authorizing real money online gaming,” said CEO Bill Carstanjen.

It’s not hard to understand CDI’s goal, then. It seems to have every intention of expanding its footprint within the digital realm.

The company is already quite present on one front. It operates one of the largest regulated horse betting sites in the US, TwinSpires. But online gambling and sports betting have become a new focus.

CDI has been seeking an entry point for several years, including an attempted purchase of the Showboat in Atlantic City. Now it’s taken up a key position in Pennsylvania, making no secrets about its plans.

Platform provider

Apart from its ambitions, we don’t know much about CDI’s path to real-money online gambling.

It spent years developing an in-house mobile social casino product called Big Fish, but it sold the platform of late last year. Some of the funds from the $990 million sale were no doubt used to cover the cost of Presque Isle. But it leaves CDI without a tech presence in the iGaming space.

The group will likely then need to partner with a third party. Who that partner may be is anyone’s guess, but given the company’s public focus on expansion, a top-tier deal could be in the works. Some of the competing properties in PA have already begun to align with the leaders in the space.

CDI is working with SBTech on a sports betting solution.

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Forecasting Presque Isle’s online casino performance

CDI is a bit of a wild-card when it comes to online gambling.

TwinSpires is established and successful, but the company will be entering new territory with an online casino and/or poker. It doesn’t have a software solution lined up, at least not publicly. To back up a bit, the purchase of Presque Isle isn’t even finalized yet. And it’s not clear if it will be before online gambling rolls out.

A lot of CDI’s success, then, will depend on its platform provider and how quickly it can deploy a product.

There’s also the issue of branding. The land-based casino isn’t exactly printing money at the moment, and neither Presque Isle nor Churchill Downs are known as iGaming brands. That’s an obstacle they’ll need to overcome, either through a partnership or a substantial marketing plan, to succeed.

What Presque Isle does have on its side is geography. It’s more than 100 miles from its nearest in-state competition, carving out a nice little pocket of control.

The property has an uphill climb ahead, no doubt, but CDI also seems to have the resources to throw at the problem, if it so desires.

The history of Presque Isle

Presque Isle Downs & Casino is located near Erie, in the very northwest corner of the Keystone State. Unlike many of the properties in PA, it is a purpose-built racino with a short history.

Construction began in 2005, shortly after the state authorized slot machines at racetracks. The gaming floor opened in February 2007, and racing operations began a few months later. Table games followed in 2010.

Horses run from May to October, highlighted by the G2 $400,000 Presque Isle Masters Stakes. The 1-mile thoroughbred track is one of the longest synthetic tracks in the country.

For the time being, Eldorado Resorts owns and operates Presque Isle. That’s set to change this year, though.

In March, Churchill Downs Inc.announced plans to purchase the property for $179 million in cash. The two parties expect the transaction to close later this year.

Kentucky-based CDI is on a spending spree of late, having acquired casino properties in multiple states. And not coincidentally, its growing portfolio is dotted with states that are moving toward online gambling and/or sports betting.

A racing company at heart, CDI likely maintains an interest in the property’s thoroughbred operations, as well.

Land-based casino performance

Presque Isle is one of PA’s smallest casinos. A gaming floor of less than 50,000 square feet contains 30 table games and 1,600 machines, plus a small poker room. The property employs about 800 people between casino and racing operations.

Regarding revenue, you can see the small piece of pie Presque Isle consumes in the chart below. It generated just over $125 million in revenue during the 2016-17 fiscal year, among the bottom few on the leaderboard. About $70 million was paid back in taxes to local and state offices.

Revenue isn’t pouring in, but there’s no cause for concern, either. CDI figures to have ambitions for Presque Isle that extend well beyond the property lines.

It was on September 2, 2007, that a stable of relatively unknown equines took to Presque Isle Downs’ 1 mile synthetic oval for the first time. And while the winners and losers of the day have all but been forgotten, the legacy of that historical inaugural meet will be forever etched in the hearts and minds of Erie’s gambling faithful.

Featuring a population of hardly 100,000, Erie is situated on the cusp of the Great Lake in which it’s named for. Once a bustling center of the industry, the automobile age saw many of Erie’s residents depart for the more urbanized New York City, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Since the mass exodus of the 1970s, it’s not uncommon for residents of the area to refer to it as “Dreary Erie.”

But Erie’s sparse population hardly deterred the MTR Gaming Group from applying for a casino license with the PA Gaming Control Board. One can presume that MTR’s goal was to be at the forefront of Erie’s revival.

In anticipation of its license, the aggressive MTR started construction on the new Presque Isle Downs in late-2005. Fast forward to February 2007 – a mere three months after the company was authorized to conduct operations in December 2006 – and the flashing lights of Presque Downs’ casino floor would bring renewed vibrancy to “Dreary Erie.”

Today, Presque Isle Downs is home to over 2,000 machines, a renowned thoroughbred racing schedule and many of the same table games found in PA’s most identifiable casinos. In addition, the casino has facilitated the growth of Erie’s fledgling economy, particularly in the area of tourism.

Presque Isle Downs: Big city Action Meets Hometown Hospitality

Located in the northwestern most county of Pennsylvania and banked by Lake Erie to the north, Presque Isle Downs is a good two-hours removed from PA’s other gambling facilities.

In fact, the racino’s nearest rivals aren’t located in PA at all, but in the outlying counties of western New York. There, New York’s tribal factions host a cluster of casino resorts.

But Presque Isle Downs holds one distinct advantage over its NY-based competitors, and that’s its premier horse racing facility. On the basis of that distinction alone, “the little racino that could” has managed to tread water.

When examined in a vacuum, Presque Downs’ revenues come across as unimpressive. But the story changes once its small size, and hence lower upkeep, are factored into the equation.

In fiscal 2012-13, Presque Isle Downs’ 46 tables generated a comparatively measly $15 million in gross revenue. Its 2,000 slot machines fared significantly better, grossing $138.5 million. That’s about on par with the more recognized and conveniently located Mount Airy Casino in eastern PA.

Unfortunately, Presque Downs has experienced a more pronounced falloff than most other casinos, with year-over-year gross terminal revenue falling 16.7%.

Table Games at Presque Isle Downs

Action aficionados won’t find the most varied selection of table games at Presque Isle Downs, with most fates decided over a BlackJack, Craps or Roulette Table. 3-Card Poker and Let it Ride is also spread with some consistency, while Texas Hold’em Poker, Mississippi Stud and Fortune Pai Gow are mostly considered weekend novelties.

That being said, Presque Isle Downs features a modestly sized poker room, although a glimpse at the Monthly Calendar clearly reveals that the games are tailored towards amateurs. Still, give the casino credit for running a varied selection of tournaments, including NLHE/ PLO mixes, Bounties and O8.

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Presque Downs’ poker room also hosts a smallish Bad Beat Jackpot, with average payouts hovering around the $25,000 area.

Do note however, that the poker room is not 24/7 and only stays open as long as grinders are still mixing it up on green felt. That, and the facility only consists of a paltry nine tables.

Well, at least poker players will be able to enjoy a majestic view of the casino’s horse racing facilities during the hours they are allowed to play.

MTR Gaming at a Glance

Based in Chester, West Virginia MTR Gaming is a gaming company with a focus on middle-American casino markets. Currently, the corporation owns three facilities including the Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort in Chester and Scioto Downs Racino in Ohio.

Interesting enough, its former properties include Binion’s Gambling Hall and Hotel in Las Vegas. Sadly, within four years of being acquired from MTR by Harrah’s Entertainment (now Caesars Entertainment), the long-standing staple of the strip was shut down, with no plans to reopen.

MTR is publicly traded on the NASDAQ.

The Presque Isle Downs Advantage

Churchill's Bourbon And Brew - Presque Isle Downs

Presque Isle Downs’ hosts thoroughbred races on a near-daily basis from May to September. It’s during these lazy summer months that business truly begins to thrive.

The 1 mile oval is unique in that it was the first in the United States to be paved with a synthetic concoction of sand, fiber, rubber and wax – otherwise known as Tapeta Footings.

And while Presque only hosts a handful of notable racing events, it’s the only game in town.

Also noteworthy is the racino’s fine dining establishment: the Sensory 3 Steakhouse. Other eateries include two fast food joints (INCafe and ScoopIN’), the Downs Clubhouse and Lounge and of course a traditional, casino-style buffet – the appropriately named Backstretch Buffet.

Presque Isle Downs Takeout

Presque Downs’ casino promotions are generally of the average variety, with Blackjack tournaments, free big wheel spins and player incentives hosted on a rotating basis.

Casino Erie Pa Presque Isle

Whether this will be enough to prevent Presque from going the way of the dinosaur is yet to be seen, but thus far its done an admirable job of staying relevant in an otherwise “dreary” city.