Meadows Slot Machines will Cost $200 Million

Now that the new owners of the Meadows have completed their $200 million purchase of the harness track, they can get started on renovating it. They plan to also open a temporary casino with 1,700 slot machines this May, and held their ceremonial groundbreaking last week.

"The Meadows is a venerable place ... but it's time for a change," said Bill Paulos, one of the partners of the new owners - Millennium Gaming.

Millennium paid $175 million in cash to Magna Entertainment Corp, and delivered a $25 million holdback agreement to the group as well. Millennium received their conditional slot machine license in September, so they are one of the companies that are allowed to operate slot machines in Pennsylvania.

The permanent slot machine casino should be opened in 2009, so the temporary casino will work for them for the next two years easily. The permanent casino will hold 3,000 slot machines, restaurants, entertainment venues, etc. They expect to receive roughly 11 million visitors a year to the track now that they will be able to offer slot machines. They know that the slot machine casino will also be the first step in much more development to come. There will be more construction, malls, etc. to come in the near future. "On so many levels [a slot machine casino] is terrific for what it does as a catalyst," said U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair.

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