Fairmount Park

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Fairmount Park is all set to become the next casino with sports betting in Saint Louis. The Illinois Gaming Board has approved the transition from horse track to a venue for a Master Sports Wagering License and provided Fairmount Park with “preliminary suitable” status for having casino games at its venue.

This comes after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation to permit gambling operations at horse racetracks, something which Fairmount Park’s leadership had long sought to achieve to bring in further revenue.

This puts them in prime position to become the first “racino” in Southern Illinois. offering live racing, sports wagering, full casino gaming as well as state of the art restaurants and bars all situated at the venue. 

Partnership with FanDuel 

To achieve these goals they have partnered with gaming company FanDuel. It is believed their official name will be “Fairmount Park, Inc. FanDuel Sportsbook and racing.”

Fairmount Park is not the only casino within the Metro East gambling with sports wagering operations. Sports betting operator DraftKings has launched a sportsbook at East St. Louis-based Casino Queen. Argosy Casino Alton in Alton opened the Metro East’s first sportsbook in March this year.

This latest sports betting deal for FanDuel Sportsbook will put them on a more even playing field with their competitors DraftKings Sportsbook and BetRivers.

Fairmount is located to the east of St. Louis which is a great attraction for local players as in-person registration is a requirement for the first 18 months.

Par-A-Dice, on the other hand, located right in the middle of the state is hours away from the metropolitan districts of Chicago and St. Louis.

After sports betting launched in March, Gov JB Pritzker suspended the in-person requirement in June because casinos were closed. There have been variations to the rule since then but the rule currently still stands. Although sports betting registration does go back to in-person registration, DraftKings Sportsbook may hold the edge over FanDuel in terms of location.

DraftKings at Casino Queen sits just over the Missouri-Illinois border so sports bettors would only need to drive 15 minutes to get there.

Allowing remote registration, especially for the NFL betting season, has led to a far stronger launch period than expected for Illinois with the state’s sportsbooks taking $139.8 million in August. This was up significantly from the $52.5 million figure in July.