In the United States, sports betting is a booming business. Several states have legalized the option and offer betting in a variety of ways, such as on-site or online. For the gaming venues that offer on-site wagering, there are cashier windows to use as well as self-betting kiosks. The kiosks are often used by players due to convenience as well as the location of the machine. In Iowa, the Prairie Meadows Racetrack & Casino recently had to shut down their sports betting kiosks after the machines began to have glitching problems.
Fixing the Issue
The Prairie Meadows has partnered with William Hill to offer sports betting services to patrons. Just this week, it was found that the self-betting kiosks of the property turned on automatically despite being shutdown by the staff members.
The casino turns the machines off during the nighttime hours and turns the games back on when the venue opens up the next day. Surveillance footage of the casino showed the machines cutting on with no one in sight.
William Hill reviewed the footage and decided to turn the kiosks off until they can figure out the technical glitch issue. Customers of the venue will be able to continue to enjoy sports betting but will have to so by visiting a betting window on-site or using the casino’s mobile betting application.
More details on what the glitch actually is should be revealed once William Hill figures out the problem and turns the machines back on for operation.
William Hill and Prairie Meadows sign a partnership agreement earlier in the year, with the British bookmaker set to be the exclusive sports betting partner of the property. Since joining up, the two worked hard to launch a new sports betting facility that is 8,600 square feet in space at the fourth level of the Prairie Meadows Casino.
Hurting Revenues?
The shutdown of the self-betting kiosks could hurt the bottom line of the Prairie Meadows if the machines are not turned back on soon. During the first month of legal sports betting, the casino saw $3.4 million in wagers placed. Of course, players can still use the betting windows on-site, but these areas will most likely be busier due to the shutdown of the kiosks.
Prairie Meadows actually reported the largest amount of wagers placed via sports betting in the state, beating out the remaining 12 venues that are currently offering such services. The operator may start to see an uptick in online wagers placed since the kiosks are not currently in service.
Iowa operators do offer online sports betting but have yet to see players take to this option as readily as other states like New Jersey. So far, only a few apps can be found in the state, however major operators DraftKings and FanDuel are set to launch shortly and their addition is sure to help the overall mobile betting bottom line.
For now, we wait and see how the casino will be affected by the shutdown of the kiosks. Hopefully, William Hill will have them up and running in no time!
