The onset of the holiday season and rough weekend weather sent weekend handle in the mid-Atlantic plummeting to its lowest level since last winter.

Wagering at the region’s four operating tracks — Laurel Park, Charles Town, Parx Racing, and Penn National — sank to less than $4.2 million, down more than a quarter from the prior weekend.

All four tracks saw declines for the weekend, wagering from a relatively modest nine percent dip at Penn National to a nearly 35 percent drop at Parx.  Sketchy weekend weather — storms on Friday left muddy tracks on Saturday, and Parx’s Sunday card was conducted in a snow storm — made racing a tough sell.  On top of that, only Laurel held any stakes; but that track’s three-stake card could not prevent a 29 percent drop in handle.

Laurel’s Saturday card, with $1.079 million in wagering, was the region’s single busiest card and the only one to top $1 million for the weekend.  The snowy Sunday card at Parx, by contrast, attracted less than $520,000 in wagering.

[boxify cols_use =”5″ cols =”5″ position =”left” order =”none” box_spacing =”5″ padding =”5″ border_width =”2″ border_color =”blue” border_style =”solid” height =”60″]
[/boxify]

REGIONAL HANDLE BY WEEKEND