The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission cleared the way Thursday for Phil Ruffin to open a casino in the Wichita area, granting the billionaire casino mogul and Wichita native a major victory in a nearly two decade battle to put gambling machines inside the Wichita Greyhound Park. The gaming commission on Thursday granted Ruffin’s Golden Circle casino the state’s only license to operate 1,000 historical horse racing machines. The HHR machines look and play like slot machines — which voters rejected in Sedgwick County by a narrow margin a few months before Ruffin decided to close the greyhound park — but outcomes are based on random past horse races instead of randomly generated numbers. “We are ecstatic with the news,” said Phil Ruffin Jr., who lives in Wichita and will be the general manager of Golden Circle when it opens. “We’ve been working to try to renovate and reopen Wichita Greyhound Park.” The greyhound park near 77th Street North and Hydraulic has been closed since 2007. Under Ruffin’s plan, he will spend $128 million to renovate it into a three-floor casino called Golden Circle.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
