Harrah's Philadelphia Casino & Racetrack is a harness racing track and

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

racino A racino is a combined race track and casino. In some cases, the gambling is limited to slot machines, but many locations are beginning to include Casino game#Table games, table games such as blackjack, poker, and roulette. In 2003, Joe Bob Br ...

) on the

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester i ...

waterfront. It is owned by

Vici Properties Vici Properties Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in casino properties, based in New York City. It was formed in 2017 as a spin-off from Caesars Entertainment Corporation as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. It owns ...

and operated by Caesars Entertainment.

History

The track was built on the site of the former Sun Shipbuilding campus. Its first harness racing season opened on September 10, 2006. On September 27, 2006, the

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is a governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, founded in 2004 as the state licensing and the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing slot machines and casino gambling in the state. The ...

gave Harrah's Chester its slots license. The Board approved Harrah's application for the permanent slot-machine gaming operator license on December 20, 2006. The casino opened on January 22, 2007, one day earlier than anticipated. Catania Engineering Associates performed the site design for this project. The casino began offering live table games on July 18, 2010. In May 2012, Harrah's Chester changed its name to Harrah's Philadelphia to appeal to a broader market. In 2018,

, a real estate company that had earlier been spun off from Caesars, purchased the land and buildings of Harrah's Philadelphia from Caesars for $242 million. Caesars leased back the property for $21 million per year. On January 22, 2019,

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...

began at Harrah's Philadelphia with a testing period; a formal grand opening occurred on January 24, 2019. Sports betting takes place at William Hill Sportsbook, a

sportsbook In the United States, a sportsbook or a race and sports book (sometimes abbreviated as book) is a place where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, including golf, football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, horse racing, ...

with an odds board, 6 teller windows, self-betting kiosks, and 2 terminals for betting on horse races. The sportsbook has 19 lounge seats, 11 high-top tables, bar seating, and over 45 big-screen TVs. Sports betting is available on multiple sports including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, and college sports.

Amenities

The casino consists of over 2,000

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s, of gaming space, a event center, and numerous drineries, eateries, meeting rooms, and retail establishments.

Bars

*C-Bar *Copper Mug

Meeting rooms

*Caesars *Harrah's *Horseshoe

Restaurants

Guy Fieri Guy Ramsay Fieri (, ; ''né'' Ferry; born January 22, 1968) is an American restaurateur, author, and an Emmy Award winning television presenter. He co-owns three restaurants in California, licenses his name to restaurants in New York City, Las ...

's Philly Kitchen + Bar *

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans c ...

*Mien *Philly Steak Shack *Cove Steakhouse and Raw Bar *The Market

Shopping

*Gift Shop

Harness racing

Harrah's Philadelphia currently runs a 150 day live meet that runs from early April to mid-December. Race days are typically operated on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, as well as occasional holidays that fall on Saturday and Monday. Racing at Harrah's is usually scheduled to begin at 12:25PM. The racing broadcast is available for wagering via

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

from other racetracks throughout the United States and Canada. The track is in length and has a limestone-based surface. The midpoint of races comes on a bridge that hangs over the Delaware River and provides a view of freight ships passing by. Although the track is equipped with lights, it has not operated a schedule with regular night racing since 2011. The racing paddock at Harrah's holds up to 131 horses. Because of limited space, horses are shipped in to the paddock rather than stabled on-track. Harrah's Philadelphia was the host site of PA Harness Week, a weekly show aired on Philadelphia's local

Comcast SportsNet NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origin ...

channel. It aired its final episode on August 29, 2015. The show was drawing roughly 3,500 viewers per week at the time of its cancellation.

Track announcers

*Multiple (2006) * James Witherite (2007–2013) * Michael Bozich (2014–present)

References

External links

* {{Caesars Entertainment Horse racing venues in Pennsylvania Casinos in Pennsylvania Caesars Entertainment Buildings and structures in Delaware County, Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Delaware County, Pennsylvania Sports venues completed in 2006 Casinos completed in 2007 Chester, Pennsylvania Harrah's Entertainment