Tech entrepreneur Chip Meyers is pushing ahead with a plan to construct Las Vegas Downs, a $550 million thoroughbred racetrack on a 55-acre stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard between Mandalay Bay and the M Resort. Meyers, the founding father of Bitcoin ATM firm Hilt, mentioned the idea emerged from conversations with longtime Las Vegas residents, together with faculty associates who now lead a significant development agency.
“We stored on asking what was lacking from this metropolis,” he instructed Casino.org on Wednesday (July 7). “It is two and a half million folks now. It is the sports activities capital of the world. Greatest eating places on the earth. A lot to do.”
Meyers traces his ardour for racing to childhood journeys to the Meadowlands in New Jersey. “I watched the Triple Crown yearly,” he says. “Horses have been on the duvet of Sports activities Illustrated.” His spouse Louise’s household as soon as owned trotters and raced at Hollywood Park, and her mom led a California racing group.
Meyers factors to California’s dwindling monitor depend as a gap for Las Vegas. “California racing is having a troublesome time and actually been retracting,” he says. “There aren’t any extra tracks in Northern California. There are three tracks left in Southern California. And there is perhaps one monitor left in just a few years, which is Del Mar.”
The venue would run 60 race days from early November by early April, with a grandstand seating roughly 20,000, expandable to 40,000, and nightly purses close to $1.5 million. Funding would mix roughly $275 million already dedicated with a members-only membership modeled on Hong Kong’s Jockey Membership, probably supplemented by debt or land-lease preparations. A separate winter coaching facility close to Pahrump, Mesquite, or Chilly Creek would come with barns, an equine spa, and a retirement sanctuary for horses.
Three earlier Las Vegas racing ventures collapsed amid fraud, possession disputes, or foreclosures. Meyers mentioned the challenge wouldn’t embrace a on line casino and is designed to spice up Strip resort occupancy quite than compete with gaming operators. He has been assembly with state regulators and hopes to deliver laws earlier than Nevada lawmakers in 2027 to loosen pari-mutuel wagering necessities.
