Churchill Downs shuts down its online bingo site

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Churchill Downs, better known as the host of Kentucky Derby’s thoroughbred racetrack in south Louisville, has announced on last week’s Wednesday that it is going to shut down online bingo site, Luckity. Louisville-based casino and thoroughbred racetrack company entered the online gambling market with the bingo room Luckity, an approach that the company made two years ago. The most popular thoroughbred racetrack in the United States filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. The company is planning to end all Luckity’s operations: “Management determined that Luckity did not achieve the expected financial returns and was unlikely to significantly improve its results”. The company has not provided any more details yet as of the shutdown date but had already announced getting rid of the online bingo site Luckity if figures would not add up. Churchill Chief Financial Officer and President Bill Mudd told investors and analysts: “The switch to bingo was starting to show that we can attract and retain customers. By early next quarter, we should be able to determine if we want to continue investing in this product."

Churchill Downs’ online bingo, Luckity, was launched in 2012, in an effort to offer players other ways to make deposits into their live racing wagering services; the site offered real-money bets on various of the outcomes from live horse races. Luckity main purpose was to attract more players, those who were not that interested in thoroughbred horse competitions. In 2013, the company decided to make some changes, beginning with the real-money online bingo room whose results would come again from horse races. However, on February of this year, Churchill Downs announced that shutting down the online bingo site Luckity could happen in the future if the site was not fulfilling the company’s goals. The online bingo’s most popular player was woman in her middle 30s who is more into lottery, slots machines and social games, a clientele that the company does not find appealing and main reason why the company has decided to shut down its online bingo room.