Chickasaw Nation's Global Gaming Solutions Buys Wyoming Horse Racing and Over 1,500 HHR Machines

The Chickasaw Nation's commercial arm now owns 13 Horse Palace sites, live racing at Sweetwater Downs, and the operator behind about 35% of Wyoming's $2.49 billion historical horse racing handle. No price was disclosed, and the deal lands months after a bill to cap the machines died.

• Global Gaming WY LLC, a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Nation's Global Gaming Solutions, has completed the purchase of 100% of Wyoming Funding LLC, which trades as Wyoming Horse Racing, according to a release dated 20 October
• The business runs 13 Horse Palace off-track betting sites with over 1,500 historical horse racing (HHR) machines and live racing at Sweetwater Downs in Rock Springs; the price and other terms were not disclosed
• The Wyoming Gaming Commission approved the transfer of the live event and simulcast permits at a special meeting on 16 October, called two days after a lawyer for Wyoming Horse Racing asked for one
• Wyoming Horse Racing took $877.2 million of HHR wagers in 2025, up 58% in a year, out of a statewide $2.49 billion, according to the commission's annual report
• A 2026 bill to cap HHR terminals at 1,000 or 1,200 per racetrack died before introduction; lawmakers have since backed a felony ban on online sweepstakes casinos

An Oklahoma Tribe Takes Over One of Wyoming's Three HHR Operators

Global Gaming WY LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Gaming Solutions LLC, has acquired all the membership interests of Wyoming Funding LLC, doing business as Wyoming Horse Racing, the company said in a release datelined Cheyenne on 20 October. The portfolio comprises 13 Horse Palace locations with over 1,500 HHR machines and live racing at Sweetwater Downs Racetrack in Rock Springs. No price was given, and "other terms of the deal were not disclosed", the release says.

The seller, Wyoming Funding, is a joint venture between Pacesetter Racing and Gaming LLC and an affiliate of Sculptor Real Estate, according to the release. Pacesetter, owned by Nick Hughes, John Sheldon and Pete Liguori, bought the business with WY Funding from founder Eugene Joyce in December 2021.

Approval was quick. On 14 October Matthew Micheli of Holland & Hart, writing for Wyoming Horse Racing, asked Wyoming Gaming Commission Executive Director Nicholas Larramendy for a special meeting on a transfer of ownership "from Wyoming Funding Holdings LLC to a new owner", according to the meeting packet, which does not name the buyer. The commission approved the transfer of the simulcast and live event permits on 16 October, the release says. Larramendy told Cowboy State Daily the "entire operations" were sold, and that the sites stay under state gaming rules because they sit on state land, not sovereign tribal land.

Chickasaw Nation Governor Chris Anoatubby called diversification "an integral business strategy". Global Gaming Solutions, set up in 2008, owns and operates Remington Park in Oklahoma City and Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, manages nearly 1,400 hotel rooms at the Nation's WinStar World Casino and Resort, and says it employs over 1,250 people in four states.

Wyoming's HHR Market Has Nearly Doubled in Three Years

Wyoming legalised HHR in 2013 through House Bill 25, which the state's three permitted operators described to lawmakers in 2024 as a rescue for a racing industry that ran no live races in 2010. The machines were suspended statewide in October 2015 after an Attorney General's report found their bonus rounds relied on chance, Wyoming Public Media reported. Only companies that run live racing may operate them; racing and the machines "go hand in hand", Larramendy told Cowboy State Daily.

The commission's 2025 annual report counts 3,212 active HHR terminals at 46 approved locations, so the machines in this deal amount to almost half the state's total. HHR handle reached $2.49 billion in 2025, up from $2.12 billion in 2024 and $1.28 billion in 2022. Wyoming Downs took $929.5 million, Wyoming Horse Racing $877.2 million and 307 Horse Racing $685.2 million. Wyoming Horse Racing grew fastest last year, up 58% from $554.3 million, helped by border sites such as the $25 million Horse Palace Swan Ranch near Colorado, which opened in June 2024, Cowboy State Daily reported.

The state's take is thin. By statute, 1% of HHR wagers goes to the host city and county, 0.25% to a state account, 0.25% to the legislative stabilisation reserve account and 0.4% to the breeders' award fund. In 2025 that sent $24.9 million to cities and counties, $6.2 million each to the state account and the reserve, and $9.97 million to breeders; $2.26 billion, about 90.8% of handle, went back to players. Wyoming Horse Racing's share of the public money was about $13.2 million.

Two of Wyoming's Three HHR Licences Have Changed Hands in 30 Months

Clairvest and ECL Entertainment, a Kentucky HHR operator, bought Wyoming Downs in May 2024, when it had 19 OTB sites and over 1,100 terminals, according to Clairvest. With Wyoming Horse Racing now sold, two of the state's three HHR operators have new owners. Wyoming lets them run slot-like terminals statewide behind a live-racing requirement, at a combined state and local tax of 1.5% of handle, and outside buyers have noticed. Larramendy's remark that "they already operate horse race tracks" suggests the regulator sees a racing company as a natural owner.

The Price Is Missing, and So Is Any Guarantee on the Rules

Without a price, the deal cannot be measured against the $77.6 million the commission records as Wyoming Horse Racing's 2025 takeout. The bigger unknown is political. House Bill 172 would have capped terminals from July 2028 at 1,000 or 1,200 per racetrack, below the 1,500 in this deal; it was not considered for introduction in February. A bill to send pari-mutuel money to highways failed 17 to 44, but a 2027 working draft from the transport committee would add a further 1% of HHR and simulcast handle for the highway fund. A buyer paying for growth is betting those efforts keep failing.

Massachusetts Shows Why HHR Keeps Drawing Fire

The Massachusetts House voted in July to allow HHR at Suffolk Downs and Raynham Park, and the state's three casinos and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe now oppose it; Tribal Chairman Brian Weeden says the terminals resemble slot machines, Focus Gaming News reported. Wyoming, which suspended its machines in 2015 over a similar question, has tied them to live racing and spread small payments across local government, which gives every city and county with a Horse Palace a stake in keeping them.

The Chickasaw Nation has bought a fast-growing business in a market that has nearly doubled since 2022, at a price it chose not to share. Whether that growth continues depends less on the new owner than on a legislature that declined to cap the machines this year and has a further levy in draft for January.