The Woodlands plans to close, at least temporarily, on August 24 after failing to reach a satisfactory agreement on the division of slot machine revenue.

Voters in Wyandotte County overwhelmingly approved a measure last June that gave the Kansas City, Kansas, facility the right to add 800 slot machines. The law allocated 25% of the gross to The Woodlands, which was scheduled to operate a 32-day mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses from September 20 to November 2.

The track and the state had been negotiating how an additional 15% of the gross from slot machines would be divided.

“We hate to see it happen,” Ed Van Petten, Kansas Lottery director, told the Kansas City Star. “I can’t say I’m totally surprised. They told us last week they just couldn’t make the numbers work. … [T]he distribution of funds is such that they just didn’t feel they could make any money at it.”

Woodlands President Howard Grace said in a statement that he hoped The Woodlands would reopen “with new gaming revenue at some point in the future.”

The Woodlands, which operates year-round greyhound racing on a separate track, has struggled for years with competition from casinos in nearby Missouri.

William M. Grace, principal owner of the St. Jo Frontier Casino in St. Joseph, Missouri, purchased The Woodlands in 1998, two years after the track’s then-parent company filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors.

R. D. Hubbard and Dick Boushka opened The Woodlands in September 1989 for greyhound racing, and the track began Thoroughbred racing in May 1990. During its first year of Thoroughbred operation, The Woodlands registered $197-million in handle and set a single-day attendance record of 22,015 with a wallet giveaway.

According to the Star, handle dwindled to $28.8-million over the first six months of 2008.