The Rickman family still owns a golf course and restaurant on the scenic property. Profits were not plowed into a standalone casino or adjacent hotel. The family also snapped up a one-time county government engineering building. It’s a legacy of the Rickman family, the former owners of the casino track.ĭelaware Park was a money-making machine when the General Assembly first green-lighted casinos at the state’s three horse tracks, minus the upfront payments demanded by other states.ĭuring those heady times, the Rickmans purchased a hotel in a swampy area off I-95 that had run afoul of New Castle County building codes and is now a center for the homeless.

cities before the construction of glittering new gaming arenas. The grandstand gaming area at Delaware Park has sometimes been called “the bus station” for a look that reminds one of the temporary sites set up in U.S.