The race course at Grantville
Penn National Race Course opened on August 30, 1972, in the farmland of Dauphin County. The layout is a one-mile dirt oval with a seven-furlong turf course inside it, the same dimensions as Parx near Philadelphia. The track is best known regionally for night racing, which lets fans from Harrisburg, Lebanon and Hershey come after work.
The 2026 meet is the 55th and followed the longest shutdown in track history: the last race of 2025 was run on December 19, sixty days before opening night. The meet brought a 5 percent purse increase, to an average overnight purse schedule near $165,000, and lowered the takeout on trifecta and superfecta bets to 25 percent each.
Hollywood Casino Penn National racing calendar
The 2026 schedule lists 105 thoroughbred cards. Racing opened on Thursdays and Fridays, added Wednesdays from March 18, dropped to two nights for part of April and returned to three nights from May 6. After a four-week pause in September, live racing restarted on October 7 and runs three nights a week until Thanksgiving eve.
- Season: February 19 to November 25, 2026
- Usual first post: 5:45 p.m. Eastern
- Kentucky Derby day (May 2): first race at 2 p.m.
- Penn Mile night (May 29): 5 p.m. post
- Camel, ostrich and zebra races (July 3): 5 p.m. post, a family favorite
The signature race is the Penn Mile, a Grade 3 turf race for three-year-olds worth $400,000, first run in 2013. Other stakes include the Penn Oaks, the Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup on turf and Pennsylvania-bred races such as the Alphabet Soup and Lyphard. Rapid Redux, winner of 22 straight races and an Eclipse special award, was trained here.
Betting is pari-mutuel at the windows, self-service machines and through account wagering, and the simulcast area carries signals from other tracks all day. The horse racing schedule page lists live dates across all US racinos, and the pari-mutuel betting guide explains how the pools, takeout and exotic bets work at this race course.
The casino floor and poker room
The casino opened on February 12, 2008, and live table games followed in July 2010. In August 2026 the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board counted an average of 1,526 slot machines and 55 table games. Since 2020 the floor has been smoke-free under state rules, with covered smoking areas outside the entrance.
The poker room runs 11 non-banking tables in the August 2026 report, enough for daily Texas Hold’em cash games and regular tournaments. The banked tables cover blackjack, roulette, craps, Pai Gow poker, three- and four-card poker and mini-baccarat. Hollywood Casino Penn National also hosted the first legal sports bet in Pennsylvania, taken in a test on November 15, 2018.
Food, entertainment and a place to stay
Dining is spread across the casino floor and the grandstand, so a racing night can start with dinner and move outside for the first post. Promotions, live music and other entertainment are posted on the casino’s own calendar, which changes from month to month, so it is the place to check before planning a visit around a show.
There is no hotel at the casino. Overnight visitors usually stay in Harrisburg, 17 miles west, or in Hershey, home of the chocolate factory attractions and Hersheypark, which makes a night at the races an easy add-on to a family trip. Interstate 81 runs past the entrance, and Interstate 78 begins a few miles east toward Allentown.
Hollywood Casino Penn National among Pennsylvania racinos
Hollywood Casino Penn National is the only racino in central Pennsylvania. Parx near Philadelphia races thoroughbreds on afternoons early in the week, so the two tracks rarely compete for horses on the same night. Hollywood Casino at The Meadows, another PENN property, runs harness racing near Pittsburgh. The state overview lists all six tracks side by side.
Online casinos tied to the license
The interactive gaming certificate held by Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association covers more brands than any other Pennsylvania racino: Hollywood Casino’s own app, launched in July 2019, plus DraftKings, BetMGM, Fanatics and theScore Bet. Players must be 21 and located in Pennsylvania, and a budget set in advance helps. The Pennsylvania state page explains the framework.