2002 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA
Executive Newsletter
A daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyond
Stanley F. Bergstein, Editor
CRUSADERS DON THEIR ARMOR
The editor’s Daily Racing Form column today discusses
Bill Oberle’s campaign to bring sports betting
back to Delaware. The ink was not dry, however,
before a Wilmington (Del) News Journal
story told of a special counsel for the National
Football League asking Delaware lawmakers not
to pass the measure. Jay Moyer, saying he was
representing all of America’s major professional
sports leagues, told the task force convened by
Oberle, who now is speaker pro tem of the Delaware
House, that legally sanctioned sports betting
would encourage young people to pick up
the gambling habit. He said it would harm sports
by increasing the perception of some that games
are corrupt. Moyer thinks sports gambling sends
a terrible message to youth, and that youth looks
up to athletes. Maybe once upon a time, Jay.
With wife and sweetheart beaters rampant, steroid
users everywhere, and college recruits for
the NFL acting like they have licenses to be thugs,
we think today’s generation can pick better models.
By the way, Jay, what’s your take on illegal
sports betting? I’ll take mine legal, thank you, if
at all.
The crusaders are out in Massachusetts, too, trying
to head off casinos, and presumably slots at
tracks as well, in the Bay State. While Massachusetts
money flows to Connecticut, state senator
Susan Tucker is setting up an organization
that would help anti-casino forces to broadcast
their arguments to the public. She told Business
Today.com that everyone understands that the
state-appointed panel studying the possibility of
gambling in Massachusetts “is rigged toward
gambling interests,” even though it includes academics
as well as labor and political leaders.
Tucker apparently thinks something like
Foxwoods would be okay, but as far as
Massachusetts goes, she says, “We’re not
talking about another Foxwoods, but multiple,
junky casinos all over New England.”
December 19, 2002
AN INDIAN VERNON DOWNS?
The Oneida Indian Nation, which owns the Turning
Stone casino some four miles from Vernon
Downs, has said in a prospectus that it could be
interested in buying its neighbor track in central
New York. The Oneidas say they have considered
investing in or buying the track. The
prospectus says, “Vernon Downs at times has
been offered for sale, and the nation has at times
expressed interest in its operations.” Vernon is
facing serious financial problems and the licensing
status of investor Shawn Scott and a Scott
associate. The Oneidas, incidentally, have spent
$29 million on expansion, the ongoing effort including
two new hotels, a performing arts center,
and two new golf courses. It reported a profit
of almost $70 million in the last fiscal year, which
is 10 times higher than the area’s second largest
private employer, Oneida Ltd., according to a
report today in the Syracuse Post-Standard. The
paper also reported that the casino paid almost
$1.8 million to companies owned by the wife and
brother of Oneida Nation leader Ray Halbritter,
considered one of the brightest minds in casino
gaming. Total revenues at the casino, hotel, restaurants,
stores and showroom in the fiscal year
ending September 30 were $232 million according
to the Oneida prospectus, the first time any
detailed disclosure of casino operations has been
released.
BEEN TO PAYSON, AZ, LATELY?
Neither have many other people. But 30 manufacturers
of slot machine games were there last
week, testing their newest games with 200 of the
best players at the Mazatzal Indian casino. The
tribe has created an annual “games testing” event
that also serves as a vehicle to entertain its top
players with food, drinks and previews of new
games. The manufacturers like the idea, and
with a recent vote that increases Arizona
machines to 15,675 in the next five years,
it’s good business for the testers.