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
NO ACTION, BUT A FORECAST
In a committee hearing reported by the Bergen
Record that produced no results, the future may
have reared its head -- ugly or otherwise -- in the
New Jersey legislature. The Assembly Tourism
and Gaming Committee this week heard testimony
in favor of legislation that would allow living room
Internet betting on Atlantic City casinos. The committee
took no action, but Assemblyman Anthony
Impreveduto, who has been the prime mover of
Internet casino betting in New Jersey, said, “We
cannot be like a proverbial ostrich and stick our
heads in the sand and say it doesn’t exist. Anyone
can gamble. Anyone who currently gambles on the
Internet is nuts. You don’t know the safety of the
game. You don’t know the legitimacy of the game.
They could be Colombian drug dealers, for all we
know. People in New Jersey are gambling on the
Internet and New Jersey’s not getting a penny.”
Perhaps more significant than Impreveduto’s remarks
were those of Thomas N. Auriemma, acting
director of the Division of Gaming Enforcement,
who said that since federal law is silent on
Internet gambling and Internet gambling cannot
feasibly be eliminated, the Attorney General’s office
will not oppose the proposed legislation. “If
the Legislature and the people decide to legalize
Internet gambling in some form, we can and will
regulate it,” Auriemma said. Gary Guear, the chairman
of the Assembly committee that heard the proposal,
said, “Somewhere down the line, in the future,
we’re going to see Internet gaming here in
the state of New Jersey.”
FIRST TO THE MARKET”
Underscoring the New Jersey proposal is the news
item from Los Angeles from a company called
Bentley Communications, which claims to have a
“first-to-market” advantage on legal
online wagering with “real time online
ATM card pay-in, pay-out transactions.”
March 20, 2002
The company says such transactions
“can be done at any Internet connected PC
equipped with a certified user-friendly credit card,
ATM card and Smart card stand-alone unit like
the Cash pad (TM).”
$57 MILLION LEASE IN IOWA
Prairie Meadows, hoping to settle a dispute with
Polk county, Iowa, which owns the track, has offered
to lease the track from the county for three
years for $57 million, $19 million a year, including
$2.5 million in property taxes.
CASH TIME AT VERNON DOWNS
Vernon Downs agreed yesterday to borrow nearly
$9 million from Las Vegas entrepreneur Shawn
Scott, and track president Justice Cheney says
Vernon’s board of directors has decided to give
three option holders -- Eric Cherry, Sandy Goldfarb
and Steven Goldberg -- one more chance to up their
$9 million bid. That was the word today from the
Syracuse Post-Standard, which reported that Scott
and his partner, Hoolae Paoa, now control more
than a third of the shares of Mid-State Raceway,
the parent of Vernon, and they alone can kill the
option held by the Cherry trio. Dominic Giambona,
a member of the Mid-State board, said he had contracted
to sell his stock to Scott and that Scott and
his partner “have a great business plan.” Paoa
was quoted as saying the loan would pay off the
track’s debt, including a $2.8 million loan due at
the end of the month on the track’s Country Suites
hotel. He said Vernon would not get a license from
the New York Racing and Wagering Board if it does
not have enough working capital, and that “if you
lose your two most valuable assets -- your hotel
and your racing license -- you might as well shut
the place down.” Scott bought Delta Downs in
Louisiana for $10 million three years ago and
sold it to Boyd Gaming last year for $130
million.