LOUISIANA Slots will go in at racetrack

Gaming officials wanted to be sure Edward DeBartolo Jr. was not involved before approving the slots.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Louisiana racing fans will be able to bet on the horses and try out a few slot machines as well, now that the Boardman-based DeBartolo Corp. has won the right to install 1,727 slot machines at its Louisiana Downs racetrack.
Company officials said Louisiana Downs, in Bossier City, La., is the first racetrack in that state to gain approval for slot machines.
Denise DeBartolo York is chairwoman and chief executive of the DeBartolo Corp., and her husband, John York, is president of the corporation. Her brother Edward DeBartolo Jr. is president of the DeBartolo Property Group, with offices in Tampa, Fla., Cleveland and Boardman.
Mrs. York officially assumed ownership of the racetrack, the San Francisco 49ers football team and other assets last month when the siblings completed the splitting of the family's business interests. DeBartolo Jr. received residential and commercial properties and 21 million shares of stock in mall developer Simon Property Group.
John York said the application for the slot machines was filed last April, but gaming-control authorities postponed action until the settlement of the estate was announced.
Charges: The Shreveport Times reported that the state's gaming control board "went through painstaking details" to ensure that DeBartolo Jr. held no stake in the facility before it would approve the slots. DeBartolo Jr. was placed on two years' probation and fined $1 million in 1999 after pleading to charges that he knew of an casino bribery scheme and didn't report it.
DeBartolo Jr. had been the owner of the 49ers and Louisiana Downs -- the Yorks bought the corporation's portion of the track and obtained DeBartolo Jr.'s shares when the estate was settled. The Yorks own 98.6 percent of the track, and a group of local investors and associates of the late Edward J. DeBartolo Sr., the father of Denise and Edward Jr., owns about 1.4 percent.
DeBartolo Corp. officials said installation of 15,000 square feet of slots will be the first step in a $86 million renovation of the facility, which may eventually include the addition of hotel rooms and other lodging facilities at the track.
The company said its new slots attraction will put the track "at the forefront of gaming" in the competitive Shreveport-Bossier City market, where it faces competition from five riverboat casinos.