Sunday, July 20, 2003
A push to legalize slot machines makes racing licenses more valuable.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Once again, Ted Arneault has a license to build a racetrack near Erie, but not the reassurance he's looking for to break ground.
On Thursday, for the second time in nine months, the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission granted Arneault -- the president, chairman and chief executive of MTR Gaming Group Inc. -- a license to race at the yet-to-be built Presque Isle Downs.
Still wary
But after a successful appeal to a state court prompted the revocation of the first license, Arneault is wary of the same scenario's developing again before he begins construction on the $56 million 6,500-seat track.
"We have to make sure that we've addressed all outstanding claims," Arneault said after a commission meeting at the department of agriculture. "Otherwise, we'd be building on shifting sands."
In the past year, racing licenses have become much more valuable, as momentum has built in Harrisburg to legalize slot machines at the racetracks. Applications for a racing license have poured in at the prospect of slot machines' enriching the track owners while the gambling revenue would allow the state to afford property-tax relief.
Move is opposed
Before the commission voted 3-0 to award the license, a lawyer for a Pittsburgh group with a pending application opposed the move, saying his group wanted a chance to argue the merits of MTR Gaming's application. Commission attorneys, however, said the first license was revoked only because another group, MEC Pennsylvania Racing Inc., was improperly denied a hearing.
Later, attorney David B. Fawcett, representing Pittsburgh Palisades Park LLC, said his group would consider an appeal to the Commonwealth Court.