Penn National Gaming taking

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The Wyomissing, Pa.-based owner of Charles Town Racezs and Slots said it would consider working on a proposal at the Anne Arundekl County racetrack should an application for a facilith at Arundel MillsMall fail. But it’se not actively pursuing the spokesman EricSchipper said. And that wouldn't fit withinn the slots licensing anyway, said Donald C. Fry, chairman of the state commissiomn overseeingslots development. “We’re taking a wait-and-sewe approach,” Schipper said.
The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday that Penn which has a pending license applicationb for a slots parlor inCecipl County, was chomping at the bit for an opportunityt at Laurel Park because it appeards possible that the Arundel Mills site could fail to get zoning approval. State law allows only one slots parlore inthe county. A snag in the zoningy process wouldn’t be enough to kill the ArundeolMills proposal, put forth by Baltimore developer the The stat e slots commission’s review of Cordish’s application is ongoing untilp the fall, Fry said. Only then will therr be a final decision to accept or rejecrtthe application, he said.
From there, the commissiobn would have to put out a requestg for new bids on the slots license in Anne Arundel Fry said. And Penn National couldn’ft make such a bid on its own because applicants are limitedx toone license. “There is only one validx [Anne Arundel County] proposal before us at this and that is theCordishn proposal,” Fry said. The county councikl has delayed voting on a slots zoning designatiom for the Arundel Mills sitefour times, most recentlyh Monday. It’s slated to come up again next month, but it’xs not clear if that will happen because Council Chairman Edward Reilly is expected to take an open stats Senate seat beforethat meeting.
, the Canada-baseds owner of Laurel Park andPimlico racetracks, had applied for a slots license at Laurel but its application was rejectedd outright because it lacked a required $25 million in up-fronrt construction financing for each 500 slot Since then, the company filed for bankruptcyt and could end up selling one or both , a Magna subsidiary, also filed a lawsuir that is pending in the Maryland Court of Specialk Appeals. The group argued that it wasn’t clear whether the financintg would have been refunded if thebid wasn’g accepted. Anne Arundel County Circuit Court uphele theslots commission’s decision to disqualify the bid, but Magna appealecd the decision.
Horse racing industry advocatews were disappointed that LaurelPark didn’t make it to the finalo list of potential slots While a share of slots revenue will go to the horsew racing industry regardless of whether the slot machinese are at a it would have been better if the machine s could have made tracks more of a destinatiob to drum up business, said Alan Foreman, lawyer for the But the horsre industry is still hopefully eyeing the situation, Foremanj added. “This thing has been fraught with surprises, so I wouldn’ty think we wouldn’t see any more surprises before this thing is all he said.