Bally

Economic development officials in Annapolis and in Towson have good reason to feel ecstatic. They convinced Bally's Health & Tennis Corp. this week to retain its regional operations center in Towson and expand its staff rather than shut down and move to Michigan.The bottom-line: Retention of a $13 million payroll; the addition of another $2 million in salaried jobs; $150,000 more in income-tax receipts, and an untold number of spinoffs, such as the $3 million Bally's plans to spend on computer and telecommunications equipment and job training.

With 220,000 square feet of gaming areas, Bally's is Atlantic City's largest casino. If you're searching for the extravagance of Las Vegas on the East Coast, Bally's is likely the spot. Casino hours: 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Games to play: Live table games include blackjack, roulette, craps, card games and a separate baccarat room called Baccarat Palace. There are more than 5,000 slot machines. Entertainment: "The Legends" tribute series - featuring impersonators of Whitney Houston, Adele, Elvis and more - kicks off this weekend, with performances taking place every night except Mondays.

Maryland's harness-racing owners and trainers, through their Cloverleaf association, have taken the bait: They decided this week to form a partnership with a major casino-gambling company as a way to rescue their two floundering tracks. The harness horsemen may discover that they are only pawns in a much bigger struggle to legalize casinos throughout the state.Bally Entertainment Corp., with giant casinos in Nevada and Atlantic City and riverboat gambling along the Mississippi, now has a tentative agreement to manage Rosecroft and Delmarva Downs, though the company has never run a race track before.

Bally Technologies Shares rose $4.35, or 9.9 percent, to $48.23. North America's second-largest maker of slot machines said it earned 41 cents a share in its fiscal first quarter. That exceeded analysts' estimate of 25 cents a share.

A nationally known casino operator might be buying financially troubled Rosecroft and Delmarva raceways.The Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners Association, which hopes to purchase the tracks, voted instead last night to take another week to consider refinements in a contract submitted to its board last night by the Bally's Entertainment Corp. of Chicago to purchase the raceways.Bally's would assume the bank loan and obligations of the current owners, Colt Enterprises, and take over Cloverleaf's Letter of Intent to purchase the tracks.

On the seventh floor of Towson's Hampton Plaza office tower, two clangs rang out from a stainless-steel bell, the same kind restaurant customers hit to call the cashier to the register to take their lunch money."

Bally Entertainment Corp. yesterday announced the appointment of Dennis O. Dowd as the new president of Rosecroft Raceway and Delmarva Downs, effective Sept. 11.Dowd, 47, has an extensive background in harness and thoroughbred racing in New Jersey and is leaving the presidency of Freehold Raceway for his new position.During his tenure at Freehold, attendance and handle improved annually with his innovations regarding simulcasting, off-track betting growth and service to fans receiving much of the credit.

Consumers who believe they may be due a refund from the Bally health club chain, which operates Holiday Health Spas in Maryland, must call the Federal Trade Commission hot line in Washington before the close of business today.The deadline applies to Bally customers who have not filed written complaints and who think they may be due refunds because Bally charged their credit cards or debited their bank accounts without authorization. They also may be entitled to refunds if Bally used harassment or deception to collect consumer debts or failed to give prorated refunds when memberships were canceled.

Bally's Health & Tennis Corp. is considering pulling 450 jobs from Baltimore County as part of a corporate consolidation, and is asking state and county economic development officials for financial incentives to keep the company there.The action by the Chicago-based fitness club operator stems from its decision to shutter one of its regional operations centers in either Michigan or Maryland to cut costs. The move would add roughly 150 new jobs to the surviving operation. A decision is expected by the end of the month.

A harness horsemen's organization last night rejected the first attempt of a casino operator to take over ownership of a Maryland racetrack.By a vote of 16-14 in Annapolis, the board of directors of the Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners Association rejected an offer made by the Bally's Entertainment Corp. to assume their position and take over Cloverleaf's letter of intent to purchase financially troubled Rosecroft and Delmarva raceways.The Cloverleaf board will meet again May 31 to review all the proposals that have been made, including another look at the Bally's deal.

Bally Total Fitness plans to open a health club next spring anchoring the Towson Circle retail project in the former Hutzler's department store, the project's developer said yesterday.The health club will take 22,000 square feet on the lower level of the building at York and Joppa roads, with a street-level entrance on York."This will be a major health club and major statement for the Towson area," said David Cordish, president of Baltimore-based Cordish Co., which is jointly redeveloping the former department store with Towson-based Heritage Properties Inc. "We think it's a good complement to some other tenants.

Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. and Kessler Rehabilitation Corp. announced a joint venture yesterday in which Kessler will operate physical therapy centers within Bally fitness clubs.Bally -- which has a 400-employee regional service center in Towson and 12 fitness centers in the state -- and Kessler of West Orange, N.J., will have equal control over the newly created KR/BTF LLC.Dave Southern, a Bally spokesman, said the companies have yet to decide which clubs will be renovated to include the rehabilitation centers, although at least one Maryland location will have one.The companies plan to open up to 100 rehabilitation centers nationwide.

BERLIN -- Fire investigators were poking through the rubble of a stable at Bally's Ocean Downs raceway yesterday, searching for the cause of a blaze that killed five racehorses at Maryland's oldest harness track.Firefighters from six nearby volunteer companies worked for more than 90 minutes Monday night, successfully containing damage to one building as horsemen and track employees struggled to evacuate almost three dozen horses from adjacent barns.The loss of the 28-stall stable will not interfere with the track's traditional two-month racing season -- timed in July and August to lure bettors from the beaches during the peak of summer tourism in nearby Ocean City, said raceway president Dennis Dowd.

In a victory for the state's thoroughbred racetracks, the Maryland Racing Commission defeated yesterday requests by harness racing interests to open an off-track betting parlor in Hagerstown and to conduct their own simulcasts of thoroughbred races.Rejected was the proposal by Bally's Inc., owner of Ocean Downs, to build and operate an off-track betting parlor in Hagerstown.By majority vote, the commission also rejected the harness tracks' request to conduct simulcasting independently of the Maryland Jockey Club, the governing body of the thoroughbred tracks in the state.

The Maryland Racing Commission deferred action yesterday on the request by Bally's Maryland Inc. to open an off-track betting center near Hagerstown.E. William Furey, commission chairman, said commissioners had not had time to digest Monday's 15-page opinion by Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. The opinion addressed the thorny issue of whether the owner of a harness track in Maryland can offer its bettors out-of-state races of thoroughbreds without the consent of the state's thoroughbred interests: the tracks, horse owners and horse breeders.

The request by Bally's Maryland Inc., owner of the Ocean Downs harness track, to open an off-track betting center in Hagerstown remains the centerpiece of today's Maryland Racing Commission agenda -- despite Monday's statement by Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.Curran urged the commission to let the General Assembly decide the controversial issue of who can profit from simulcasting out-of-state thoroughbred races to Maryland bettors. The commissioners could abide by that and still rule on Bally's request, since Bally's is willing to open the OTB site and simulcast only harness races.

Bally's Health and Tennis Corp., whose 29-state sports and exercise chain operates 11 Holiday Spas in Maryland, has agreed to pay $120,000 in penalties and offer refunds to %J thousands of current and former members, the Federal Trade Commission said yesterday.Bally's, the nation's biggest health-club chain with some 4 million members, charged members' credit cards or bank accounts without authorization, used harassment and misrepresentation to collect membership fees and made it effectively impossible to quit its health clubs and get refunds called for in its contracts with members, investigators for the Federal Trade Commission found when they looked into complaints received both at the FTC office in Washington and at state consumer-protection offices.

Bally's Health & Tennis Corp. served up an economic development victory for the Glendening administration yesterday, announcing plans to remain in Towson and add 130 jobs to its regional operations center there.The Chicago-based fitness club operator's pledge to remain here rather than move several hundred jobs to Michigan came in exchange for a $1.7 million incentive package from the state and Baltimore County.Bally's had threatened earlier this year to relocate 450 jobs to Michigan -- where it maintains the second of three operations centers nationwide -- as part of a corporate consolidation unless state economic development officials provided financial incentives to lower the company's costs.

WHEN THE MARYLAND Racing Commission convenes today, it should not rush to judgment on the knotty question of who profits from simulcasting out-of-state races at new off-track betting parlors. Too much harm could be done if the panel makes the wrong decision.Instead, the commission should follow the suggestion of Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. -- let the General Assembly decide.Bally Entertainment Corp., the giant gambling company, wants permission to build a fancy OTB facility in Hagerstown and keep the racing proceeds for itself, without sharing profits with Maryland's thoroughbred track owners.

HAGERSTOWN -- The Maryland Racing Commission deferred action yesterday on a request by Bally's Maryland Inc., owners of the Ocean Downs harness track on the Eastern Shore, to open an off-track betting parlor in Hagerstown.After a 90-minute hearing here at the Ramada Inn, the commission voted to postpone discussion of the controversial matter until its Sept. 10 meeting. No commission member voiced an opinion on Bally's request, but other than representatives of Bally's itself, no one speaking at the hearing supported it."