Casino

Baltimore developer David S. Cordish revealed Wednesday that his company will bid to buy Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, which are up for sale by their bankrupt owner. Cordish's interest - and the emergence of a possible second local bidder - comes amid growing anxiety surrounding the fate of the Preakness since last month's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns the Maryland thoroughbred tracks.

Training center open house tomorrow Howard County government will hold an open house and offer tours of the new James N. Robey Public Safety Training Center from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow. The center is at 2200 Scott Wheeler Drive, off Sand Hill Drive, in Marriottsville. As part of Howard County's Community Readiness Week, the local Civil Air Patrol Howard Composite Squadron will hold field training exercises and the Police Department's Helicopter Operations Unit and K-9 Search Team will demonstrate their work.

Gulfstream Park, South Florida's major thoroughbred horse-racing track, installed slot machines last year, rows and rows of them. And gamblers came. Then they stopped. Today, many of those machines have little to do. The average one took in $74 a day after winnings in the July-September quarter, and that was before operating costs and state and local officials and others took a cut of more than 60 percent. It's a fraction of what neighboring slots parlors collected and is so little that the racetrack can't service the debt it took on to build the casino.

VERONA, N.Y. - Five years ago, people in this quiet, rural community gazed with envy and amazement at the instant success of the Oneida Indian Nation's new Turning Stone Casino, an economic juggernaut that created thousands of jobs and lured millions of visitors to this desolate area halfway between Syracuse and Utica.A few grumbled that it was unfair that the Oneidas did not have to pay taxes on their new wealth. A few others complained that the casino was crowding out small businesses. Yet on balance, most tolerated the incongruously mammoth Oz-like resort here, perhaps rationalizing that the Oneida Indians deserved a leg up after suffering years of poverty and discrimination.

David Cordish recalls that critics jeered when his Baltimore development firm announced plans to redevelop the Power Plant downtown.At the time, there was good reason to be at least skeptical. After all, Six Flags Corp. -- a publicly traded entertainment giant much larger than Cordish -- had given up on an adult theme park there after years of trying."People said, `Don't do it. What do you know that they don't?' " Cordish, chairman of the Cordish Co., said yesterday. "My own father said not to do it. What we did differently was in our approach.

Say what you will about the perils of slot machines, they sure make life exciting for the tracks that have them.At Charles Town, a new president has arrived to oversee construction of a hotel on the clubhouse turn where guests may be able to wager on the races from their rooms. And at Delaware Park, nominations for next Sunday's Delaware Handicap -- because of its slots-driven purse of $500,000 -- read like a who's who of fillies and mares from the East.The owners of Charles Town, Penn National Gaming Inc., have named James Buchanan president and chief operating officer of the West Virginia track and slots casino.

The second pull of a slot machine handle proved to be a lucky one for a Howard County man who won $2.1 million yesterday at a casino in Atlantic City, N.J.The man, a Columbia resident who wishes to remain anonymous, had been playing a dollar slot machine called Jeopardy! in the Trump Taj Mahal casino for less than half a minute when he hit the jackpot.He took home a $106,983 check, and will receive a check for the same amount for the next 19 years."I put in three coins and pulled the handle," said the man, who is an ultrasound machine salesman for General Electric Medical Systems.

With an election looming this fall, proponents of legalizing video slot machines in Maryland conceded yesterday that their State House efforts will likely fail in Annapolis this year.Even a proposal to send the issue of slot machines to the voters in a referendum has failed to develop momentum, as tepid testimony in support of the measure showed yesterday."This doesn't appear to be the year, based on the climate in the legislature at this time," said Del. Clarence Davis, a Baltimore Democrat and proponent of casino-style gambling, after a four-hour hearing on the issue.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening picked up the endorsement yesterday of a politically active group of Baltimore-area ministers, who praised his opposition to casino-style gambling and his positions on education and welfare issues.While he has lost the support of Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, a former ally who has endorsed Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann in the Democratic primary, Glendening has won the backing of a group of influential ministers -- as well as nearly all of the city's state legislators.

THERE is a new addiction growing in Indian country. The addiction is gambling.The American Psychiatric Association, according to an article in Harvard Magazine, lists the possible symptoms of gambling disorder as preoccupation with gambling; steadily increasing the size of bets; intolerance of losing and immediate efforts to recoup losses; gambling in response to disappointment in the other areas of life; neglect of family; losing one's job or marriage as...

Maryland slots commissioners signaled Thursday that they are prepared to approve a license for a casino near Arundel Mills mall, a project that would be the state's largest gambling venue but has drawn residential opposition. After a rosy economic assessment of the 4,750-machine casino proposed by Baltimore developer Cordish Cos., commissioners briefly entertained a motion to approve the license before tabling it. Commission Chairman Donald C. Fry cited the absence of two commissioners and said he would schedule a vote soon.

Let me see if I have this right: We have a county that is rebuffing a deep-pocketed, known-quantity developer who wants to open a slots parlor at one of its malls, and we have a city basically rolling out the red carpet and handing the keys to its proposed casino to a group with ill-defined membership and even less clear financing. By now, at this point in Maryland's endless ordeal by slots, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the latest developments, which are threatening to derail the state's two largest slots venues, in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City, and thus the entire slots initiative.

Commissioners handing out Maryland's slots licenses expressed grave concerns Wednesday about the proposals for lucrative gambling casinos in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County - and said they might toss out those applications if questions can't be resolved quickly. The panel made some progress Wednesday, granting a license for a 1,500-machine facility in Cecil County. But it also set a Dec. 17 deadline for issues to be resolved with the Arundel and Baltimore bids. Members of the slots licensing panel said they are frustrated that they can't award the Arundel license because a divided seven-member County Council has been slow to approve the zoning change needed for a 4,750-machine facility that would rise near Arundel Mills mall.

Baltimore's spending panel is expected to approve a pair of land deals with prospective casino owners today that could fulfill Mayor Sheila Dixon's pledge to lower city property taxes. Under the agreement, the city would extend a 75-year lease for a Russell Street parcel to Baltimore City Entertainment Group to build a slots parlor, and enter into an unusual profit-sharing arrangement: The city would get 2.99 percent of the gross gambling revenue as rent. Also, the city would sell the casino owners three nearby plots that would immediately begin generating $3.2 million in annual property taxes.

It's been a busy summer and in less than 10 days, fall takes over with foliage tours, wine trails and scenic hikes. Here's a quick wrap up and a look ahead to autumn: JetBlue lands at BWI. Last Wednesday marked the beginning of the airfare wars for the Baltimore-to-Boston route. Three major low-cost carriers are now battling for your buck. If you visit Boston often, then you're in luck. Round-trip fares from BWI to Boston have dropped as low as $39. (Last week, JetBlue ran a one-day sale with midweek flights $9 each way.)

Outside, Baltimore's proposed casino would have an industrial look inspired by old warehouses in the surrounding area and a shop-lined pedestrian zone reminiscent of the Eutaw Street promenade at Oriole Park. Inside, it would have "neighborhoods" filled with slot machines; a 400-seat buffet-style restaurant that would turn into a nightclub in the evening; a 120-seat "chop house" and a 100-seat main bar. Designed to hold up to 5,000 people at a time, it would be open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m, seven days a week.

The development team hoping to build a casino in Baltimore plans to construct a two-story slots parlor on Russell Street that could accommodate 5,000 gamblers, according to a preliminary design unveiled at a community meeting Tuesday. The plan calls for construction of a five-story, 2,500-space parking garage, according to members of Baltimore City Entertainment Group, which applied for Baltimore's video lottery terminal license, one of five available statewide. The $50 million garage would be financed through city-issued parking revenue bonds that developers would repay with gambling profits.

An expanded and relocated Baltimore casino on bustling Russell Street is expected to significantly boost the project's profits, and inject new momentum into the state's slots program, which to date has fallen below expectations. Baltimore's developers are vowing to build the state's first slot-machine parlor, which will be several times larger than their original proposal and which, according to gambling industry analysts, likely will draw a wider clientele with an improved downtown location.

A Maryland developer would abandon plans to build a $250 million sports themed office and recreation park called Gateway South, and Baltimore's only slots casino would be constructed on the land instead if city and state officials approve the change. The Baltimore Development Corp. is drafting a memorandum of understanding that gives control of an 11-acre, city-owned parcel south of M&T Bank Stadium, to Baltimore City Entertainment Group, one of four bidders for slot machine licenses in Maryland and the only group seeking to build a slots facility in downtown.

Lawyers for the Laurel Park racetrack asked Maryland's highest court Tuesday to restore its disqualified proposal for a slots casino license, suggesting the state would be better off restarting a bidding process that has fallen short of expectations. A slots license selection commission tossed out a bid from Laurel Racing Association in February because the company didn't submit the $28.5 million in mandatory licensing fees. A legal team for the track argued in the Court of Appeals that the company was concerned that there was no guarantee it would get the money back if it didn't win a license.