A Pennsylvania gambling company is looking to revive efforts to put slot machines at the Laurel Park Racetrack as a rival effort to put nearly 5,000 machines next to an Anne Arundel County shopping mall sits in legislative limbo.
A spokesman for Penn National, which runs Charles Town Races & Slots in West Virginia, said his company has held talks with potential partners to submit a new bid to put slots at the foundering racetrack less than a mile from Prince George’s County.
The move is in response to the difficulty the Cordish Co., which wants to put 4,750 slots next to Arundel Mills mall, has had with winning zoning approval from the county’s lawmakers, spokesman D. Eric Schippers told the Baltimore Sun.
The County Council has put off voting on the issue four times — most recently Monday night — and citizen opposition to the proposal has been strong.
“It seems like a logical move given the fact that the Anne Arundel Council can’t make up its mind,” said Jeffrey Hooke, a Bethesda gambling expert.
The state will award one license for Anne Arundel slot machines, and Hooke said he thought most state and county lawmakers would prefer them at Laurel Park, which is less visible than a mall and already permits gambling.
The initial bid to put slots at Laurel Park was rejected because the track’s owner, which has declared bankruptcy, refused to pay the $28.5 million licensing fee up front.
Cordish partner Joe Weinberg said his company was “supremely confident” it would win Anne Arundel approval to put slots at Arundel Mills.
The company also needs state licensing approval. If Cordish is unsuccessful, the state panel tasked with awarding licenses could reopen the Anne Arundel bidding process, commission Chairman Donald Fry said.
But a bid by Penn National to operate slots at Laurel Park could be complicated by its bid to operate slots in Cecil County.
“The statute is clear, you can’t be the owner or have a beneficial interest in more than one license,” Fry said.
Hooke said the muddled bidding process has made it harder for Maryland to reap the benefits of legalizing slots, which were estimated to bring in more than $600 million for the state starting in 2012.
“[State officials] were trying to satisfy too many constituencies when they drafted that referendum, and now it’s coming back to haunt them,” he said.
