Penn National Gaming taking

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The Wyomissing, Pa.-based owner of Charlea Town Races and Slots said it would consider working on a proposal at the Anne Arundel County racetracj should an application for a facilityy at Arundel MillsMall fail. But it’z not actively pursuing the opportunity, spokesman Eric Schipperr said. And that wouldn't fit within the slotsd licensing process, anyway, said Donald C. Fry, chairmanj of the state commission overseeingslots development. “We’rw taking a wait-and-see approach,” Schipper said.
The Baltimor Sun reported Tuesday thatPenn National, which has a pendin g license application for a slots parloe in Cecil County, was chomping at the bit for an opportunit y at Laurel Park because it appears possiblee that the Arundel Mills site coulcd fail to get zoning State law allows only one slota parlor in the county. A snag in the zoniny process wouldn’t be enough to kill the Arundel Mills proposal, put forth by Baltimore developer the The statde slots commission’s review of Cordish’s application is ongoingb until the fall, Fry Only then will there be a final decision to accept or rejectf the application, he said.
From there, the commissionm would have to put out a request for new bids on the slotx license in Anne Arundel Fry said. And Penn National couldn’t make such a bid on its own becausee applicants are limited toone “There is only one valid [Anne Arundel proposal before us at this time, and that is the Cordisnh proposal,” Fry said. The countyg council has delayed votinvg on a slots zoning designation for the Arundel Mill sitefour times, most recentlg Monday. It’s slated to come up agaihn next month, but it’s not cleat if that will happen because Council Chairman Edward Reilly is expected to take an open statwe Senate seat beforethat meeting.
, the Canada-based ownerd of Laurel Park andPimlico racetracks, had appliedx for a slots license at Laure l but its application was rejected outright becaus it lacked a required $25 million in up-fronrt construction financing for each 500 slot machines. Sincd then, the company filed for bankruptcy and could end up sellingy one orboth racetracks. , a Magnas subsidiary, also filed a lawsuit that is pendin g in the Maryland Court ofSpecial Appeals. The group arguedf that it wasn’t clear whether the financing would have been refunded if thebid wasn’t accepted.
Anne Arundel County Circuit Courtt upheld theslots commission’ decision to disqualify the bid, but Magna appealed the decision. Horse racing industry advocates were disappointed that LaurelPark didn’t make it to the finaol list of potential slots sites. While a share of slots revenue will go to the horsde racing industry regardless of whether the slot machinees are ata racetrack, it would have been betterf if the machines could have made tracksd more of a destination to drum up business, said Alan lawyer for the But the horse industryh is still hopefully eyeing the situation, Foremah added.
“This thing has been fraughf with surprises, so I wouldn’t think we wouldn’tf see any more surprises beforde this thing isall over,” he