Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By KENNETH P. VOGEL [email protected]
Friday, January 31, 2003 Page: 3A
The company that owns Pocono Downs has asked an independent state board for
a license that could allow the track to double the number of days it has
harness racing.
Some see ulterior motives behind the application and others like it.
With the odds increasing that the state will allow its horse racing tracks
to install lucrative slot machines, the competition is heating up for the
three remaining track licenses.
“The motivation for some of these could be to sort of bollix up the
works,” said John McBlain, solicitor for the Delaware County Redevelopment
Authority.
The state Harness Racing Commission this month delayed an application
pushed by McBlain’s group for a harness racing license it seeks for Chester
Downs, a proposed $20 million track and entertainment complex in the
impoverished city of Chester.
Each license allows a limited number of racing days. State law caps the
number of licenses at five for harness racing (two remain) and six for
thoroughbred racing (one remains).
Pocono Downs in Plains Township is the only track of the four operating in
the state that has only one license, which is for harness racing. To be open
more days, the track would need another harness track license.
Downs General Manager Conrad Sobkowiak said he was unaware that Pocono
Downs’ parent company – Penn National Gaming – had applied for an additional
license on behalf of “W-B Downs,” a subsidiary reportedly affiliated with
the track.
The track doesn’t use the maximum number of race days allowed by its
current license, Sobkowiak said. He believes the license allows 135 days of
harness racing at the track.
“If you have that license, it means someone else can’t get it.” McBlain
said. “… If slots come (it means) not having competition for the slots. It
cuts out the competition.”
The director of the Harness Racing Commission didn’t return phone calls
Thursday. Nor did corporate officials from Penn National, which also owns a
track near Hershey.
Another firm seeking a license to build a different track in Chester has
formally asked the commission to reject the Chester Downs application.
And McBlain said he’s heard “representatives on behalf of various
applicants, including the one near Wilkes-Barre owned by Penn National” have
tried to flex political muscle to stop the project, too.
McBlain questioned whether the delay had anything to do with the close ties
of some applicants to Gov. Ed Rendell. The governor asked the three-member
Harness Racing Commission to delay their planned Jan. 20 meeting, at which
they were to have considered the Chester application.
Rendell met Wednesday behind closed doors at the governor’s residence with
members of the separate Harness and Horse Racing commissions to discuss
general licensing issues, not the specifics of the five harness racing and
four horse racing license applications that are pending.
During his campaign, Rendell predicted that taxes levied on revenue from
slot machines at the state’s horse racing tracks could generate $500 million
for the state and he made that money a centerpiece of his education plan.
“Slots are going to save Rendell, so he wants to make sure he has the
right people to do it,” said Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia-based political
analyst and Democratic consultant.
Asked whether the delay was a favor to allies, Rendell spokesman Tom Hickey
said “the governor asked for the delay in order to fully integrate the horse
racing industry into his statewide plan. And any criticisms you mentioned have
absolutely no merit.”
Still, McBlain’s group planned to hire a private investigator to look into
the matter.
W-B Downs is represented by Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll, the
high-powered Philadelphia law firm that for the past two years paid Rendell
$252,000 a year for what he acknowledged was “very little work.”
Lawyers from that firm donated at least $760,000 to Rendell’s campaign and
his transition team includes three current partners and one former partner.
Philadelphia Trotters and Pacers, a company seeking a license for a
proposed track on a 90-acre site on a portion of the old Philadelphia Naval
Shipyard, is owned by longtime Rendell friend Manuel N. Stamatakis
and two others.
“When you raise as much money as (Rendell) does, everybody has
connections,” said Ceisler. “This is not about doing someone a favor. This
is about having the money to deliver on campaign promises.”
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.