Race for Rosecroft Raceway ownership intensifies
Peter Angelos has made a bid that would oblige him to pay $9 million in cash, in addition to another $5 million, on the condition that slot machines are allowed to be put up at Rosecroft Raceway. Along with this, the purchase agreement also demands an operational
casino on the track by 1 December 2012.
Angelos is a lawyer as well as a thoroughbred horse owner, who has been interested in buying the racetrack for a long time now. As he is a thoroughbred horse owner, Major League Baseball (MLB) rules prohibit him from being a direct owner of any gambling
enterprise.
Apart from Angelos, there are others who are also interested in buying the racetrack. However, Angelos was able to beat the competition, by outbidding the rest of the bidders. Still, these bidders can participate in the auction, which is scheduled to be
held this month. In order to overtake Angelos’s bid, the bidder would have to pay $550,000 more.
Among those that are interested in purchasing Prince George’s County racetrack is Mark Vogel, a real estate developer and previous owner of Rosecroft. There is a difference of opinion between the two candidates for Rosecroft, as Vogel does not believe that
the track would benefit from slots.
The attorney representing the bankruptcy trustee in the matter is Michael J. Lichtenstein. In regard to the bidding process of Rosecroft, he had the following comments to make, “We're anticipating others to show up. The idea is to get as many bidders as
possible.”
Angelos advocates that bringing slot machines to Rosecroft would be highly profitable, as it would attract crowds of people from nearby places, including Washington and Virginia. As people would come for gambling, live horse racing would also experience
a boost in revenues and spectatorship, which would revive the horse racing industry in the region.
However, there are considerable obstacles in the way of actualising this dream. For any setup to establish slots, it is required that the voters approve it as an amendment to the constitution of the state. Back in 2008, the voters had approved five slot
locations in such a way, but only two locations have been able to support the setup. These two casinos are Hollywood Casino Perryville and Casino at Ocean Downs. The latter was inaugurated only this week.
Angelos has the Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller at his side. Miller has been in favour of bringing slot machines to Maryland and thinks they would be a welcome addition to Rosecroft. He has already stated his support for the bill.
While referring to the Ocean Down’s Casino, Miller said, "You could take this facility right now and put it in Rosecroft. You could market it, you could reap money for education, reap money for racing and save taxpayers a bundle of money."
Where speculations are favourable about slots being allowed at the track, Rosecroft has had a bumpy ride in the past. Way back in 2005, Angelos made an attempt to own the race track but the prospect seemed unattractive to buyers, as the chances of adding
slots to Rosecroft grew slim.
In 2007 there was another attempt to purchase the track. However, this time it was made by Penn National Gaming. This too, could not materialise for the same reason; slots were not legitimised at Rosecroft.
Rosecroft’s parent company, Cloverleaf Enterprises filed for bankruptcy in 2009. The same year Vogel showed interest in buying the property, but the transaction was not allowed by the bankruptcy judge.
Tom Cooke, who is the president of Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners' Association made the following comments concerning the whole situation: “We've been to the altar many times and we've been stood up many times. We look forward to consummating this marriage
at the earliest possible time."
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