Riviera executives compete for N.M. license

Pete Herrera

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 9:57 a.m.

ALBUQUERQUE -- Riviera hotel-casino executive Ron Johnson has spent years watching West Texans feed slot machines on the Las Vegas Strip.

Now Johnson is involved in a partnership that wants to bring the action a lot closer to those same gamblers.

Johnson and Ken Newton, the former owner of The Downs at Santa Fe, want to build a casino and horse racing track in Hobbs, the oilpatch community located next door to Texas.

Their group, RNR Inc., is competing with three other applicants for the Hobbs license.

"When you look at a market, you don't concentrate so much on a town, you look at what's within 50 to 100 miles of the market," Johnson said Wednesday. "You have Midland, Lubbock, Odessa. They've always been strong feeder markets for Las Vegas, so we know there's a good gaming market there."

Good enough that the competition for the Hobbs license continues to intensify. On Wednesday the state Racing Commission, the agency that will award the license, announced it had received another application.

The latest applicant is Gerald Peters, a major contributor to Gov. Bill Richardson's political campaign and member of the state Board of Finance.

The Santa Fe art dealer, rancher and restaurant owner filed his application late Tuesday with the commission. The commission will hear the presentations of the four applicants on June 24.

The commission expects to award a license sometime after that.

Johnson is president of the Riviera hotel and casino. Bill Westerman, another Riviera executive, also is part of the partnership with Newton.

Johnson said he and Westerman know a great deal about casinos and very little about horse racing, which is where Newton, a longtime member of New Mexico's horse racing industry, comes in.

"We've never been in horse racing, so we were a little cautious about getting involved in an industry we really didn't know about," Johnson said. "Ken convinced us. He has the expertise on the racing side and we have the expertise on the gaming side. It's a perfect match."

The group wants to spend just over $31 million to build the casino and track on Hobbs' west side that would be named Saddlebrook Park. The facility would include at least one restaurant and a nightclub, with room for other forms of entertainment "based on what the community wants."

Johnson said studies done by the partnership show a track and casino in Hobbs would have annual revenues of about $50 million.

The other applicants for the Hobbs license are Ruidoso Downs track owner R.D. Hubbard and Shawn Scott, a businessman in Las Vegas who formerly owned Delta Downs in Louisiana.

Peters is proposing to build a $37 million casino and racetrack in Hobbs under the name of Hobbs Downs and Casino.

Hubbard wants to open a $27.5 million track and casino under the name of Zia Park. Scott's proposal is for a $30 million facility under the name of Lea Downs.

Peters was among the largest contributors to Richardson's campaign for governor last year. He contributed $137,500 -- nearly $102,000 in money and the rest in-kind donations of goods and services -- including $35,000 for Richardson's use of his jet airplane.

Richardson appointed Peters to the Board of Finance, which is headed by the governor and oversees certain financial matters such as approval of some contracts and bonds.

Discussions on the Hobbs track began in 1999 and have dragged out over the years. That has left many in the industry frustrated, especially horsemen.

"Mister chairman, I'm 80 years old, and I'd like to see the Hobbs track open before I die," Orville Fletcher, a longtime trainer and horse owner in New Mexico told Racing Commission chairman Jack Cole during Wednesday's meeting.

Former Gov. Gary Johnson opposed adding another racetrack, and last November ousted three of the five members of the former Racing Commission on the day before the commissioners were to vote on Hubbard's application.

The former commission late last year rejected Scott's application. When the current Racing Commission took over, it granted Scott's request that his application be reconsidered.

Richardson campaigned as a proponent of a track in Hobbs, and the current commission on Wednesday reaffirmed its intention to award a license.