Gaming news briefs for February 20, 2004

Friday, Feb. 20, 2004 | 11:27 a.m.

Casino faces fine for favoring rapper

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Some allegedly special treatment for the rapper Nelly could cost a St. Louis casino $50,000.

The Missouri Gaming Commission proposed the fine Thursday for the President Casino on the Admiral, which hosted a private, late-night birthday party for Nelly last November.

State regulators claim the casino allowed Nelly -- whose actual name is Cornell Haynes Jr. -- and his eight-person entourage to enter the casino without first getting the required electronic identification cards that limit the amount of money patrons can bet.

Later, regulators say, a craps table dealer let Nelly play after the rapper showed him a gambling card belonging to an unknown woman. Then the casino continued to let Nelly gamble while another employee made a new betting card in Nelly's name and ran it through the casino's turnstiles -- as if the rapper had just arrived.

Ralph Vaclavik, President Casino's senior vice president and chief financial officer, said casino officials still are looking into the incident during Nelly's party.

Plan calls for increase in racing subsidies

INDIANAPOLIS -- The state's horse racing industry would get a $17 million increase in annual subsidies from riverboat casino taxes under a proposal narrowly endorsed Thursday by the Senate Finance Committee.

Supporters said increasing subsidies from $27 million to $44 million would raise purses at the state's two pari-mutuel tracks and help grow the struggling industry statewide. It might also blunt the legislative push for authorizing pull-tab machines, which are similar to slots, at horse racing venues.

Some Democrats criticized the plan by noting that Republicans had rejected Gov. Joe Kernan's proposal to expand full-day kindergarten. The extra $17 million would normally flow into a fund the state uses to pay out property tax relief.

"It appears that $17 million for horse racing is a better thing than this great thing, full-day kindergarten," House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said after learning about the vote.

Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, R-Greenwood, said it was an investment in an industry that would pay for itself in economic benefits.