Gaming briefs for October 1, 2004

Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.

State's high court asked to rule on gambling board nomination

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The state attorney general Thursday asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to referee a dispute over the appointment of a Democratic legislator to the body that will oversee implementation of slot-machine gambling.

The request for expedited consideration of the legality of former state Rep. Jeffrey W. Coy's selection to the Gaming Control Board came less than a week after a Commonwealth Court judge threw out a lawsuit by Attorney General Jerry Pappert challenging the appointment as unconstitutional.

Commonwealth Judge James J. Flaherty had ruled the issue was not ripe for judicial review because Coy's appointment does not become official until a mandatory state-police background check is completed.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Gregory R. Neuhauser said Flaherty's logic was "nonsensical factually, legally or otherwise."

"The lower court's refusal to decide this important issue fosters the perception that a clear provision of the (state) constitution may be disregarded by those with appointment authority," Neuhauser wrote in asking the court to take up the matter when the court meets in Philadelphia.

Racino moving forward

BANGOR, Maine -- The deadline for issuing a gaming license for Maine's first racetrack casino passed Thursday, but state officials insisted the project is on track despite the missed deadline.

The Sept. 30 deadline was set in the state law that paved the way for 1,500 slot machines to be installed at the Bangor Raceway and in an executive order aimed at jump-starting the rules process.

But both the law and the governor made allowances for extending the deadline if circumstances warranted it.

Lee Umphrey, the governor's spokesman, said the date was "never cast in cement" and suggested it was prudent to move cautiously. "You have one chance to start up a new industry and start it right," he said.

Deliberations on Penn National Gaming's application for a harness racing license hit a snag in September.

Penn National, which is a publicly traded company, is willing to provide balances and identification numbers for the personal accounts of company officials and their families. But it does not want this information to be made available to the public. The same may be true of proprietary information.

State officials and Penn National spokesman Eric Schippers expect that those details will be ironed out at the next Maine Harness Racing Commission meeting on Oct. 14.

CEO receives stock and options

Caesars Entertainment Inc. on Sept. 23 awarded Chief Executive Wally Barr 80,000 shares of restricted stock and 400,000 non-qualified stock options as part of the company's 2004 Long Term Incentive Plan.

Generally, 25 percent of the restricted stock grant and 25 percent of the non-qualified stock options will vest each year commencing on Sept. 23, 2005, the company said in a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. The per share exercise price for the options is $16.375, the company said.

Casino heading for makeover

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A nearly $2 million plan is in the works to spruce up the 10-year-old Baton Rouge-based Casino Rouge riverboat casino.

Eric Schippers, a spokesman for Penn National Gaming, the boat's parent company, said no timetable has been set for the work.

Penn National is considering spending $1.8 million on new paint, carpeting and wall coverings to give the boat an updated look.

Casino Rouge is Baton Rouge's largest casino, with $56 million in revenue during the first six months of the year. But the casino has seen slower growth than rival Argosy Casino, which increased revenue by 5.1 percent in the first half of 2003.