Angelos wants Rosecroft -- and slots
As Maryland opened its second casino yesterday, at a horse track on the Eastern Shore, word spread about a proposal by Orioles owner Peter Angelos to bring gaming to Rosecroft, a Prince George's County race track he is bidding to purchase.
The Sun's Hanah Cho reported the details of Angelos' plan in this morning's paper:
Under Angelos' proposal, supported by Rosecroft Raceway's owner and the bankruptcy trustee, he would pay $9 million in cash plus another $5 million if slots are permitted in Prince George's County and a casino is operational at the harness-racing track by Dec. 1, 2012. The purchase agreement, outlined in court documents filed this week, needs to be approved by the bankruptcy court.
Many uncertainties hang over the proposal. Legalizing slots at any new location requires a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution. And Angelos, a top Baltimore lawyer and avid owner of thoroughbred horses, is prohibited from having a direct ownership stake in a gambling enterprise under Major League Baseball rules. The ownership and management structure under Angelos at Rosecroft was unclear in court documents.
One avid suppporter of the bid is Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Democrat and longtime advocate of bringing slots to Maryland, who said he would "absolutely" support a bill that would allow voters to approve a gaming expansion.
Cho caught up with Miller at the Ocean Downs opening:
Miller called Rosecroft a prime location to draw gamblers from Washington and Virginia.
"You could take this facility right now and put it in Rosecroft," Miller said, referring to the Ocean Downs casino. "You could market it, you could reap money for education, reap money for racing and save taxpayers a bundle of money."
