The Courier from Waterloo, Iowa • 8

PAGE A8 WATERLOO COURIER, SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 1993 Pari-mutuel Blues Connecticut Casino sparks construction 7 A' A Dog track slide Plainfield Greyhound Park's annual revenue and contribution to the Connecticut general fund 6ince 1987; General revenue rn -r-4 nit jr mini 4-y $120 i VfcL in minions I ERIC WOOLSONCourier staff writer 1 I I ioo 90 -r 80 70 I llT Construction crews are putting in long hours to complete a massive hotel and more casino floor space at the Foxwoods High Stakes Bingo and Casino at Ledyard, Conn. Work on another hotel, two golf courses, a campground, museum, lakeside facilities and heliport with connections to Hartford and New York have made the Mashantucket Pequot Nation the largest construction site in the state. nessee, Nevada, California, Ohio, North Carolina, Nebraska and Vermont. As Connecticut's largest visitor destination, Foxwoods already generates more revenue than 10 of 12 casinos in Atlantic City, J. The casino has made a strong effort to be a good neighbor by donating $50,000 to save the city of Norwich's summer fireworks program and another $25,000 to save the Norwich Free Academy's performing arts season.

The tribe also contributes more than $300,000 a year to Ledyard even though the casino does not use any local services. Brown discounts complaints that the casino is sapping interest in the area's traditional tourist attractions. Foxwoods has used coupon programs to extended a $280,000 helping hand to businesses in nearby Mystic, a historical seaport and long-time tourist magnet. "The more of a resort atmosphere that's created, the more diversity there is, the more our casino will Brown said. "We're just an additional attraction." Kinsman, a second-generation greyhound executive who got her start at a Massachusetts track operated by her father, argues that Plainfield ought to have the same chance to attract cus '87 '88 '89 '90 '91 Continued from pageA6 $86 million.

It is the largest construction site in Connecticut, with a $185-million hotel and casino expansion in the works. The resulting 140,000 square feet of gaming space will create the world's largest casino. Another hotel adjacent to the tribal land a $22-million project is moving toward a July 1 completion. And, workers are developing 1,200 acres of woodlands on the other side of Route 2 that the tribe bought for $5.5 million from the Long River Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Two golf courses, a recreational vehicle park and Native American museum will be built.

As part of the deal, the tribe also agreed to take over and clean up a toxic waste site created by the U.S. government. Brown credits Foxwoods' location a pastoral setting within a 2 12-hour drive of millions of potential customers as the key to its success. And, the casino does pack them in from far and wide. The near-capacity parking lot at 8:30 a.m.

last Saturday had cars from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Quebec, New Hampshire, Georgia, Florida, Maine, Ten tomers. Gaming by regular slots or video slot machines is a reality around the country, and the pari-mutuel industry is being forced to change with the trend, she said. "It's one of the progressive things we need in order to stay on top of and compete with casinos or Indian nations," Kinsman contended. "We have to look at the track as a total entertainment center to appeal to everybody, as well as renew an interest in greyhound racing, which is an important task for all of us." As things stand now, the track's 15 kennels and the entire greyhound breeding industry are feeling the domino effect. "They rely solely on attendance and (the wagering) handle for their living," Kinsman said.

"All facets of the industry have been affected or will be. You'll find that nationwide, as well as In this area." Employees, also keenly aware that their own jobs are at stake, vigorously but unsuccessfully lobbied lawmakers this year to change gaming laws. They vow to return to the State Capitol in Hartford in 1994. "A lot of people are employed here, and really rely on this business for their living," Kinsman said. "It's really quite a family affair, and in a small town like Plainfield, you find a lot of '88 '89 '90 91 '92 El Taxes $9 mmm i In millions of dollars 8 Kinsman bristles at the suggestion.

"We were fighting for our lives," she said. 'To walk away from a situation with nothing would be devastating, and for somebody like Mr. Wandrak to say that is not right." She added, "We are trying to survive under conditions regulated by other people. We were created 17 years ago with the jai alais to be in business with the state of Connecticut, not against it." other people who truly rely on our business for their survival as well." The track does appear likely to benefit from a tax break awaiting Weick-er's signature. It would plow back hundreds of thousands of dollars for the pari-mutuels to launch aggressive, new marketing campaigns.

Wandrak contends some industry people wanted to see the tax break fail to create more urgency for their true goal of slot machines. "87 '88 '89 "90 '91 88 '89 '90 "91 '92 Source: Connecticut Division of Special Revenue COURIER graphic We're having a SAEJ Lincoln Strives to become 'full entertainment center iN LOANS! for a limited time only keep "doing it," contends the future is now for pari-mutuel facilities fighting for survival. "Those that stand alone with a single product are going to be very few and far between," Bucci said. "Unless you're the epicenter of your product, there's too much competition." Is full-blown casino gambling the next chapter in Lincoln's versatile life? Bucci doesn't know the answer yet. "That's something that every race track has to constantly evaluate: What do you want to be when you grow up? "If our governor is talking to the Narragansett Indians, naturally we'd be whispering in the other ear, 'Hey governor, we're already an existing gaming facility.

Forget the Indians. You want to go into gaming, we'll do Bucci said. For a limited time Iowa Communications Community credit Union is having a SALE on new LOANS. Use the special low rate loans for new or used automobiles, boats, tractor mowers, computers, campers and refinancing collaterized loans from Other lenders. qualifying credit.

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But New England's economy is gonzo, it's in the tank, so it's very hard to say, "Oh gee, video lottery is going to be a gold "It hasn't been a gold mine, but it has been a thumb in the dike," Bucci said. "Without those percentages, our dog men would be tapioca." The General Assembly estimated video lottery terminals would produce $17 million in state revenues this year, but Budget Director Michael O'Keefe reduced that figure to $10 million in February. The decision did not reflect a lack of success at the terminals as much as it did the inexact science of revenue estimating, said Gaston Langlois, a Budget Department spokesman. He agrees Foxwoods has had an impact on Lincoln, but he points out the recession had an effect first. "As you start heading into an economic downturn the piece of the pie shrinks.

There's less disposable personal income," Langlois said. "All (Foxwoods) would do is exacerbate something already going in a particular direction. It probably means people won't quit going to the track, but they won't go as often." Only limited information is available about the boost from video lottery because it has not been around a full year, and Langlois said his figures don't separate Lincoln Park from the Newport jai alai fronton. "All we can tell at this point is dog race betting is declining," Langlois said. "And, yet, it does have a (positive) impact? Yes.

Quantifying it is a different story." Bucci noted that video lottery terminals would even benefit greyhound owners during a track's off-season. "Don't forget, you're accruing purse money," he said. "So, there's an attraction already. You get better kennels. The better greyhounds you have available the more people you have betting." He said the appeal of simulcasting should not be ignored, either.

"God bless the guy that's ignoring simulcasting because he's going to be out of business," he said. "People bet $40 million on the Kentucky Derby. They don't bet $4 million on the Greyhound Race of Champions. That's the reality." Dino Jerras, 36, of Providence, rides with friends or takes the bus to Lincoln four days a week to watch the horses run on the TV screens mounted around the grandstand. He's been coming to the track since he was old enough to gamble, and describes himself as "part of the furni- hire" at Lincoln Park.

"They even put my name up on the board when it was my birthday," the professional jewel setter beamed. He admits that his hobby is not without its stress. "My advice: If you don't gamble, don't start. It's nerve-wracking," Jerras offered while hitching a ride home to his Federal Hill apartment. "It can put you in a miserable mood, it can make you drink, it can give you ulcers." Still, he believes the video lottery machines are good news for Lincoln Park.

"I see some old people come in there at 10 in the morning to play those machines. I see people putting $10 and $20 bills in there. "The dogs and horses are my excitement. The machines are other people's excitement," Jerras said. "You want something that's going to draw the people, and those machines are doing it." Bucci, who hopes the machines Continued from page Al stretch with the pack of sleek racing dogs in hot pursuit as the clubhouse crowd erupts in shouts of encouragement and exasperation.

The din grows louder as the dogs streak down the back stretch and through the third turn. "It's Cheeseburger on da outside makin' da turn fa home," the announcer shouts. The pack crosses the line in a blur. The shouts subside. The lights flicker on again.

The entire pulse-pounding experience is over in 30 seconds. It's another Saturday night at Lincoln Greyhound Park. Unlike their contemporaries at similar facilities across the country, though, patrons here don't just have to stand around waiting 15 minutes or more to get their quick, adrenaline rush from the next live race. They can drift in and out of two rooms filled with video lottery terminals electronic card games such as poker and blackjack that pit bettors against the house. Lincoln, as American Greyhound Track Operators Association past president Ellen "Kay" Spitzer puts it, is the guiding light in the industry's push to become "full entertainment centers." The facility five miles north of Providence was Lincoln Downs for decades, a horse track felled in the early 1970s by a "bad thoroughbred economy" that also took down nearby Narragansett Park, Green Mountain in Vermont and Scarborough in Maine.

It reopened in 1977 as Lincoln Greyhound Park, the only one of the four tracks to be resurrected. Its operators enjoyed a measure of stability until the region's several-y ear-old recession came along and the Mashantucket Pequot Nation opened its high-stakes bingo and casino venture 45 minutes away. The track is entering a new era. Lincoln Greyhound Park is becoming Lincoln Park. "It's just a subtle change in the name, but (owner and London-based industry giant) Wembley just feels it's more of a gaming, entertainment center.

Not that it's lost its focus as a greyhound track, but you like to promote the fact you have simulcasting and video lottery," said General Manager Dan Bucci. Lincoln and facilities that aspire to be like it are targeting an audience that hasn't been to a track before. "This whole industry is in an identity crisis. Am I a greyhound facility? Can I subsist on that? Well, good, if I can, God bless me. If I can't, what do I need to do to augment the income I have?" Bucci said.

Those questions propelled Lincoln to its latest incarnation. "You can't raise the price of a $2 ticket, so you need other sources of revenue," said Bucci, a 20-year industry veteran of Suffolk Downs, Wonderland Greyhound Park and Foxboro. The entertainment center of the future looks a lot like the greyhound park of the present with that notable difference of the electronic terminals installed last September. A trade publication recently touted a New York interior design firm's work to create a tasteful, trendy "International Room" that houses hundreds of video lottery terminals installed by the Rhode Island Racing Commission to bolster slumping tax receipts. Patrons don't seem to notice or care about the flags from around the world hanging from the ceiling of the cavernous room.

"I didn't even know there were any flags here until I looked up about 20 minutes after I got here," said a Cranston teacher named Mary Ann who refused to give her last name. Bucci knows he's had new customers because of video lottery, but it's hard to say exactly how many more people have been attracted to Lincoln because the paid gate was taken away when the games went in. He is certain of one thing: 'This is a business that if you're standing still, you're going backward." Bucci insists tracks with nearby casino competition cannot survive without the video terminals. "Are they a necessary evil? I don't think they're evil, but they are necessary," he said. "This is the age of the instant orgasm.

You can't wait 20 minutes (for a live dog race) when the three-inch horse (simulcast) goes off every five or six minutes and you get instant gratification or frustration with the video lottery terminals," Bucci explained. The International Room is wall-to-wall machines with names like "Easy Money" "Fast Track Cash" and "Win $1,000." Mary Ann and her friend, Donna, a government worker, said they probably wouldn't come to Lincoln for anything but video lottery. Mary Ann tried her luck with the greyhounds once, but thought the action was too fast and confusing. Her preference is wagering on jai alai contests in Newport, where she began playing the video lottery games a few months ago. She and Donna have been to Lincoln three or four times this year.

"We come here because it's closer. We're here about an hour, then we go do something else the rest of the night," Mary Ann explained. She likes the lottery rooms because "it just sounds like people are winning and having a good time." The machines win her affection because "there's a little reward every couple of times." "I just like the little song it plays when you win, too," she said. She insisted the video games aren't as greedy when she's losing, which was the case at Foxwoods when she dropped $40 into a slot machine in less than 30 minutes. She can't understand why people who don't like to gamble would oppose video lottery games or any other form of gambling at a track.

"It's my money. I can spend it any way I want," she said. "If you don't like it, don't come." When the hour is over, Mary Ann leaves $20 poorer while Donna is $15 richer. But the machines' value to the track and greyhound kennels is not as simple as black and white. "Just by the nature of gambling, the thoroughbred and greyhound, guy is liable to wander into the video lottery room, and if he does, the house's end is going to be less.

"Is there some cannibalization going on from the greyhound business? Absolutely," Bucci conceded. The terminals bring more people to the track, but like Mary Ann and Donna, not all of them bet on the dogs. Meanwhile, the machines also grab some money that would have gone to the dogs. Lincoln's answer: Kennels get 1 percent of the terminal take. (Ninety percent of the terminal's take is returned to players, while the track, state and machine owners split another 9 percent.) Dog owners also receive 5 percent of the wagering on live races and 1.4 percent on simulcasting.

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