The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 17

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL A17 MEMPHIS THURSDAY APRIL 2 1998 PeimNationalhas its $15 million at the ready llBr awaits final Report on probe the company at Betting on Memphis Penn National Gaming Inc operates racetracks and off-track betting (0TB) parlors in two states The company would get Its foot in the door in a RACE COURSES Penn National Race Course Pa (Thoroughbred mdng simulcast racing) Pocono Downs Racetrack VIHket-Bam Pa (Harness racing simulcast racing) Charts Town Entertainment Complex a marriage of business ana horse-racing background President william experience both in and off-track wagering experience in ana the law third state should it win a license for Tennessee Downs Charles Town Va (Thoroughbred racing simulcast racing and video gambling machines) Tennessee Downs Memphis (Harness racing simulcast racing) By Louis Graham The Commercial Appeal racing and politics While his father was operating Penn National Peter Carlino was operating a commercial and residential real estate development firm But his and his business interests merged when the company began building Penn off-track wagering centers in Pennsylvania Bork the president and chief operating officer since 1995 is a former president of a competitor Ladbroke Racing owned by the largest OTW firm the UK-based Ladbroke Group He is a former vice president of operations for another major firm too that owned several racetracks And while Peter Carlino was working to change laws he met Lashinger a seven-term member of the state House of Representatives defeated for re-election in 1990 was around all during the growth period in the business when we passed off-track when we passed si-Lashinger said gering mulcasting Source: Penn National Gaming SEC Mings Staff map wa starts for would-be licensees TBI has run this gantlet four other times A previous application proposing a $60 million facility stalled after discovery among other things of a multimillion-dollar court judgment against recently' Lashinger returned to the legislature to push for interstate simulcasting not as a lawmaker but as a private lawyer and lobbyist representing horsemen To date according to records of the Tennessee Racing Commission the former lawmaker is the only Penn National executive to reveal a financial blemish He was a director of a failed Pennsylvania car dealership and was saddled with some of its debts Those and sent him into bankruptcy last year one of the principals' The ap- Texas businessman ony Davis now is under est owners: Boston-based Fidelity Investments the mutual fond giant Since taking the company public Peter Carlino 51 has expanded his busi-ness by acquiring existing' 'tracks -pouring large amounts into renovations through ag- gressive expansions into simulcasting and gaming and by attempting to get a foot in the door in Tennessee one of the last untapped gaming markets The firm spent $48 million in 1996 to acquire Pocono Downs It spent another $16 million the following year to purchase a Charles Town WVa thoroughbred track Since that January 1997 purchase Penn National has in vested another $22 million to refurbish the facility to accommodate! simulcasting and something of an electronic casino: nearly 1000 $1 bill-fed video gambling devices The ma- chines simulate traditional spinning reel slot machines and also feature video card games such as poker and blackjack Overall the financial results reflect the cost of expansion Revenues last year of $111 million were nearly double those of the previous year but the net income was far smaller than 1996 its profits eroded by new ventures Penn National one of several publicly owned firms engaged horse racing and gaming is helped liberalize Pennsylvania gaming laws first to allow intrastate simulcasts then state-to-state broadcasts much as the Tennessee law allows That single private investment was the forerunner to a ublic company that projects 160 million in gross revenue this year It owns a pair of Pennsylvania horse tracks nine off-track wagering centers scattered around the state and a West Virginia facility that offers both thoroughbred racing and video slot machine gambling Though ownership of the ublic company is dominated the Carlino family with more than 65 million shares it has attracted institutional buyers as well Among the larg- I There is something unusual rabout the plan to build a $15 i million harness racing track in North Memphis The publicly owned Penn-sylvania-based company pro- Tennessee Downs actu- has money to build it niat alone makes Penn Na--tional Gaining Inc different for fca city that has seen a parade of i Npromised sports and recreation I facilities never materialize for 'lack of financing' V- Having raised $80 million on I IWall Street last year Penn Na- tional has money at the ready -should Tennessee regulators i Approve the state's first track Friday after more than a dec-j ade or false starts 1 1 The fact that Penn National can raise such sums is evi-i xlence of how it has helped I refocus the industry to com- Ipete with proliferating casinos -and state lotteries Live horse racing a seasonal -business beset by dwindling attendance has become a sideline lPenn National makes the bulk of its money by drawing -race fans to facilities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to nieer at televised races occur- -ring at 75 other sites around United States while betting as if the horses were thunder-around the local track ese satellite signals open the betting windows at storied Park Belmont and le to local vbi coming in seven days a week year-round Penn National revenues from simulcast events were 2 Vi times that of live racing last rear With those kind of results has no plan to break the mold Memphis Tennessee Downs as proposed would offer 34 days a ar of live harness racing and on company estimates lose money each of its first four seasons after taxes But its clubhouse restaurant and bars would be open for simulcast betting every day but Christmas and Easter generating an estimated $1 million in the year before the rest of the facility is completed and opened for live racing foil-card simulcasting we be said Joseph Lashinger a Penn National vice president and a director of Tennessee Downs Inc But it is humans not horses at issue as members of the Tennessee Racing Commission consider whether Penn National will in fact come to the state Agents of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have spent months scouring the backgrounds of Penn principal shareholders and key executives looking for any potential deal breakers felony convictions gaming violations in other states troublesome lawsuits financial problems or ties to organized crime are three things looking for" said racing commission chairman Mike Whitaker a democratic gubernatorial hopefol integrity and solvency During a decade of false reporter ham call 529-2333 or E-mail grahamgomemphiscom federal indictment in Austin on an unrelated case This time TBI investigators have examined records of Pennsylvania and West Vir- ginia gaming regulators the courts local and state police and are awaiting records of the FBI before making a final report to the racing commission put a tremendous amount of resources into all requests that go this said the deputy director Robert Reeves Though Penn National is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq PENN) it remains in one sense the family business begun by Peter Carlino a florist turned insurance salesman turned track owner Carlino turned over reins of Penn National to his son Peter Carlino when it became a public company in 1994 Holding the voting power of Penn National shares owned 'by a family trust and those owned individually his son controls 43 percent of the company Based on clos- layi I'kyv' i v' '-A' At ii Vf 's 1 i I rice of $110625 the fami Your monthly payments holdings in Penn National done are worth more than $70 million The family business Carlino Financial has been the engine to power the family horse-racing investments The holding company previously owned the insurance agency that Peter Carlino made a moneymaker Today its holdings are a title insurance firm as well as a small insurance-related software company Carlino entered the racii industry in the 1970s as part the money behind the track now known as Philadelphia Park In the ensuing three decades 76-year-old Carlino has I i ID of body might have to be based on her tattoos Yourmonthly payments with an NBC All-In-One Home Loan By William Bayne The Commercial Appeal aH-Sn-on fit NBQ PaymentjSavmgs Cha was to take Subsequently federal au thorities served Smith with a criminal warrant charging him with being a felon in possession of a firearm Asst Dist Atty John Champion said he and Chris Sheley chief investigator for the DeSoto County District Office received an extensive file on Smith from the FBI Tuesday now we have any charges to Champion said have quite a bit of evidence to go through and that determination will be made Four deputies from the DeSoto County Sheriffs Department were assigned to the investigation but Asst Chief Deputy Phil Cottam said no charges have been made Cottam said the body is still being held for in vestigation with the hope that dental records might be located and a positive identification made we locate some records fry the end of the week most likely have to base identification on the tattoos1 he said may not be the best identification criteria but it would be the best have With NBC's -ALL-IN-ONE" Home Ixan HOME you can save on interest and consolidate LOAN all of your debt including your first and second mortgage if you have one into one low monthly payment Best of all you'll find our $300 closing fee is unmatched in the marketplace! UP TO 110 OF YOUR HOME'S VALUE NO ORIGINATION FEES NO APPLICATION FEES NO PMI INSURANCE REQUIRED wwwnbcbankoom Attempts to confirm identification of a body through dental records failed Wednesday when authorities could not locate any dental records for comparisons However DeSoto County Coroner Jeffrey Pounders said the tattoos and the placement of those tattoos on the body probably establish identity of Georgette Theragood 22 formerly an exotic dancer from Albuquerque by the tattoos and what the FBI has told us pretty sure Pounders said The body was found in a leaf-covered ditch on Christopher Lane in Nesbit about 3:30 pm Saturday An autopsy showed she had been shot twice in the head Theragood was last seen in the Memphis area Jan 29 The FBI said she left the Albuquerque area with William Christopher Smith 38 and her year-old baby Shayna The naby was abandoned at a day care center in Cordova Smith was arrested at Fort Lauderdale International Airport Feb 6 when he attempted to recover a duffel bag The bag contained a 38-caliber revolver and notes the FBI said a hijacking Call l-800-599-4NBC(4622) or stop by your nearest NBC Bank branch today to take a load off PlMMCcniut yourteaiMw aui(iiduca)ayoiintw'nieS300cloinBiwkiiiwwJ Ml Home loin up lean rate iwy will low VndlCTiil0CltdPKipilniuQnciiquiil on Alow Mcuwdliyiwl Subject to cwMippfOWlNBC'i All-ln-OnHomt Loan payrnwlit based on 1 30 yir amortization utti 1 10 yur uH a a 775 APR 110 LTV available on horns nlutd up to and nduding $300000 To reach reporter William Bayne call 529-2577 or E-mail baynegomemphiscom.