Saturday, January 16, 1999
Turfway buyers are big in casinos, lotteries
The $37 million sale of Turfway Park, announced Friday, makes equal partners of these three institutions:
• Keeneland: A combination thoroughbred racetrack and sales company just west of Lexington, open since 1936. It has a three-fold mission: to preserve the tradition of the sport of racing; to conduct the world's best thoroughbred sales; and to be an active community citizen. The corporation does not pay dividends. Instead, profits come back in the form of higher purses, capital improvements and charitable contributions.
• Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Owns more casinos in the United States than any other company. Announced in August the purchase of Rio Hotel & Casino Inc., Las Vegas, for about $888 million. Already had an interest in Turfway, lending $25 million to the track in 1993. The park's failure to pay resulted in a foreclosure suit that ended last year with a judge ordering Turfway to give Harrah's 50 acres near the track and control of one third of the stock in Turfway. The company and the track, in 1993, had planned a partnership in hopes that the General Assembly would legalize casino gambling. That never happened.
• Gtech Corp.: The world's largest lottery operator. Holds interests in numbers games in 50 countries. It survived an investigation last spring in Great Britain, where regulators questioned whether Gtech should continue to have a role in the national lottery after a jury found the company's chairman libeled billionaire Richard Branson, his competitor in the battle for the lottery contract. Announced a year ago a move to focus more on gambling, eliminating 800 of 5,500 jobs and selling a business that handled automated welfare benefits.
In 1994, a Kentucky auditor's report chastised Gtech and the state's lottery management. It found the state had paid Gtech millions too much in a deal worked out with a former lottery president. A governor's aide was acquitted of wrongdoing, but the scandal led to lottery changes.
No bus service but doors open - for the kids
Turfway sold for $37M
Keeneland brings Turfway prestige, historian says
Turfway buyers are big in casinos, lotteries
Carroll has Midas touch with property
Firemen survive fatal blaze
Arson fire ravages wing of junior high school in Hamilton
City schools push for tax increase
Man sentenced to life for raping boy, 8
Events honor Dr. King
Martin Luther King Day events
Annexation fight heats up
Blue Ash to upgrade stoplights
Butler Co. advised to scrap or upgrade computer system
Chief won't quit, so now what?
Jealous over Internet, man kills family, self
Middletown to seek federal law on train whistles
Road builder earning bonuses
Russian diva's 'Salome' sets Music Hall ablaze
Skiers warmed by ice, snow
Tax revenues from casino may be shuffled
TRISTATE DIGEST
Two teens' allegations about jail to be aired
