Posted: 7:04 pm Thu, February 4, 2010
By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer
A coalition formed to halt the state’s largest planned slots development near the Arundel Mills mall says it has succeeded in its petition drive to allow county voters to decide whether to allow the casino to go forward.
The petitioners, led by the Maryland Jockey Club, which operates the Laurel Park race track, said in a news release that they had submitted 23,702 signatures in support of a referendum to the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections Thursday afternoon.
That number far exceeds the 9,395 signatures that were needed by Friday and handily beats the 18,790 signatures required to place the zoning ordinance on the ballot in November.
The Jockey Club was supported by the citizens group Stop Slots at Arundel Mills. It also hired Chicago-based Fieldworks Inc. to help collect signatures.
If at least 18,790 signatures are deemed valid by the elections board, the slots site planned by Baltimore developer David Cordish could be in jeopardy. A signature will be disqualified if it is not that of a registered Anne Arundel County voter.
The Jockey Club believes Cordish’s slots facility would hurt business at Laurel Park, which lies about 13 miles south of the site. The club, whose parent company is in bankruptcy, submitted a slots license application last year for Anne Arundel County but was disqualified for not including the $28.5 million license fee.
Cordish was awarded the county’s only slots license last year.
Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas has said that slots at Laurel Park are a better fit and would keep the race track afloat.
“We are confident that if given the choice, the people of Anne Arundel County will choose a more appropriate location for 4,750 slot machines that will benefit our county, our state, education funding and the thousands of jobs in the horse racing industry,” he said in a statement.
Joseph Weinberg, a managing partner for Cordish Co. said in an e-mailed statement that the company had been advised there were “were massive irregularities, both legally and procedurally” in the petition drive.
“This is common when signatures on a petition are gathered primarily by paid workers that are financially incentivized to produce signatures,” he said. “Upon review, we are confident the referendum will be struck down as both legally invalid and lacking in the requisite valid signatures.”
Laurel Park, along with sister property Pimlico Race Course, is scheduled to go on the auction block this month. Observers have noted that Laurel Park’s value could increase if the Jockey Club succeeded in its petition drive.