Court Date Set

The Laurel Racing Association just went to court so as to discuss why they should be given reconsideration on their slot machine bid. The company submitted a proposal to bring slot machines to Maryland but the state would not consider the proposal because of fees that they refused to pay.

The state said that the slot machine proposals should include an upfront fee of $3 million per 500 requested slot machines. The racing association was requesting 4,750 slot machines and therefore their payment would be $28.5 million. They did not include the fee for their proposal. The track said that it was unconstitutional for them to ask for the fee when they could not guarantee that the money would be refunded under the law that was passed.

The state’s attorney simply said that the group refused to play by the rules and therefore their proposal was not considered. The state said that the law did not preclude the possibility of the refund, and that they had a chance to challenge the bidding process and did not do so which is why their bid was not considered.

The track said that there were local zoning rules that had to be covered before they should have to give up that kind of money. They said that if the slot machines were not allowed in they would have paid millions for nothing. They also said that there was no wording that said that they would get their money back should the slot machines not be allowed.