Meadows changes hands

Cannery Casino Resorts, a Las Vegas-based casino company, has completed its purchase of The Meadows from Magna Entertainment for $200 million, $25 million less than was called for in the original acquisition deal. The new owner of The Meadows is officially PA Meadows LLC.

Last November PA Meadows LLC and Magna Entertainment announced a $225 purchase price.

"The price went down," said Tom Willer, a spokesman for Cannery Casino Resorts of Las Vegas, which owns PA Meadows. "It's been a very long protracted business deal and a lot of things have gone on."

Willer told reporters he could not provide further specifics about the deal, nor comment on whether the price was affected by the tax issues associated with casino revenues at Pennsylvania's racetracks. Recently the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue issued regulations which clarified the law, specifying that casinos will have to pay up to $10 million in annual taxes to host communities instead of a potential cap of 2 percent.

The state has not yet issued slots licenses, but is expected to approve them for existing racetracks in late September.

In a prepared statement, Bill Paulos, a parnter in Millennium Gaming Inc. and principal of Cannery Casino Resorts, said "Our focus now is on securing a gaming license and getting to work on building a first-class, fully integrated racing and gaming complex in Western Pennsylvania."

Pennsylvania casinos will be permitted to have up to 5,000 slot machines, but Paulos said he expects about half that number to be economically viable at The Meadows, which will compete with two existing racetrack casinos in West Virginia and other southwestern Pennsylvania slots parlors to be developed in downtown Pittsburgh and at nearby Nemacolin Woodlands resort, which is owned by Joe Hardy, who owned The Meadows with partner Ed Ryan in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

As part of the sale, Magna will retain a five-year management contract to run the racing operations at The Meadows.

« Back