TOPEKA - A contract dispute between Camptown Greyhound Park and the Kansas Lottery has halted construction of the Frontenac racetrack, which plans to operate slot machines along with dog racing.
Kevin Allis, general manager of Camptown, said Thursday he hopes an agreement can be reached and the track can open with up to 600 slots.
"We are optimistic that a deal is going to get done," he said. "We're not giving up yet."
Camptown, closed since November 2000, has been undergoing a $30 million makeover. About $8 million has been spent on the first phase of the project, which is completed except for some touchup work. Allis said the next phase won't start unless there's a contract with the Lottery.
Lottery spokeswoman Sally Lunsford said she couldn't discuss specifics of ongoing contract negotiations, but added, "We don't consider the negotiations have broken down."
Under the expanded gambling law enacted last year, race tracks with pari-mutuel wagering can have slots on their premises under a contract with the Lottery, which owns the operation of the games.
The Lottery last year allocated the 600 slots for Camptown and 800 for The Woodlands horse and dog tracks in Kansas City. It also allowed 800 slots at Wichita Greyhound Park, but that was before voters rejected the idea, and those machines haven't been reallocated.
Camptown, like the shuttered Wichita Greyhound Park, is owned by Wichita billionaire Phil Ruffin. Ruffin closed the Park City racetrack after Sedgwick County voters voted down both slots at the racetrack and casinos inside the county last August. That vote also cleared the way for a casino in Sumner County.
Allis said Camptown proposed in June to keep 25 percent of net profits for management of the facility and another 15 percent for gambling operational expenses. He said the Lottery in November made a counteroffer that took away the 15 percent.
"The response they submitted to us is not financially viable for us to operate," Allis said.
The law says 25 percent net profits goes for track management and 15 percent goes for operational expenses but doesn't specify who pays those expenses or what happens if expenses exceed 15 percent. It also calls for 40 percent going to the state and 1 percent each to the city of Frontenac and Crawford County.
Allis said the track would lose about $1.5 million a year to run dog racing, but that amount would be offset by the slot revenues. He said the track proposal would give it a net profit of 8 percent.
"We want to be assured we have a return on our investment," he said.
He said the Lottery's proposal would cost the track $2 million annually.
"It leaves us absolutely nothing to compete with the Indian casinos in Oklahoma. If you're losing money on dog racing and slot machines, it's time to step back and look," he said. "We're not looking to gouge anybody; we just want to crank out a living down here."
When the track applied to the state last year, it said the track would open June 2. Allis said the contract impasse has delayed things, but he doesn't know by how much.
In addition to the $30 million investment, Camptown also must pay the state $2,500 for each slot machine installed if a contract is signed, which amounts to $1.5 million for 600 machines. |
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