Laurel Racing Appealing

It was only a matter of time before Laurel Racing appealed the ruling by a Pennsylvania state judge that said they were out of the running for a slot machine license. Their attorney said that the court did not take the factors about the language in the terms of the slot machine deal into consideration and made a ruling based on language that was not there.

Their attorney, Alan Rifkin, said that the Anne Arundel County Judge said that they had to look past the actual language to imply that there would be a refund, but if the refund is not clearly stated in the language that cannot be implied. He says that the way that they are going about offering the slot machine licenses is not constitutional, and that they should be changed – and Laurel Racing should be given another chance at the slot machines.

When the case started, the state had asked Laurel Racing to give them $3 million for every 500 slot machines as a license fee – to the tune of $28.5 million. However, the race track noted that the process never said that if they did not get the slot machine license that their money would be refunded. So they put the money in escrow and submitted their application. The state said that the refund of money was implied and that because they did not include the money they were not eligible for the slot machine license.

The judge said that the state law of refunds for overpayments was implied and that if Laurel Racing had paid the fee and was denied the slot machines that they would have gotten their money back. Laurel says that it should say that in the application process and since it does not, when it comes to that much money you can’t assume anything.

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