Dispute Will be Settled 

It would seem that the fight is almost over between Magna Entertainment Corp over slot machine rights. They have been fighting with the former owners of Laurel Pak and Pimlico horse tracks and now it seems that an agreement has been made. The Maryland based race tracks were formerly owned by Joseph De Francis and his sister Karen De Francis and they were maintaining that under the agreement that they were entitled to exclusive rights of slot machine revenue at the tracks.  

However, Magna had maintained that these rights could not be put into effect because they were unable to get a slot machine license. They said that they were rejecting the idea that the owners had the right to keep slot machines from operating there. The courts ruled that Magna could sell the assets with no obligation to move forward the gaming rights – and then they sued again for $810 million. They said that it was Magna’s fault that the slot machine license was not obtained and therefore they are due the money that they would have made had the slot machines come in. 

But they have now settled their claims with the former track owners giving Magana the ability to move forward without them. They will be allowed a joint claim of $8 million against MEC which will be treated as an unsecured claim during their bankruptcy proceedings. They will also be allowed to have a $4 million claim against the Maryland Jockey Club and a percentage of any of the auction proceeds that come in over and above $39 million.