ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, January 8, 1996                TAG: 9601080032
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

OFF-TRACK BETTING THREATENED BILL WOULD ENSURE TRACK IS BUILT FIRST

Some state legislators are threatening to rescind licenses for off-track betting parlors if Colonial Downs doesn't guarantee that racing will begin this summer in a permanent stadium.

Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, said he will introduce legislation that prohibits all off-track betting parlors until after the track is constructed if the racing commission and track operators don't agree to build the track as described in their application.

An off-track betting parlor in Chesapeake is scheduled to open by the end of the month. A Richmond parlor is to open in March.

The track has been delayed because the Virginia Jockey Club has filed a lawsuit contesting the track and betting licenses that the Virginia Racing Commission awarded to Colonial Downs in 1994. A judge is supposed to hear the appeal in early February.

Construction on the New Kent County track has been stalled because of the lawsuit, said Brett Stansley, executive vice president for Colonial Downs.

It would be a huge gamble for Colonial Downs to build the permanent track before the lawsuit is settled, said Don Price, executive director of the Virginia Racing Commission. He said he would favor legislation that would take the lawsuit into consideration and give the track operators additional construction time.

``We don't know what the final ruling will mean,'' Price said. ``It has been indicated that, if we should prevail, the Virginia Jockey Club will appeal to the state Supreme Court. How long that will take? Who knows?''

But Stolle said that to go ahead with the off-track betting parlors without beginning construction on the track is in direct conflict with the original concept for Virginia horse racing.

Stolle said the state never really wanted off-track betting parlors but found that they were a necessary evil to making a horse track viable.

LENGTH: Short :   45 lines
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996