DATE: Wednesday, November 5, 1997           TAG: 9711050797

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A3D  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS 

                                            LENGTH:   38 lines

VOTERS IN 3 CITIES REJCT OFF-TRACK BETTING CENTERS

Colonial Downs' effort to build off-track betting parlors in more cities statewide failed Tuesday when voters in Roanoke, Fredericksburg and Martinsville rejected the proposed facilities.

None of the votes was close, and an overwhelming 72 percent of Fredericksburg voters turned down the betting parlors.

The vote in the three cities represented a financial setback for Colonial Downs. Off-track betting, with its high revenue and low overhead, provides cash for the purses at the horse racing track in New Kent County and helps pay the bills.

The track has betting parlors in Richmond, Chesapeake and New Kent, and permission to build parlors in Hampton and Brunswick County. Many other localities, particularly in Northern Virginia, have vetoed parlors.

``We think that off-track gambling is not an appropriate activity for Fredericksburg,'' said Jesse S. Franklin, a real estate broker and head of an anti-OTB group. ``It causes compulsive gambling. It's unfair competition to local restaurants and sports bars. It will be harmful to the real tourism in this area, which is historic in nature.''

Nelson Harris, a Roanoke City Council member and a minister at Ridgewood Baptist Church, said: ``Colonial Downs has tried to portray these parlors as places where the middle and upper classes go to for innocent fun, but our point is that any legalized gambling is the exploitation of those least able to afford it.''

State rules allow Colonial Downs to build two more parlors in the state.

O.J. Peterson III, the president of Colonial Downs, had said he would choose Fredericksburg and Roanoke because of their larger populations. The track will have to try again in other cities. KEYWORDS: ELECTION VIRGINIA RESULTS OFF-TRACK

BETTING VIRGINIA

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