Hinsdale Race Track Declares Bankruptcy

Interesting article from the New Hampshire Business Review... speaks more to the area near Hinsdale rather than the market in general... although that applies too...

http://www.nhbr.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081216/NEWS06/812159969/-1/XML08

The anti gambling statement at the end of the article by Jim Rubens is naive and uninformed, in my opinion... the demo's in Salem/ Rockingham County couldn't be more different than in Hinsdale... as well as the opportunity... BF



Business News/Analysis

Hinsdale race track declares bankruptcy

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Hinsdale Greyhound Park announced that it was shutting it doors and filed for bankruptcy Monday, leaving 49 people out of work, and more than 200 unsecured creditors owed about $1.75 million holding the bag.

“Business was not good. But when gas prices spiked earlier this year, things went from bad to worse. People simply have less money to wage,” said Joseph E. Sullivan in a prepared release. “People simply have less money to wager in New Hampshire and nationally.”

Sullivan added that “efforts to attract investors or a buyer were, in the end, unsuccessful,” he said.

Sullivan referred all calls to his attorney, John M. Sullivan (no relation), who could not be reached for further comment by deadline.

Hinsdale, one of the four live racing venues in the state, started in 1948 as a harness track, and added dog racing in 1973, but live racing at all the tracks took a back seat to the simulcasting of other races around the country. This year, for instance, a little more than $700,000 was bet on dog races at Hinsdale as of Dec. 7 out of a total of $29.5 million.

But that take was a 32 percent drop from the previous year, when the track took in $43 million. That left the track with $5.8 million last year after paying off the winners and the state (but before operating expenses and debt payments), the smallest revenue stream of any of the four live-racing tracks in the state.

The bankruptcy filing indicated the company owed large sums of money to various racing suppliers, other racetracks and individual investors, as well as taxes: $189,000 to the Internal Revenue Service and $139,000 to the town of Hinsdale, and $4,500 to the New Hampshire Racing and Charitable Gaming Commission.

The largest unsecured creditor is the Tote Company ($185,000), which designs, manufactures and operates pari-mutuel wagering systems.

Other large creditors include Herschel Bird ($138,000) of Henderson, Nevada, Kevin Matties ($71,000) of Las Vegas and Paul Matties ($52,000) of Pittsfield, Mass., Public Service of New Hampshire ($95,000), and the Hawthorne Race Course ($65,000).

The release does give a hint that the track was anticipating a possible shut down. At the end of October, it transferred control and care of all greyhounds to several independent non-profits.

Hinsdale and the other racetracks have long argued for the state to adopt casino gambling, and indeed – because of the economy and the state’s fiscal trouble – this seemed like as good as time as any to propose it. Track owners will point to the closing as evidence that they need the investment and revenue that slot machines can bring to the tracks.

But Jim Rubens, leader of Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling, drew a different lesson.

“Gambling is a saturated industry that’s in decline,” he said. “It should lead to suspicion that claims that tracks like Rockingham Park could open a $450 million casino gambling in Salem. If Hinsdale couldn’t raise enough capital to stay open, why would Rockingham be able to raise that much money?” – BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW