Parx parent gets conditional OK to seek Md. casino license

BALTIMORE - With one condition, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission on Thursday gave the parent company of Parx Casino in Bensalem a green light to continue its bid to build an $800 million casino south of Washington.

The condition is that Greenwood Racing's chairman, Robert W. Green, end his friendship with the penny-stock swindler Robert E. Brennan, who served more than nine years in federal prison for bankruptcy fraud and obstruction of justice.

Green and Brennan got to know each other in the late 1980s when Green formed a company to buy PhiladelphiaPark racetrack - now home to Parx - from Brennan's International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. for $67 million.

Gaming regulators in New Jersey and Massachusetts had previously demanded that Green have no business dealings with Brennan, and Green said he has not had any for 15 to 17 years.

But Maryland regulators insisted that Green go a step further and end the personal relationship. "I am agreeable to that," Green said.

Asked by Kimberly Robertson Pannell, chairwoman of the Maryland commission, how and why he continued to have a relationship with Brennan after his conviction, Green didn't quite answer.

Asked when he last saw Brennan, who was released from prison in 2011, Green said: "Eight to nine months ago . . . we had dinner."

As to how the commissioners could be sure that Green dropped the relationship, Green said: "I advised him through my lawyer."

Thursday's meeting was a "qualification hearing" for Maryland's final casino license, which will be awarded for a site in Prince George's County.

Greenwood's competitors are Penn National Gaming Inc. and MGM Resorts International.

The gaming commission accepted the recommendation of its investigators that all three companies were qualified to operate a casino in the state. That means they were found to have the financial means and the experience, as well as "good character, honesty, and integrity."

In July, when Green went under the microscope of regulators in Massachusetts, where Greenwood is competing against Penn National and Cordish Cos. to build a slots parlor, the scrutiny of Green's relationship with Brennan, famous for his First Jersey Securities commercials showing him piloting a helicopter, was considerably more intense, according to a transcript of Green's July 26 testimony.

Green was questioned about his knowledge of Brennan's record of run-ins with securities regulators stretching back to 1974. Regulators were particularly interested in Green's investments in the mid-1990s for a trust for Brennan's children. During that period, Brennan was found personally liable for securities fraud.

After Brennan lost an appeal in 1996, Green halted business dealings with Brennan, Green said. But they remained friends. "When he was incarcerated in Fort Dix, I went to visit him a few times," Green said, according to the Massachusetts transcript.

In August, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission found Green "suitable" to operate a casino in the state, with the following reservation:

"The commission finds Mr. Green's behavior described above and his testimony in this proceeding extremely troubling. Mr. Green does not show any understanding of why the relationship with Mr. Brennan and the transactions they entered into show a serious lack of judgment on his part."

What about Pennsylvania?

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board put no conditions on Green's relationship with Brennan, Green told Maryland's commissioners.