“No track can survive without [slots] any place in the United States,’’ said Piontkowski, president of Plainridge Racecourse, the harness racing track in Plainville. Racing at Plainridge cannot continue indefinitely unless the track wins the rights to add slots, he said.
Carney, the owner of Raynham Park, which lost live dog racing at the end of 2009 but retains simulcast betting, was slightly less pessimistic. “I could keep it going because I’ve been at it all these years,’’ he said, “but it would be a grind.’’
The competitors are longtime business rivals, personal adversaries, and, in many ways, polar opposites.
Piontkowski is a polished businessman from the textile industry and a politically connected Republican.
Carney is a blunt-talking high-school dropout and well-wired into Democratic politics.
Opposites are supposed to attract, but these savvy suburban track owners do not much like each other.
“We’ve had a lot of business battles, and, yes, it has turned personal sometimes,’’ said Piontkowski, when asked about Carney in an interview at Plainridge.
“I don’t dislike him,’’ Carney said of Piontkowski, not very convincingly, during a conversation at Raynham Park. “We’ve just always had a bad relationship.’’
The owners of the two tracks, separated by a short drive on Interstate 495, each plan to bid to host the slot machine parlor, which will probably be the first gambling property to open in Massachusetts under the new law.
The casino bill signed by Governor Deval Patrick last November allows up to three large-scale gambling resorts, each costing at least a half-billion dollars. Much of the discussion in recent months has been about the casino giants vying to win a resort license in three regions of the state.
A less-hyped part of the law, included after years of lobbying by the state’s racetracks, authorizes the slot machine parlor, which can be built anywhere. It requires a more modest investment, though still no less than $125 million in capital investments and a $25 million licensing fee.
