North Las Vegas casino operator makes Fortune's fastest-growing company list

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A North Las Vegas casino operator is among the 100 fastest growing companies in the United States, Fortune magazine reports.

MTR Gaming, parent company of Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort in Chester, W.Va., was the 45th fastest growing company in the past three years, the magazine reports in its Sept. 6 edition. MTR also owns the new Speedway Casino in North Las Vegas.

It is one of two gaming companies on the list, the other being casino and racetrack operator Hollywood Park of Inglewood, Calif. To make the list -- which is dominated by technology and industrial firms -- a company had to post growth in sales and earnings per share of at least 30 percent each year over three years. For the first time, the magazine also factored in companies' stock market returns since 1996.

Over the three years, Mountaineer posted revenue growth of 48 percent, a 99 percent increase in earnings per share and a 36 percent return in stock prices.

Ted Arneault, president and chief executive officer of the company, said the track "teetered on the brink of demise" in 1993 and is now the "comeback kid of the industry."

MTR posted revenue of $88.4 million and income of $7.4 million in the past four quarters.

Arneault said MTR's success is the result of improved marketing and more diverse entertainment.

He also credited legalization of video gambling in 1994 and coin drop slots this year for making the track the "Cinderella story of the industry."

The company operates 1,300 video slot machines at the track and an adjacent hotel.

A gambling foe who has lobbied the Legislature to reject expansion of gambling said he is not surprised at Mountaineer's success.

"What I attribute it to is a willingness of people to base life on luck rather than hard work," said the Rev. Nathan Wilson, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches.

"Even though this a highly churchgoing state, there is still a desire to win the dollars that do not require day in, day out work," Wilson said.

Siebel Systems Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., a supplier of software systems for the Internet, is listed by Fortune as No. 1.

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