Winners’ Stock Drops as Deadline Nears

Shares of Winners Entertainment Inc. common stock dropped 20% to $5.13 from $6.38 Friday as a court-imposed deadline for shutting down video lottery terminal operations at the company’s West Virginia racetrack drew near.

Friday’s closing price on the Nasdaq market hit a 52-week low with more than 900,000 shares, or 13 times the average daily volume, changing hands.

Winners operates 165 video terminals at the Mountaineer Park facility under a provisional license from the West Virginia Lottery Commission. The court said the Irvine-based company could operate the lottery machines until Nov. 27 but then must remove them.

The machines produced $12 million in revenue during the first nine months of 1993, according to Winners President Michael Dunn. “Obviously it’s critical to the operation of the park,” he said, adding that the company’s attorneys plan to file a motion for reconsideration that will trigger an automatic delay in the deadline for removing the machines.