"I'm sure if the legislation went through, we'd have no problem selling it," Jim Hawkins, the owner of Tioga Park, said of his attempt to piggyback the VLT push to the sale of his 28-year-old track located 30 minutes west of Binghamton.

Hawkins said his real estate representative has reached out to two potential buyers: Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment, which is trying to get a foothold in New York, and Penn National Gaming, which owns The Downs at Pocono, a harness track near Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Tioga Park is located just north of the Pennsylvania border.

The VLT issue got a slight boost when Gov. George Pataki, who is actively negotiating casino deals with at least one Indian tribe, opened the door slightly to the concept of bringing VLTs to New York.

"We'll certainly consider it," Pataki said Tuesday of a VLT proposal, "and I haven't formed a firm opinion one way or the other. I don't have an inherent philosophical problem with it. If it were done in a way that seemed to make sense, I could be supportive."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was less warm to the VLT idea. "My inclination is they shouldn't" be made legal, the Manhattan Democrat said. He cautioned, though, that no one has presented him with any evidence about VLTs in New York.

His counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican with close racing ties, was non committal when asked about VLTs. "It's part of a bigger question," he said. Bruno said the lower house has no plans to take up the issue any time soon.

Industry officials believe that if VLTs have a chance, it will come when Pataki, Silver, and Bruno get down to negotiating the details of the state's 2001 budget, which might not happen for months as the sides battle each other over various issues.

Hawkins declined to say how much he paid in 1996 for the former Quarter Horse track located just south of the Finger Lakes region, but said it is probably worth between $3 million and $5 million if the VLT push is real.

The racing industry in New York is nearly united in a campaign to bring VLTs to the state. An industry coalition on Tuesday afternoon was to formally unveil a study of VLT proceeds in an effort to convince state lawmakers that the controversial devices would be good for racing and the state's efforts to fund education with some of the revenues from the VLT wagering.

"It's a deliberate, measured response to a problem," said Dick Powell, a racing consultant who serves as a spokesman for the industry coalition that unveiled its study Tuesday.

Powell said New York is losing millions each year as bettors leave the state to neighboring states with casinos. "New York is falling further and further behind in the competition for the entertainment dollar," he said.

The study, which cost about $60,000, was funded by industry groups that often spend their days battling each other over a host of racing issues. The group, called the Coalition to Preserve and Promote Horse Racing and Breeding in New York State, includes everyone from breeders and owners to OTB corporations and Thoroughbred and Standardbred tracks.

The study claims that 22,000 VLTs operating at the state's Standardbred and Thoroughbred tracks -- with the exception of the New York Racing Association's Saratoga -- could bring in $2.7 billion a year in revenues. The Saratoga Equine Sports Center, a harness track, is included in the estimates.

Tioga Park, which has a grandstand that seats 3,000, was built for $7.5 million in 1973. Located in Nichols adjacent to a highway that is being turned into an interstate, the facility would be ideal for a VLT operation, Hawkins said.

During its brief heyday before it closed after only three years of operation, Tioga Park featured Quarter Horse racing. In the late 1980s, Jill Nuckel, the daughter of the original owner, got legislation approved to permit a combination of Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred racing. Various problems, however, kept the track dark.

Since Hawkins purchased it five years ago, Tioga Park has hosted everything from concerts and flea markets to rodeos. If the track isn't sold to a company that wants to offer horse racing, Hawkins said he'd consider having motor sports.