could be restored if it "gets its affairs in order'', a panel ruled yesterday.

Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis, chairman of the Betting Licence Authority, adjourned the hearing for three months to allow the company to come up with a better management scheme.

"We are not satisfied with the management of the company,'' he said. "It is contrary to the public welfare.'' Mr. Francis said Top Turf Enterprises deserved a second chance to right itself because it was an "old and established betting shop''.

That means the company has until June 30 before it can reapply for its licence although the application can be made sooner if it manages to settle their affairs before that time.

The Finance Ministry opposed Top Turf's licence renewal because it claimed the company's affairs were not properly managed and further alleged the business was insolvent.

Furthermore they alleged there was no way to show who owned the company because there were never any formal meetings.

Top Turf Enterprises also owed Government $108,455 in betting taxes.

Mr. Francis said the panel was particularly troubled that Vincent Belboda, who was the company's manager and major shareholder, knew very little about what was going on and spent limited time on the premises.

During the trial that concluded on Friday, the Crown claimed Belboda was a puppet who directors Richard Rizzo and Daniel Pisani used to satisfy legal requirements that a company must be 60 per cent Bermudian owned.

Both Pisani and Rizzo, have criminal records. Rizzo left the island on February 16, six days after Government inspected the business and has not returned. He was jailed in the United States for one year and a day in 1977 for unlawfully promoting gambling and possessing gambling receipts.

Pisani was convicted in 1980 for unlawful imprisonment and sent to jail for three years. He was released in 1981. He is the former manager of Bermudian boxer Troy Darrell.

Mr. Francis said it was clear from Belboda's testimony that he "understood very little'' about the business.

Consequently, it was possible for Rizzo to run an illegal betting business out of his Warwick home using a rented post box to receive letters and express packages from overseas.

But the panel ruled the allegations that the books were not in order or that the company is insolvent was not proven during the trial.

The panel accepted that Top Turf Enterprises had come up with a plan to redress its arrears to Government.

The business became the centre of a Ministry of Finance investigation because it allegedly attempted to avoid paying taxes using a home in Warwick to receive bets from Americans through a rented post box. Money was also allegedly deposited in an Antiguan bank.