Register for E-mail alerts. Comment on articles. Sign up today, it's easy.
Close
The Washington Times Online Edition

Md. slots unlikely to hit budget figures

Rows of slot machines line the casino floor at Charles Town Races in West Virginia in April 2006. (Peter Lockley/The Washington TImes)Rows of slot machines line the casino floor at Charles Town Races in West Virginia in April 2006. (Peter Lockley/The Washington TImes)

ANNAPOLIS | The odds are that slot machines in Maryland will have difficulty generating the millions of dollars projected by gambling supporters, based on national trends and experiences in other states that have long used gambling to supplement spending.

Officials from states that legalized slot machines more than a decade ago said they found that revenue decreases unless more machines are added and hours of operation are extended, which presents a problem in Maryland because the slots plan caps the number of machines at 15,000 and assumes they operate 365 days a year.

A study released weeks before Marylanders will vote in a Nov. 4 referendum on whether to approve slot-machine gambling shows that the state’s plan to collect $660 million is based on “optimistic” assumptions, including one that residents who have been playing slots in Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will start gambling exclusively in Maryland, slots critics say.

In addition, analysts say, the Mid-Atlantic region, like some Midwestern states, may reach market saturation if the pool of new gamblers stops expanding and states are left fighting over existing players.

“This could all be a wash,” said state Comptroller Peter Franchot, who is among the state’s most vocal slots opponents.

West Virginia and Delaware - two Maryland neighbors that slots supporters say have long siphoned Marylanders’ money - for the first time in more than a decade recently posted decreases in gambling revenue.

As Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, campaigns for the slots as the only way to pay for mandated increases in education spending, the referendum easily could become the goose that lays a lead egg for Maryland.

Hundreds of seniors daily board buses leaving Baltimore and Prince George’s County for racetracks in Delaware and West Virginia and casinos in Atlantic City, N.J.

Mr. O’Malley, his budget team and legislative analysts acknowledge that, to plug the state’s budget gap, every passenger would have to stop playing out of state and return to Maryland with their money.

But the owners of local tour bus companies say such a change is unlikely.

“You’re still going to have that crowd,” said Hornett Pullen, owner of Pullen’s Tours. “They want to get out of town.”

State lawmakers approved the slots plan last year, then sent the measure to voters. Though slots supporters say the plan could generate as much as $660 million a year, critics think the state will recapture just $230 million from Marylanders who play slots at Delaware’s racetracks.

Delaware is predicting that Maryland will recapture $85 million to $100 million.

The “recapture” message has been central for slots supporters throughout the past decade, and Mr. O’Malley attempted to formalize it last year when he asked his labor secretary to study the issue.

The report - released a few months before the governor called lawmakers back to Annapolislast summer to place slots on the November ballot - stated that Marylanders spend $400 million on gambling outside the state, infusing other states with $150 million annually in new taxes.

Story Continues →

View Entire Story
Comments
blog comments powered by Disqus
About the Author
Tom LoBianco

Tom LoBianco

Tom LoBianco has covered energy and environmental policy, including the climate change bill making its way through Congress. From 2007 to 2008, he covered Maryland politics from the Times’s Annapolis bureau. Tom hold’s a master’s degree in political science from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. He spent two and a ...

You Might Also Like
  • President Barack Obama exits Air Force One after landing at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

    Obama stays on ‘message,’ gets boost in ratings amid GOP strife

    By Dave Boyer and Susan Crabtree - The Washington Times

  • Mitt Romney is among a pack of repeat Republican presidential contenders in the past 50 years. The former Massachusetts governor speaks to a crowd gathered Friday at Guerdon Enterprises in Boise, Idaho. (Associated Press_

    Romney shows trouble keeping supporters from 2008

    By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

  • ** FILE ** Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich speaks during a news conference on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    Questions surface on Gingrich campaign travel payments

    By Luke Rosiak - The Washington Times

  • Happening Now

          Independent voices from the TWT Communities

          Out and About Baltimore

          Charm City Charmers: a not-so-ragtag group of Baltimore area writers lead by Tamar Alexia Fleishman