Slots Redux
The Maryland General Assembly is back in action for a special legislative session this month. Every once in a while, the governor calls the boys and girls back to Annapolis for extra work he feels needs to be accomplished outside the usual 90-day session that starts each year. This time the topic is enhancing state revenue.
The part of Governor O'Malley's revenue package that's getting the most press is legalizing slot machines in Maryland. It's been a contentious issue here for years. The current proposal is to have slot machines at 5 Maryland locations, two of which are horse racetracks. (Though not at Baltimore's Pimlico track, effectively dooming the Preakness.) Thirty percent of the gross revenue would go to slots operators over-the-table to augment their under-the-table take, $140 million per year would go to the horse race business as a blatant subsidy to an otherwise dying industry, and a portion would go to Maryland, ostensibly for education and treating gambling addiction.
This time there's a serious proposal to have a state referendum on the issue during next year's elections. Maryland doesn't have many voter referendums. And the ones we do have are usually dry and boring changes to the state constitution. A ballot issue to legalize slots would be fun: unrelenting TV advertisements, lies from the gaming industry, dire prognostications from the racing community, and vitriolic, acrimonious rhetoric from both sides of the issue. I'd love to see it come to a vote just for the entertainment value.
I have no use for slot machines or horse racing. I find both a wretched waste of time. You know the expression "like watching paint dry"? For me, slot machines and horse racing are like watching dry paint. And it's hard for me to think of an activity more lowbrow than feeding slot machines at a horse track. But unless the issue is gets to be decided by the voters, I'm sure the Maryland legislature will legalize the beasts.
I'll never understand the gaming mentality.
K-
The part of Governor O'Malley's revenue package that's getting the most press is legalizing slot machines in Maryland. It's been a contentious issue here for years. The current proposal is to have slot machines at 5 Maryland locations, two of which are horse racetracks. (Though not at Baltimore's Pimlico track, effectively dooming the Preakness.) Thirty percent of the gross revenue would go to slots operators over-the-table to augment their under-the-table take, $140 million per year would go to the horse race business as a blatant subsidy to an otherwise dying industry, and a portion would go to Maryland, ostensibly for education and treating gambling addiction.
This time there's a serious proposal to have a state referendum on the issue during next year's elections. Maryland doesn't have many voter referendums. And the ones we do have are usually dry and boring changes to the state constitution. A ballot issue to legalize slots would be fun: unrelenting TV advertisements, lies from the gaming industry, dire prognostications from the racing community, and vitriolic, acrimonious rhetoric from both sides of the issue. I'd love to see it come to a vote just for the entertainment value.
I have no use for slot machines or horse racing. I find both a wretched waste of time. You know the expression "like watching paint dry"? For me, slot machines and horse racing are like watching dry paint. And it's hard for me to think of an activity more lowbrow than feeding slot machines at a horse track. But unless the issue is gets to be decided by the voters, I'm sure the Maryland legislature will legalize the beasts.
I'll never understand the gaming mentality.
K-
