Ocean City Mayor James N. Mathias Jr. doesn't have to stroll far from his beachwear shop on the resort town's boardwalk to learn what people are thinking.
Visitors, townsfolk and business owners regularly pull Mathias aside to tell him what's on their minds. And lately, he says, the big issue is slot machines.
"The No. 1 unabashed and unsolicited thing they say to me is, `Please keep the [casino-style] gambling out of Ocean City,'" Mathias said.
It's a message a legislative panel studying slots is likely to hear today as well, as it tours the Eastern Shore.
Nobody here - or in other regions being considered for slots - seems keen on having a round-the-clock, Wal-Mart-size slots casino in their back yard, even those who are perfectly happy to see slots in someone else's neighborhood.
Lawmakers are running into stiff resistance as they crisscross Maryland checking out potential sites for slots emporiums.
Significant opposition, mostly from residents and community groups, has surfaced at proposed sites in Baltimore, Prince George's County, Timonium, Laurel, Cecil County, Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore.
Opinion is sharply divided among residents, politicians and business people in some communities.
In Ocean City, opposition to casino-style gambling runs so deep that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. left the Ocean Downs harness racing track out of an unsuccessful slots-at-tracks measure he proposed this year.
But this fall, as the House Ways and Means Committee conducts its statewide slots study, "everything is on the table," according to Del. Sheila E. Hixson, committee chairwoman. That includes considering slots at Ocean Downs or at an off-track betting parlor in Cambridge, the Montgomery County Democrat said.
Mathias said the primary concern in Ocean City is that gambling will siphon tourist dollars from restaurants, bars, hotels and other businesses.
And casino-style gambling, he contends, isn't a good fit at Ocean City. "We're a caramel popcorn, crab cake, french fry and pizza kind of town," he said. "People make money here the old-fashioned way. They roll up their sleeves, and they work hard."
Other areas of the state where slots have been proposed or rumored have generated strong opposition as well.
