The pro-slots group For Maryland, For Our Future, has gotten off to a rocky start of its own. Track owners at two of the five locations who are poised to reap a windfall if the measure passes have balked at various aspects of the referendum and so far have withheld contributions to the effort.
Top officials at Magna Entertainment Corp., the Canadian company that owns Laurel Park - the likely recipient of a slots license under the geographic parameters outlined in the referendum - have complained that the racetrack was not specifically named in the legislation. And William Rickman Jr., who owns the Ocean Downs track on the Eastern Shore, has said that he does not plan to do "heavy lobbying" to gain passage of the referendum.
During the recently concluded 90-day General Assembly session, slots backers won the support of the Maryland Association of Counties and the Maryland State Teachers Association, though the latter came after Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller told the group's board members that education funding probably would be cut if the referendum failed.
