OCEAN CITY — OCEAN CITY - The dusty harness track in Berlin, with its minor-league charm and horse-and-buggy night races, is no threat to the tourism juggernaut on the beach five miles away - and that's just how Ocean City business and political leaders want to keep it.
But if Marylanders vote in November to legalize slot machine gambling, Ocean Downs is the likely site for a 2,500-machine casino, a prospect that conjures nightmares in the minds of town officials, who envision tourists so transfixed by glittery one-armed bandits that they forgo boardwalk skee-ball and salt-water taffy - or give up on Ocean City altogether.
"Ocean City is Maryland's only recreational beach resort, and we send hundreds of millions of dollars to the state, over $100 million every year," said Mayor Rick Meehan, referring to taxes generated by tourism. "Why would anyone want to hurt that?"
Slots proponents, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, say that the local business leadership's fears are overblown. They say expanded gambling is necessary to avoid deep budget cuts and to prevent millions in Marylanders' dollars from continuing to flow to nearby states that have slots and casinos, such as Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey.
"The business people I've talked to while down here have told me ... they think it's a good idea and can't understand why people are opposed to it," O'Malley, a Democrat, said after an event on the boardwalk last week during the annual Maryland Association of Counties conference. "It's a reasonable proposal, it's moderate, it's limited and it's very much state-controlled."
Indeed, not all small businesses on and off the boardwalk are falling in line with the local Chamber of Commerce's claim of consensus opposition to slots.
Anna Dolle Bushnell, co-owner of Dolle's Candyland, a salt-water taffy and popcorn emporium on the boardwalk since 1910, said she didn't think slots "would be terrible, as long as it stays over there" at Ocean Downs. A casino might boost business in the off-season, she said: "In the fall, I would think they would bring in lots of bus trips and things like that."
More than 130 blocks north, the co-owner of Little Rock Lizzie's restaurant said he hadn't given much thought to slots but was leaning in their favor. "I believe it would help control taxes and provide some revenue in off-season months," said Neil Rocklin. "That would be a positive thing."
