Opponents of a casino at Arundel Mills mall appear to have enough signatures to force a voters' referendum in November that could block the largest site of the state's fledging slots effort.
According to its Web site, the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections has accepted 19,054 signatures - more than the necessary 18,970 - on a petition to place a slots referendum on the fall ballot. The petition seeks to overturn a hard-won zoning measure to allow a 4,750-machine parlor to be built on a mall parking lot.
Slots opponents submitted 40,407 signatures. The elections board has until March 25 to complete the validation process, at which time the board would certify the accepted signatures.
"We have in excess of the threshold at this juncture," said Tom Chuckas, president of the Maryland Jockey Club, which financed the referendum effort sponsored by Citizens Against Slots at the Mall. "This says to us that the people who signed the petition believe that the facility is not properly located at a mall. We supported a position that was supported by Anne Arundel County residents. The referendum will stand and win."
The referendum effort still faces hurdles. Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., the casino developer, sued the elections board last month, contending that the board failed to detect what the suit characterized as widespread fraud in the petition drive. A judicial review could take months. The county state's attorney has forwarded the allegations to the state prosecutor's office.
The suit calls Citizens Against Slots "a sham entity that is nothing more than a stooge of the Maryland Jockey Club." Magna Entertainment Corp., owner of Laurel Park, bid for the county's sole slots facility license but was rejected because it didn't pay the required state fees. Instead, the state awarded the license to Cordish, which in its suit contends that the Jockey Club has a "substantial financial interest" in overturning the company's slots license.
Chuckas said the lawsuit was based on "totally false allegations."
David Cordish, president of the Cordish Cos, said in an interview that there's "almost no chance" of the petition reaching the ballot, and his company is proceeding "full speed ahead. I haven't been surprised yet in this process, and I don't think I will be."
"The odds are overwhelming that the petitions will be held by the courts to be invalid," said Cordish.
