Commercial Bingo

The Amusement License Commission will hold a public hearing this afternoon on proposed regulations for renewing commercial bingo licenses.In January the County Council created the commission to develop the regulations after the county's bingo industry, the only one in the country outside of Indian reservations, was tarred with allegations of mob connections.Under the proposals, the director of licensing must provide the operator of a bingo parlor a renewal application within 100 days before the existing license is due to expire.

About two weeks after his proposal to tax rental cars crashed at the State House, County Executive John R. Leopold faces a challenge to keep his bid to raise the commercial bingo tax from stalling. The County Council shelved the bingo bill until Leopold announces his first spending plan in May, suggesting that the county executive's call for "revenue enhancements" has lost steam, some business leaders, lawmakers and observers say. "Apparently [the council] would like to see the shape of the budget to see if it's worth taking the political hit, depending on where the money could go in the budget," said Dan Nataf, director of the Center for the Study of Local Issues at Anne Arundel Community College.

The County Council decided Monday night not to explore whether commercial bingo, a fixture in Anne Arundel for half a century, should be allowed to continue. By a 7-0 vote, the council deleted from a bingo parlor bill a provision that would have directed the county Amusement License Commission to study the industry's future and report to the council. However, the council moved toward limiting the current operations -- passing an amendment, on a 4-3 vote, that would prohibit the four existing commercial bingo parlors from moving operations to another location in the county.

Players at Anne Arundel County's three commercial bingo halls will see larger prizes and a wider variety of games this spring after the County Council voted this week to loosen bingo regulations. Bingo merchants, representing a $9 million-a-year industry in the county, say the bigger jackpots and new games will allow them to remain competitive with gambling halls in neighboring states and help protect them if slot machines come to Maryland. Anne Arundel - which could receive slots under plans being considered by the General Assembly - is one of three jurisdictions in the state, along with Calvert and Washington counties, that license commercial bingo.

Liz Donegan eyes her bingo card through a curtain of cigarette smoke, silently imploring the announcer at Wayson's Bingo to utter two syllables that will make her day: B-5. If she wins, Donegan will pocket $1,000 in prize money and bragging rights from the wisecracking crew on the van back to Annapolis. She'll also renew her faith in the southern Anne Arundel County institution where the 61-year-old former housekeeper has whiled away the hours -- and thousands of dollars -- for years. All around some 450 people hope to deny Donegan the pleasure, ink-filled daubers poised like daggers above their bingo sheets.

B-12, I-21, B-6, N-32, I-25 ... During a recent night at Bingo World in Linthicum, three sisters from Glen Burnie - Sandy, Donna and Brenda - play nearly 100 cards between them. "This is our time out: no work, no kids, no husbands," says Sandy Turner, 44, a once-a-week regular at the commercial bingo hall, where the smells of French fries and cigarette smoke hang in the air. Like a hopeful handful of the more than 400 other players, the sisters are just one call from winning bingo. Commercial bingo operators, on the other hand, worry that they're one call from losing their game.

The owners of Arundel Arena, the Brooklyn Park home of Bingo World, have sued to force Anne Arundel County to consider their bid to operate commercial bingo.The county had advertised in February that it had a sixth commercial bingo license available. In April, the Department of Planning and Code Enforcement turned down Arundel Arena, the sole applicant.In a suit filed Friday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, Arundel Arena claims the county inappropriately viewed its application as conditional and as being unresponsive to the county proposal.

County Councilwoman Maureen Lamb wants the county to regulate non-profit bingo operations.Lamb, D-Annapolis, has asked a county task force that just spent 10 months drafting a bill reforming the commercial bingo industry to train its sights on non-profit operations, suchas those run by churches and Elks lodges.Lamb said she didn't expect the task force to turn up the same kind of corruption that has plagued the commercial bingo industry. She said she made her request because of comments made during hearings onthe commercial bingo bill, which is set for a public hearing and final vote Jan. 6."

It's a familiar scene in rural southern Anne Arundel County: Buses pull up to Wayson's Bingo and spill out gamblers from around the region. All hope fortune will smile on them inside the nondescript hall filled with old-timers and endless twisting plumes of cigarette smoke. But Wayson's and two other commercial bingo operators - Bingo World in Brooklyn Park and Daily Double Bingo in Laurel - want to be able to dangle even bigger cash lures to patrons in hopes of boosting business. That, in turn, would pad profits and help them continue to thrive, or at least, survive, they say. The small but politically connected industry has proposed changing county law to increase cash prizes for the first time since 1991.

Two decisions this week by county officials have brought commercial bingo under scrutiny, and could signal an end to a half-century of gaming in Anne Arundel County. This week, five County Council members sponsored legislation to limit the number of commercial licenses in the county to three and to ask the Amusement License Commission to study whether commercial bingo should be allowed any more. Anne Arundel is one of the last places in the country outside Nevada and Indian reservations that allow commercial bingo, where games are played for profit rather than charity.

The Anne Arundel County Council approved a bill last night that will raise prize limits at the county's three commercial bingo halls. The county's bingo merchants say larger prizes will allow them to compete with gambling halls in neighboring states and with a possible influx of slot machines into Maryland. This bill "attempts to salvage the competitive viability of commercial bingo in Anne Arundel County," said Michael Leahy, an Annapolis attorney who lobbies for the bingo industry. The bill allows "progressive" bingo, a game where prize totals increase every time someone fails to win, and "linked" bingo, a game where players from various locations compete over Internet, phone or satellite connections.

Rows and rows of players hunch over long, brown tables, puffing cigarettes as they use fat markers to color each square that corresponds to the numbers flashing on boards in each corner of the hall. The scene at Bingo World - a large, open hall located just off the highway in Brooklyn Park - rarely changes, whether it's a chilly afternoon in March or a balmy evening in August. But the operators of Bingo World and Anne Arundel County's other two commercial bingo establishments worry that competition, especially from slot machines, could wreck that stability.

Anne Arundel County, which recently barred its police officers from working off hours as security guards in the county's bingo parlors, also is investigating whether a moonlighting officer might have failed to prevent a suspected arson at a school construction site. The incident, as well as the new prohibition on performing security work at bingo parlors, highlights a problem for police departments nationwide that permit moonlighting, despite concerns that the actions of an off-duty officer could affect the image -- and possibly incur the liability -- of an entire department.

Anne Arundel officials have tabled a proposal that would bring video bingo machines resembling slot machines to the county's three commercial bingo halls. Some critics, such as state Speaker of the House Michael E. Busch, painted the proposal as a backdoor attempt to bring slot-style gambling to Maryland without state approval. Disputes over legalizing slots have dominated state politics for the past two years. The county's advisory committee on amusement and licensing voted 3-2 in June to allow the machines, known as "Triple Threat Bingo."

In what could signal the start of a video gambling gold rush in Maryland, an Anne Arundel bingo hall operator is seeking permission from the county to put devices that are virtually indistinguishable from slot machines into his establishment. Dozens more bingo operators could follow suit in what gambling experts say is the latest wave of gambling expansion - essentially video slot machines that have been modified to technically comply with state laws that permit bingo but prohibit traditional slots.

B-12, I-21, B-6, N-32, I-25 ... During a recent night at Bingo World in Linthicum, three sisters from Glen Burnie - Sandy, Donna and Brenda - play nearly 100 cards between them. "This is our time out: no work, no kids, no husbands," says Sandy Turner, 44, a once-a-week regular at the commercial bingo hall, where the smells of French fries and cigarette smoke hang in the air. Like a hopeful handful of the more than 400 other players, the sisters are just one call from winning bingo. Commercial bingo operators, on the other hand, worry that they're one call from losing their game.

The Anne Arundel County Council approved a bill last night that will raise prize limits at the county's three commercial bingo halls. The county's bingo merchants say larger prizes will allow them to compete with gambling halls in neighboring states and with a possible influx of slot machines into Maryland. This bill "attempts to salvage the competitive viability of commercial bingo in Anne Arundel County," said Michael Leahy, an Annapolis attorney who lobbies for the bingo industry. The bill allows "progressive" bingo, a game where prize totals increase every time someone fails to win, and "linked" bingo, a game where players from various locations compete over Internet, phone or satellite connections.

One company badly wanted to open Anne Arundel County's fifth commercial bingo parlor, only to be rebuffed by county regulators who sided with worried Broadneck area residents. The other company has one of the coveted four bingo licenses in Arundel, but the county says its management has been so spotty that it cannot keep operating. Now, as luck would have it, the two businesses are coming together to keep Treasure City bingo hall in Annapolis open and to satisfy their own financial interests.