Gambling

For Frank Carulli, it's not just a cliche anymore. He really is going to be living the dream in a few weeks. The longtime Maryland Jockey Club handicapper and race analyst is working his final Preakness on Saturday and will finish out the spring meet at Pimlico Race Course before packing up his speed charts and moving to ... well, where else? Las Vegas. That's not breaking news, since his pending departure was announced in March to give the casinos on the Strip a chance to build up their cash reserves, but it still calls for further elaboration.

Maryland has become the third state to offer a voluntary system to restrict the ability to play the lottery, officials announced Tuesday. The program is an expansion of the casino exclusion program launched in 2011, several months after Maryland's first casino opened. People on that list agree to be cited for trespassing if found in one of the state's casinos. Once signed up for the lottery exclusion list, a person is required to forfeit any lottery prize winnings — including from scratch-off tickets — to the Maryland Problem Gambling Fund.

Maryland is getting hooked on gambling. This state's addiction to games of chance is becoming so ingrained that it's scary. Off-track betting parlors springing up. Lotto machines in over 1,000 locations. Casino gambling throughout Prince George's County. Tip jars in Western Maryland. Slots on the Eastern Shore. And the ubiquitous -- and usually illegal -- electronic poker machines in taverns and food stores.Yet senators and delegates in Annapolis are eager to close their eyes to the possible corruption and misdeeds taking place.

For Frank Carulli, it's not just a cliche anymore. He really is going to be living the dream in a few weeks. The longtime Maryland Jockey Club handicapper and race analyst is working his final Preakness on Saturday and will finish out the spring meet at Pimlico Race Course before packing up his speed charts and moving to ... well, where else? Las Vegas. That's not breaking news, since his pending departure was announced in March to give the casinos on the Strip a chance to build up their cash reserves, but it still calls for further elaboration.

The op-ed piece by Martin G. Knott Jr. in The Sun ("Expand gaming now," July 5) contained good thinking and writing, but the syntax was disingenuous - the word, "gaming," was used throughout (15 times). Nowhere was the honest word, "gambling," used. Why? Could it be that "gambling" has negative connotations? Well, of course! And not just connotations but effects. Gambling becomes an addiction that destroys families, both emotionally and economically. More "gaming" in Maryland will boost the economy, says Mr. Knott.

I just spent a wonderful day off in Delaware Park, playing in two poker tournaments, shooting craps and playing blackjack. I actually won a few bucks that I spent in tax-free Delaware. When I returned to Baltimore, I saw that the slots parlor in Ocean City would open soon. Every state around us has full casinos, and we are now getting slots. That is just what we need — another way to tax the poor and the uneducated. There is nothing more mindless than pulling handles all day long, and like the lottery, slots give the worst odds in the casino.

Though Gov. Martin O'Malley just called a May 14 special session to deal with budget issues Friday, the General Assembly's staff and a consultant are already laying the groundwork for a possible second act in late summer. Warren Deschenaux, chief policy analyst for the Department of Legislative Services, said his staff and the firm of Price Waterhouse have begun preparations for a study of the issues surrounding an expansion of gambling in Maryland. Price Waterhouse is already under contract with the department to conduct studies for the state commission that decides where slot machines can be located.

It is appropriate that we worry about the 13 people who were caught "Partying on the city's dime" (March 29). But where is the outrage for the "too big to fail gang" of Wall Street bankers who fleeced the common folks, gambled away the lives of so many hard-working citizens and caused world-wide economic robbery? When will they be apprehended and brought to justice? When will we seize their champagne and thwart their unbridled arrogance? An old English verse helps us to understand what is going on: "The law locks up both man and woman who steal the goose from off the common.

Dan Rodricks has finally figured out the tremendous amount of money that can be made if states took advantage of sports betting and legalized gambling ( "States miss out on Super Bowl wagering," Feb. 6). He says these funds would alleviate states' budget deficits and give taxpayers a break. that's what the majority of Marylanders have said for the last 9 years regarding legalized casinos and slots. Wasn't it Mr. Rodricks who wrote about all the "criminal activity" of casinos and that slots would take advantage of minorities and people least able to lose their mortgage money?

House leaders met behind closed doors in Annapolis Monday afternoon to discuss gambling and the possibility of a special session. No decisions were made, said House Speaker Michael E. Busch afterward. He called Democratic leaders to Annapolis "to listen to their views and opinions" on expanding a sixth casino, table games and the work group that dissolved last month. Some of the House members of that work group attended to explain why talks fell apart. "There was not consensus in that group," Busch said.

Soccer Wake's Harris, Gamble among new Bohemians Two players from Wake Forest, goalkeeper Andrew Harris (Gilman) and forward Michael Gamble (McDonogh), have joined the Baltimore Bohemians of the United Soccer Leagues' Premier Development League. Other new players include midfielders Julio Arjona (George Mason), Malcolm Harris (McDonogh, Denver), Austin Martz (Georgetown), Sam Tana (St. Paul's, Susquehanna) and Geaton Caltabiano (Mount St. Joseph, UMBC)

David Waldemar Gjerde, a retired Procter & Gamble executive who became a restaurant investor and consultant to his sons, Spike and Charlie, died of a heart attack May 2 at his Cockeysville home. He was 75. Born in Mankato, Minn., he was the son of Waldemar Gjerde, an engineer, and the former Ferne Sorenson, a church organist. Raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, he earned an engineering degree from the University of Iowa. He served in the Army National Guard. He joined Procter & Gamble in Iowa and moved to Maryland in 1968 with his wife, the former Alice Silletto, and their two sons.

In November, voters approved a major expansion of Maryland's gambling program on the promise that allowing table games and eventually building a sixth casino would ensure that the gambling dollars state residents spend would go toward funding education here and not in states like West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania. This week, we got the first preliminary snapshot of how that bargain is working out, and it should give us some pause. The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission reported its first set of figures since the Maryland Live Casino in Anne Arundel County added table games.

The knock on Gov. Martin O'Malley by his critics is that everything he does is an effort to pad his resume for a presumed run for president. The latest evidence: He enacted Maryland's most sweeping gun control measures in a generation, abolished the death penalty, secured the most significant boost in state transportation funding since the Schaefer administration, laid the groundwork for a wind farm off the Ocean City coast, passed legislation that...

There appears to be yet another reality check for those who thought that casino gambling would save horse racing in Maryland: twice as many horses were euthanized at Maryland race tracks last year (21) as in the previous year. Apparently track conditions and animal care regimens have not changed;  speculation is that with slot gambling responsible for larger purses, more horses are being raced in less than perfect condition. Casino gambling was supposed to be the panacea for Maryland's woes. Yet we have new and higher taxes, and now the animals are paying, too.  Marjorie Schulenburg Laurel

SARASOTA, Fla. - This is the time of year when every best-case scenario seems plausible, so you can't really blame Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette for trotting out just about every one available to him on Tuesday. The Orioles will open spring workouts with much the same team that reached the playoffs last year, and without a dynamic offseason acquisition to juice up the starting rotation or the batting order. The front office apparently is convinced - or just wants to convince you - that there is enough talent already in place to replicate last year's success.

A task force on a possible expansion of gambling is scheduled to receive projections Tuesday from the state's consultants on the likely impact of allowing a sixth casino in Maryland while permitting table games. The answers the panel receives from the firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers could help its 11 members decide which actions -- if any -- they will recommend to the General Assembly and Gov.Martin O'Malley. The governor has said that if the Work Group to Consider Gaming Expansion can help forge a consensus that could pass both houses of the legislature, he would call a special session July 9 to deal with the issue.

The Sun's headline "Gambling expansion remains in limbo" (July 7) and the accompanying story on efforts to hold a special session on gambling this summer quoted the governor as saying he will "continue to look for a consensus. " That could mean holding a special session at which lawmakers would vote on proposals to authorize a sixth casino in Maryland and allow table games such as poker at all six. Yet the Maryland Constitution, Article II, Section 16 states "the Governor shall convene the Legislature, or Senate alone, on extraordinary occasions.

Kevin Spacey calls “House of Cards” “the new television series that isn't on television.” And therein lies one of the biggest media stories of the year: Whether spending $100 million to hire an Oscar-winning star and one of the most gifted feature film directors in Hollywood can lead to a TV series compelling enough to change the way viewers have been watching television most or all of their lives. In one of the biggest media gambles of the decade, Spacey, David Fincher, Netflix and a production company you probably never heard of named Media Rights Capital are betting that the 13 episodes of a political drama they created in and around Baltimore last year can alter the basic TV business model that's essentially been in place since the 1950s.

While much of the focus in the offseason and preseason was on the negotiations for a long-term deal between the Ravens and quarterback Joe Flacco, cornerback Cary Williams also took a risk and declined a three-year, $15 million extension. But Williams said he never viewed his decision as a risk. “I just left it in God's hands,” he said after Friday's practice. “At the end of the day, I knew that God had brought me this far, and all of that hard work and preparation was going to come into play, and I just continued to keep my head down, continued to do what I'm normally doing, and I felt success would be there.