Gambling

House lawmakers this morning had the first crack at asking questions about a new Senate-passed bill to expand gambling. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's chief of staff Vicki Gruber explained the bill to delegates, saying there is "no doubt" that a sixth site in Prince George's County will bring "significant additional revenues" for Maryland. The bill would put a three part question on the November 2012 ballot: Voters would decide if they want a sixth casino in PG, to increase the number of VLTs in the state by 1,000 to 16,000, and allow table games at all MD casinos.

As the new year begins, you can make a bet on one thing: Nineteen ninety-five will be the Year of the Gambler in Maryland. Everywhere you look, folks are trying to expand legalized gambling.Many of the state's biggest lobbyists have signed up high-powered gambling companies interested in getting permission to line the Chesapeake Bay and all its tributary shoreline with casinos containing roulette wheels, craps games, blackjack and halls filled with slot machines. They are expected to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to win over the legislature and the governor.

If the Maryland General Assembly chooses to approve slot machines, lawmakers ought to at least take the precaution of setting parameters on the gambling industry's influence in Annapolis. Records show that individuals with ties to gambling contributed more than $1.25 million to state candidates and political parties over the past four years - on top of spending more than twice as much on lobbying during the last two. Other industries may contribute as much to those in power, but none has the same level of dependence on state licensing - and there's no more valuable license then one that allows gambling.

Maryland's harness-racing owners and trainers, through their Cloverleaf association, have taken the bait: They decided this week to form a partnership with a major casino-gambling company as a way to rescue their two floundering tracks. The harness horsemen may discover that they are only pawns in a much bigger struggle to legalize casinos throughout the state.Bally Entertainment Corp., with giant casinos in Nevada and Atlantic City and riverboat gambling along the Mississippi, now has a tentative agreement to manage Rosecroft and Delmarva Downs, though the company has never run a race track before.

In the contest between marijuana and gambling to gain acceptance by generating new tax revenue, gambling just pulled three reels of cherries. Just before Christmas, the Justice Department dropped its ancient opposition to most kinds of Internet wagering, saying that the 1961 Interstate Wire Act bans only sports bets online. That the flip-flop was a sheepish bow to expediency and the need for revenue can be inferred from the timing of the announcement (when everybody was distracted by the holiday)

ONE MIGHT foolishly assume that this year's debate over legalized slot machines in Maryland produced only unhappiness. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. couldn't get the General Assembly to agree to install thousands of slot machines at a half-dozen locations. Legislative leaders couldn't get Mr. Ehrlich to consider balancing future budgets any other way. But for one group of men and women, it was, in fact, a terrific session. The lobbyists employed by gambling interests raked in $2.3 million over the last half-year - and no doubt celebrated their good fortune (because they sure spent a lot on parties)

Public school students would be the big loser if the tax rate is reduced for the owners of slots licenses ("Gambling's taxing issue," June 3). Under current law, the tax rate on slots is 67 percent. Nearly half of the state's revenue (48.5 percent) goes directly to the Education Trust Fund. Those dollars can be used only for education. With five fully operating sites, $513.3 million is projected for the fund in Fiscal Year 2015. However, that tax rate would be reduced by a third, to 42.5 percent, under a proposal by the developers of a sixth site at National Harbor inPrince George's County.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Gov. Martin O'Malley plan to meet with members of Baltimore's state legislative delegation at City Hall Wednesday morning to gauge their support for a sixth casino, a city hall spokesman said. The meeting would be the latest step in renewed effort by the state's Democratic leaders to squeeze a summer special session on gambling before an Aug. 20 deadline. The city's 18-member House delegation has, so far, committed to tying their casino support to an unrelated measure that would give the city school system additional bonding authority.

The work group set up by Gov.Martin O'Malleyto try to reach a consensus on whether to expand gambling in Maryland is continuing to meet behind closed doors as a Who's Who of the state's lobbying corp cools their heels outside a House committee room where the panel was scheduled to hold a public session at 1 p.m. About 3 p.m., alternate member Sen. George Edwards emerged to hit the road for Western Maryland and said it could be a while longer before...

Gov. Martin O'Malley named an 11-member work group Monday night to study a possible expansion of gambling in Maryland and announced that if the group can reach consensus he would call a special session July 9 to vote on casino legislation. O'Malley selected John Morton III, chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority and prominent business executive, to chair the panel. Representing the administration will be Budget Secretary T. Eloise Foster, chief of staff Matthew Gallagher, appointments secretary Jeanne Hitchcock and chief legislative aide Joseph Bryce.