Keno

A single winning ticket for a record Powerball lottery jackpot worth $590.5 million was sold in Florida, organizers said late Saturday, but there was no word about who won. The winning numbers from Saturday night's drawing were: 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball number of 11. The odds of winning were put at one in 175 million. The winning ticket was sold at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, a suburb of Tampa, according to the Florida Lottery. The prize tempted many Marylanders to buy tickets for the lottery game before the 11 p.m. drawing.

While Marylanders are consumed with the debate over whether to allow a sixth casino and table games like poker and blackjack, the state is quietly moving ahead with an idea that could make gambling much more pervasive: Internet lottery sales. And in contrast to the state's casino program, which has been playing catch-up with neighboring states for years, the State Lottery Agency is contemplating plans that would instantly catapult Maryland to the cutting edge of this new frontier of gambling - all without the General Assembly ever taking a direct vote on the issue.

Lottery fanatics, compulsive gamblers and people who actually return Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes entries will love keno.Serious gamblers will stay away from it. They already do in the handful of states where keno is now legal. And in Las Vegas, they consider keno beneath contempt.It's much more profitable, knowledgeable gamblers say, to play blackjack, roulette, baccarat -- anything but keno. Much better to gamble at electronic poker or to while away an afternoon with a one-armed bandit.

The last poll I saw on slots showed about 54 percent of Marylanders still supporting a state constitutional amendment allowing the gambling machines. That support was not as large as it appeared to be eight or nine months ago, which fits a theory I have: The closer we get to Election Day, the more people will think about this, and the more they think about it, the more of a tossup the outcome. It all comes down to which of the following attitudes prevail. Hooked and happy You and your sister and your friends have been taking the bus to Atlantic City for years, hon. You started going to Delaware and West Virginia after those states set up machines at the tracks.

Maryland is getting the worst of everything from its decisio to heavily promote its keno electronic numbers game. The new game is sapping other lotteries of revenue and is coming up woefully short in meeting its own revenue goals. Even worse, keno has created new gambling addicts -- Marylanders who can't control their spending on this state-sponsored activity.For these individuals the state's latest venture into legalized gambling is fomenting tragedy. In just four months, 35 anguished callers have telephoned the hot line set up by the National Center for Pathological Gambling in Baltimore to get help with their keno binges.

When any state relies heavily on gambling revenue, you live by the sword and you die by the sword.. -- Del. Howard P. RawlingsKeno is a killer. It is killing the hopes of officials that this fast-paced numbers game would produce a bonanza for state coffers. And it is destroying the lives of countless Marylanders lured into excessive gambling on this addictive lottery game.Since its start in January, keno has proved a big disappointment. Even with new outlets added weekly, the electronic game has fallen 43 percent short of revenue projections.

If state legislators take a hard look at the Schaefe administration's proposed $12 billion budget, they are likely to find a number of areas where cuts can be made that could easily balance revenue and spending without perpetuating the dangerously fast-paced gambling game of keno.Gov. William Donald Schaefer says he can't balance his budget without the keno revenue. That's not so. In fact, if the governor would heed the advice of House Republican leaders, he might save a bundle of money and go a long way toward eliminating the need for keno.

With its eyes locked myopically on the bottom line, the Board of Public Works earlier this week gave the go-ahead to a massive expansion of legalized gambling in Maryland. Social consequences were never considered. Nor was much thought given to the propriety of the situation, in which the board made an unprecedented non-bid award of $49 million to GTECH, a computer company with influential lobbyists that is aggressively seeking to extend state-sanctioned gambling as far and as fast as possible.

Had it not been for the disastrous performance of Maryland's keno lottery game, Gov. William Donald Schaefer would be sitting on a cushy $110 million surplus. As it is, he's got a mere $4 million excess to see him through the last six months of the fiscal year that ends June 30.We have said all along that governments should not rely on gambling revenue. It is too unpredictable. In the case of keno, it was clear from the outset that keno was a killer: It killed off interest in traditional lottery games and failed to ignite much excitement on its own. In fact, lottery officials have had a hard time selling keno machines to businesses.

Unless Mayor Roland E. "Fish" Powell can stop the state in court, Ocean City soon could lose its image as a family sea-side resort. Big-time gambling, in the form of fast-paced keno, is on its way into town.Mayor Powell isn't the only local official in Maryland concerned about the insidious implications of this vast gambling expansion being pushed by the Schaefer administration. In Westminster, Mayor W. Benjamin Brown wanted to slow the keno invasion by forcing all operators to get a conditional-use permit.

A City Council committee approved a bill yesterday that could double the number of video poker games in local bars and restaurants, and expand the types of establishments that can have the games to include convenience stores that offer Keno, a game sponsored by the state lottery. The Land Use and Transportation Committee voted to move the bill to the full council but not before it was amended to provide public notice and appeal to affected neighborhoods.

IT'S OPEN season again on horse racing as the Maryland General Assembly debates permitting racetracks to become "racinos" - combining horse racing and slot machines. The critics portray racinos as a last-gasp effort to prop up a dying sport. But in many ways, horse racing has never been healthier. More than 100,000 people regularly attend the Preakness, more than 2 1/2 times the number who saw Seabiscuit beat War Admiral at Pimlico in 1938. There are also now two horse racing TV channels that broadcast races every day to millions of homes throughout the country, and people watching at home can bet over the phone or on the Internet.

Keno - not the Mega Millions $100 million jackpot - generated all of the excitement yesterday afternoon at the 8 Days A Week Convenience Mart in Parkville, where Bonnie Hacker walked away a $20,000 winner. And it couldn't have happened at a better time. "I just lost my job," said Hacker, a Parkville resident. "It seems I've had a streak of bad luck for seven years." Holding tight to the winning ticket, Hacker left after verifying with a store clerk that she had the correct numbers for the payout.

Would you restore an antique American tavern table whose maple finish is scarred by centuries-old wear and tear? Say "yes," and you might be sorry. "The finish on a piece of furniture is viewed by many people similarly to the way an archaeologist or historian views an archaeological site," says Leslie Keno, senior specialist in American furniture at Sotheby's auction house in New York. According to Keno, a frequent appraiser of American furniture on PBS' Antiques Roadshow, an antique that has sustained damage over the centuries may be more valuable because of its flaws.

A computer glitch knocked Maryland's lottery out of commission for 1 1/2 hours early yesterday -- a rare, systemwide shutdown -- and the lottery lost one of its numbers games for much of the day.Buddy Roogow, director of the state lottery agency, said it appears the shutdown was the fault of the contractor that operates the system, Atlanta-based Advanced Wagering International (AWI).If so, Roogow said, AWI would be responsible for paying losses the state incurred.Roogow said he expects losses to be small because the system was down from 5: 30 a.m. to 7 a.m., before many of the state's 4,000 lottery agents had opened for business.

Yet another quiet week in the race for Maryland comptroller. Former Gov. William Donald Schaefer's minions make plans for a big fund-raiser on Aug. 26. Republicans run around looking for ways to remind voters that Schaefer nostalgia may not hold up to scrutiny.Memories are made of such weeks in Schaefer history as Aug. 9 through Aug. 15, 1993:Gov. William Donald Schaefer is miffed when his great friend, Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein, seizes the opportunity to grandstand on the subject of instant lottery machines.

Add state Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein to the growing list o critics who are lining up in opposition to keno, the new gambling game that began today at 600 locations in Maryland. And 1st District Rep. Wayne Gilchrest. And the Talbot County Council. It's the wrong way to raise public revenue, they all agree.Keno is a fast-paced, highly addictive form of electronic gambling. The state features a new drawing every five minutes, from 6 o'clock in the morning till midnight. Two hundred sixteen drawings a day. In bars, restaurants, pizza joints and bowling alleys.

Keno, described by the Lottery Agency's marketing department as "a fun, easy to understand and entertaining lottery game," is turning out to be anything but fun for some lottery agents who are being strong-armed to offer this fast-paced game of chance. The Schaefer administration's haste in bringing keno to Maryland -- regardless of adverse consequences -- has led to unseemly marketing practices and an appalling failure to conduct criminal-background checks on new lottery agents.State lottery officials admit to pressuring existing agents who don't want to offer keno by reminding them they could lose their franchises.

PHOENIX -- Citing poor performance, the Arizona Lottery dumped the company yesterday that will be taking over Maryland's $1 billion-a-year lottery business.In a drastic step, the lottery commission voted unanimously to terminate its 6-month-old contract with Automated Wagering International after frustrated members learned that it would take another six months for the computer system to be working properly.The computer system Arizona rejected is very similar to the one AWI plans to install for the Maryland Lottery in July.

When Automated Wagering International offered to run Maryland's lottery games for half the current price, company officials said superior technology and leaner operations enabled them to propose the bargain-basement price.But AWI Executive Vice President Charles Brooke has added another, more intriguing explanation of a bid so low it sent a buzz through lottery industry observers around the country.The company, he said, wanted a chance to run its first keno operation, the rapid-fire numbers game played at bars.