Keno Game

Economic trend lines are up, the Christmas buying season is expected to be big, and housing sales are on the rise, state tax collector Louis L. Goldstein said yesterday as he delivered Maryland's most upbeat economic prediction in about four years."

The U.S. attorney in Maryland is set to begin an investigation of state contracts for lottery computers, including the recent no-bid, $49 million deal for a keno game approved last week.Richard E. Bennett, the U.S. attorney, said he would disclose detailed plans after he meets tomorrow with Del. Leon G. Billings, a Montgomery Democrat who wrote to him on Dec. 4 requesting an investigation. Mr. Bennett said yesterday that he took Mr. Billings' request "very seriously."The U.S. attorney has been concerned about the lottery contracts and has been examining them unofficially for some time, sources say. The keno award, along with Mr. Billings' letter, has moved him to act."

Here's the latest sales pitch for your holiday shopping dollar:Play "el Gordo" and win $10 million.The Maryland State Lottery will unveil today a monthlong game called "el Gordo." Patterned after a Spanish lottery, it is billed as the first of its kind in the U.S."El Gordo" -- literally, "the Fat One" -- has a $10 million jackpot and thousands of other prizes ranging from $25 to $1 million. The odds against winning range from 100 to 1 for the $25 prize to 5 million to 1 for the jackpot.Tickets will cost $5. Lottery officials hope they will be a popular stocking stuffer.

This computer center is so top secret no cameras are allowed inside -- well, sort of."It would be like photographing a missile site," Carroll H. Hynson Jr., the Maryland Lottery spokesman, warns with a straight face while negotiating the ground rules for a visiting reporter."

SNOW HILL -- County Circuit Judge Theodore R. Eschenburg Jr. has given the State Lottery Agency until Jan. 22 to respond to a complaint filed by Ocean City officials, who are trying to block the agency's keno numbers game.The judge signed the order after an attorney for Ocean City, Guy R. Ayres III, filed a complaint and a request for an injunction yesterday.A copy of the lawsuit was to be served on lottery officials, with another copy sent to Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., who will have to defend the agency in court.

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.

Powerful ArticleEric Siegel's Dec. 20 article, "Unfazed by foes, state is gearing up for keno," powerfully describes how owners of pubs, taverns, restaurants and bowling alleys are acquiescing to intimidation tactics used by lottery officials to carry keno gambling in fear of losing their lottery franchises.Next year, when the governor discovers a new budget shortfall, what creative new strategy will he initiate to take keno's place?I say it's time for business owners and the citizens of Maryland to unite.

GTECH Corp. plans to lay off workers at its newly acquired AmTote International division in Hunt Valley, and said yesterday that it was considering moving at least part of the 250-worker operation to Florida."

It sounds so simple: Institute new lottery-style gambling in Maryland similar to electronic keno and the state earns $50 million this fiscal year and $100 million (or more) in future years. But like all tales involving a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, this proposal is fraught with peril. It could prove to be a minus for Maryland.Gov. William Donald Schaefer has been persuaded to implement this plan to help balance the state budget. That is a commendable reason, but not if this game hurts Maryland's racing industry, competes with other lottery games and undercuts the Maryland Stadium Authority.

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.