Rocky Gap

In response to The Sun's editorial on Western Maryland slots ( "Don't give up on Rocky Gap," Nov. 14): The better approach is to forget the site. There is a message when, for the second time, there was not a single submission. The site was a poor selection from the start. Rocky Gap is not a resort. It is one of Maryland's premier campgrounds, which my family and I love. My former fellow delegate, Casper R. Taylor Jr., as a representative of Allegheny County and as speaker of the House, used his political muscle to have a lodge and golf course placed on parkland.

Henceforth, let there by a rule that nothing can be compared to Maryland's failed investment at Rocky Gap, located just outside Cumberland in Western Maryland, except for Rocky Gap and perhaps any other $55 million white elephant loss that comes along. We know Rocky Gap. Rocky Gap is an acquaintance of ours. Sorry, Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay resort in Cambridge, but you're no Rocky Gap. Incidentally, let us insert a reminder here. Even the infamous Rocky Gap hotel and conference center isn't Rocky Gap anymore.

Is it fair to lower the costs of establishing a casino at Rocky Gap and continue the outrageous fees charged to those operators who already went out on a limb to get something going in Maryland ( "Slots panel wants to make Rocky Gap more attractive," Jan. 12)? I don't think so, but it confirms the lack of business experience of the politicians and governor of Maryland. F. Cordell, Lutherville

Gambling started Wednesday afternoon at the Rocky Gap Casino Resort right after the state approved the opening of its fourth casino, one that Western Maryland leaders hope will lure not only gamblers but also their families to a region eager for more tourist dollars. "It's open and jamming," said Scott Just, the general manager of the resort near Cumberland. "There's a couple hundred people in there. They were pressing up against the ropes. " The $35 million casino, located in what was the lakeside golf resort's conference center, will be open around the clock.

Henceforth, let there by a rule that nothing can be compared to Maryland's failed investment at Rocky Gap, located just outside Cumberland in Western Maryland, except for Rocky Gap and perhaps any other $55 million white elephant loss that comes along. We know Rocky Gap. Rocky Gap is an acquaintance of ours. Sorry, Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay resort in Cambridge, but you're no Rocky Gap. Incidentally, let us insert a reminder here. Even the infamous Rocky Gap hotel and conference center isn't Rocky Gap anymore.

Rarely has a real estate closing felt so overdue. With a unanimous 3-0 vote, the state Board of Public Works on Wednesday agreed to sell the Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort to Evitts Resort LLC, taking one of Maryland's most star-crossed government-backed developments of all time off the hands of state taxpayers. Evitts officials in attendance seemed almost shocked by the palpable sense of relief that pervaded the State House. If it's any comfort to the new owners, they're getting a great deal.

Comptroller Peter Franchot used the occasion Wednesday of his first vote on the Board of Public Works in favor of a casino deal to denounce Gov. Martin O'Malley's tentative plan to call a special session of the General Assembly to approve an expansion of gambling in Maryland. With O'Malley sitting alongside, Franchot said he was departing from his decade-long opposition to increased gambling to vote for a deal between the state and Evitts Resort LLC under which the company will take over the money-losing Rocky Gap lodge in Allegany County and install slot machines there.

After sinking millions of dollars into the dream of a world-class tourist destination in the mountains of Western Maryland, the state is poised to cut its losses and turn the Rocky Gap hotel and conference center over to a private company that plans to open a casino at the lakeside resort. The Board of Public Works is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the final series of agreements needed to complete the transfer of the $54 million complex in Allegany County from the quasi-public Maryland Economic Development Corp.

  A plan to rescue the chronically snake-bit resort at Rocky Gap by permitting slot machines there has hit yet another setback. A state commission granted a request Tuesday from the company that was granted a license to operate a Rocky gap casino to scale back its plans by more than one-third after failing to line up a lender for a more ambitious project at the Western Maryland resort. In April, after years of seeking a qualified bidder, the commission awarded a license to Evitts Resort LLC to operate a casino with 850 slots at Rocky Gap, a golf resort and convention center outsize Cumberland that has cost the state tens of millions of dollars since it opened in the 1990s.

Rocky Gap, the state-owned resort hotel in Western Maryland, has gorgeous views. It has a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. It has special deals on its restaurant meals — kids under 10 staying there eat free. What it doesn't have is an operator who wants to run a slots casino there. So Maryland lawmakers are doing what sellers do when they are having trouble luring buyers: They are sweetening the deal. This week, the Maryland Senate passed a measure that would cut the state's take on gambling revenue from the site to 50 percent for 10 years, rather than the 67 percent that operators of other Maryland casinos pay. The Senate deal-making did not stop there.

Maryland's fourth casino - the Rocky Gap Casino Resort - hopes to open its doors for gambling this week. The casino, which held a controlled demonstration on Monday, is awaiting final approval from the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control agency. The opening could come as soon as Wednesday or Thursday. Located off Interstate 68 near Cumberland, it will be the state's smallest casino. Evitts Resort, a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Lakes Entertainment, plans to operate 558 slot machines plus 10 table games at the casino.

The Rocky Gap Casino Resort hopes to open its doors for gaming in three weeks. In the meantime, the resort said today it's holding an open house this Saturday to offer customers - and the merely curious - a glimpse of the resort's upgrades The open house, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will allow the resort to show off its new hotel lobby and room renovations. Guests will be permitted to sign up for a loyalty program that will offer players points for frequent play on slots or table games.

Maryland's gaming control commission granted Rocky Gap Casino Resort preliminary approval Friday to begin gaming operations on May 22, pending the results of a controlled demonstration two days prior. Rocky Gap would become the state's fourth casino, and its smallest. Evitts Resort, a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Lakes Entertainment, plans to have only 558 slot machines and 10 tables games available, and has said it will hire 250 employees for its gaming operation. The casino will be open 24 hours a day. Table games will include blackjack, roulette, three-card Poker, Mississippi Stud and craps.

Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort, which will become the state's fourth operating casino when it opens later this year, will hold a job fair Saturday, Feb. 23 to fill about 250 full- and part-time jobs. The fair will be held at Allegany College of Maryland's Cumberland Campus in the Continuing Education Building and runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Human resources representatives from the hotel will be looking for candidates in many areas of the operation, including food service and casino gaming.

Annapolis may be located on the banks of the Severn River, but during the first three months of the year it often seems to be an island - so isolated are members of the General Assembly from real life. The gyrations of lawmakers over the high-stakes issues of gambling and transportation have produced many such only-in-the-State-House moments in recent years. So, naturally, it makes sense that when the two are combined - as in an absurd proposal to install 2,500 slot machines at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport - the result is the kind of empty, pandering legislation that does the institution no credit.

Maryland's casinos will be allowed to open 24 hours a day under new regulations approved Thursday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission that also relaxed limits on ATMs and lending to gamblers in the facilities. With the advent of full-scale casino gambling in Maryland after voters approved table games in the November election, the commission is updating the regulatory regime and relaxing some restrictions. The changes also added new rules, including some governing junkets that casinos provide to high-rolling gamblers.

Comptroller Peter Franchot on Wednesday denounced a revised deal that allowed the company licensed to operate a casino at the Rocky Gap resort in Allegany County to reduce the scale of the project as a "complete bait and switch" on the part of the company. Franchot had questioned why the modified deal, which cut the number of slot machines at the resort from 850 to 500, did not have to be brought back to the Board of Public Works for approval. "Don't you get the sense we're being played for fools here?"

Maryland's slots commission threw out a bid Friday by former state Democratic Party Chairman Nathan Landow to build a casino at Rocky Gap, leaving a single offer in play for the Western Maryland resort. The decision concerning one of Maryland's five casino sites came as lawmakers sparred over the idea of expanding gambling to a sixth location and allowing table games as well as the current slot machines. Donald Fry, the state slots commission chairman, said Landow's group failed to provide necessary financial and business data to support its bid. "We were never provided the full, detailed plan," Fry said after the commission voted 6-0 at a meeting in Annapolis to reject the bid. "Landow Partners is rejected for having deficiencies" in its proposal.

I cannot agree with letter writer Susan Beckwell of Bowie who suggested that we keep Maryland money in Maryland by approving a sixth casino at National Harbor which is being promoted by politicians from that area ("Question 7: Keep Maryland money in Maryland," Oct. 22). If one wants to really keep Maryland money in Maryland, then I strongly recommend that we build the other two casinos already approved in Baltimore City and at Rocky Gap to go along with Arundel Mills, Ocean Downs and Perryville and then see if a sixth one along the Potomac River is warranted..

Republicans in Maryland often wonder why they lose. The letter sent last week by Michael Steele and Audrey Scott to Maryland Republicans urging them to vote for expanded gambling is a perfect example of how the party solidifies its minority status. In it, the former Republican National Committee chairman and lieutenant governor and a former Maryland GOP chairwoman rally the troops for crony capitalism as if they were wearing Halloween masks of Senate President Mike Miller and Gov. Martin O'Malley.