Slot Machines

What Maryland horse racing needs isn't slot machines, which would only further degrade its once noble presence, but a vibrant leadership that commands attention, creates excitement and reinvigorates interest in a sport that hasn't done much to help itself.If it means that Joe DeFrancis and his family sell their interest in Pimlico, Laurel and the training facility at Bowie then perhaps that possibility needs to be addressed. The public and, no doubt, the legislators are weary of the on-going demands the industry -- meaning the ever pressing DeFrancis -- continues to place upon the state government.

One day after a state task force resoundingly opposed casinos, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said he would support bringing slot machines to Maryland's thoroughbred race tracks."

The way the Elks and the Moose see it, Maryland would be a lot better off if they could set up slot machines throughout the state.Members of fraternal and veterans organizations flocked to Annapolis yesterday to urge state legislators to legalize slot machine gambling in their halls on the Western Shore. Slots are already legal at fraternal lodges on the Eastern Shore.Wearing the cloth hats of their clubs, about 40 men packed the meeting room of the House of Delegates Judiciary Committee at a hearing on gambling bills that failed in the 1992 General Assembly session.

State authorities have launched two separate investigations into the loosely regulated revenue generated by slot machines that bring millions of dollars to fraternal clubs on the Eastern Shore.In one investigation, the Maryland attorney general's office and an Annapolis grand jury are looking into whether revenue from the slots has been properly spent and accounted for. Investigators are combing through boxes of documents, including bank records, that were subpoenaed from the roughly 50 clubs licensed to have the machines.

Richard W. Emory, a Baltimore lawyer who led statewide efforts to ban slot machines and to promote equal employment opportunities in the 1960s and was a former board chairman of Morgan State University, died Monday of congestive heart failure at Brightwood Retirement Community in Lutherville. He was 89. Gov. J. Millard Tawes appointed Mr. Emory to head a commission to phase out slot machine gambling in 1962. At the time, Governor Tawes said he worried that organized crime was taking over casinos in Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties.

County lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to legalize casino-stylegambling for volunteer firefighters and other non-profit groups thatare trying to raise money.The 13 members of the county's House delegation voted unanimously Friday to allow local firefighters to operate over-and-under dice, five-card showdown poker and blackjack games during fund-raisers.However, the delegation killed legislation that would have legalized slot machines in the county for non-profit groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Maryland State Fair officials vowed yesterday to continue their battle to get slots at the Timonium fairgrounds, despite the opposition of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., Baltimore County legislators and local officials. "We need that slots revenue," said lobbyist Nancy Hill. "I want everybody to know we're not giving up." She said money from the state fair and from 10 days of horse racing isn't sufficient to maintain and renovate 23 aging buildings plus the racetrack. Hill and several state fair officials met yesterday to discuss Ehrlich's slots bill.

Casting expanded gambling as the state's best money-raising option, a leading Baltimore lawmaker urged a General Assembly panel yesterday to let voters decide next year whether 10,000 slot machines should be legalized in Maryland. During a low-key hearing for a highly contentious bill, Del. Howard P. Rawlings, a Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told fellow legislators that slot machines would be the surest and least painful way for the state to help fund public education.

An article in yesterday's editions incorrectly identified the House of Delegates committee chaired by Del. Joseph F. Vallario Jr., D-Prince George's. He chairs the Judiciary Committee.The Sun regrets the error.Citing public opposition and fears that casinos would hurt existing businesses, a state task force urged the governor and General Assembly yesterday not to permit them in Maryland.By a vote of 7-0, with two abstentions, the task force recommendation appeared to all but assure that the legislature will oppose casinos during its annual 90-day session that begins January.

The odds that the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee would agree to the Schaefer administration's proposal to regulate slot machines appeared pretty slim at yesterday's hearing.Hardly had William A. Fogle Jr., the secretary of licensing and regulation, begun the administration's case than committee chairman Walter M. Baker interrupted."You know one of my favorite sayings is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it," commented the Democrat from Cecil County, one of the eight counties where slots are legal for fraternal and veterans' organizations.