Slot Machines

David Cordish refused to talk politics Wednesday at a celebration of the now-complete Maryland Live Casino. The casino just added its final complement of slot machines — 1,304 — for a total of 4,750, making it the nation's third-largest commercial casino. Cordish, chairman of the Cordish Cos., which owns and built the three-month-old casino next to Arundel Mills mall, touted the facility as one of the best in the country and said it would be the Mid-Atlantic's dominant gambling parlor for years to come.

A strange quirk of Maryland's governance is the degree to which the state legislature needs to act on certain laws that really should be the sovereign responsibility of the counties. For example, thanks to the latest version of what has become the annual special session of the Maryland General Assembly, Harford County's veterans organizations are now permitted to operate slot machines in their post homes. It may seem like a logical bit of rider legislation to include gambling permission for these not-for-profit organizations in a statewide gambling law, but the reality is gambling for American Legion and VFW post homes has been decided on a county-by-county basis by the state legislature on many occasions in the past.

The Maryland General Assembly gave final approval to Gov. Martin O'Malley's gambling bill early Wednesday morning, agreeing to allow table games and a sixth casino in the state while also giving new tax breaks to casino owners. Passage came after the House of Delegates amended the legislation to allow veterans' halls in every county except Montgomery to have slots-like machines - a new element in the gambling debate that appeared to be aimed at winning enough votes to pass the governor's bill.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and Maryland's legislators should be embarrassed at the gambling bill they are sending to voters this November. In their rush to move ahead with an expansion of Maryland's gambling program before the current one is fully up and running, they adopted a plan that amounts to a massive give-away to casino owners with little chance for public benefit. Voters should reject this proposal and tell the legislature not to try again until it can show that it is acting in the interests of the people, not the gambling lobby.

The gambling expansion bill crafted by a House panel will yield an additional $174 million in state revenue in 2016-2017, but more than three-quarters of the money comes from a reform that could have been adopted without controversy had it been considered on its own. Table games and a new Prince George's casino -- the gambling expansion measures that tied the General Assembly in knots this spring and prompted the rare August special session --...

The possibility that Gov. Martin O'Malley and House Speaker Michael E. Busch will round up the votes needed to authorize a referendum to expand Maryland's casino program shows just how far attitudes have shifted in the last five years. Lawmakers and their constituents are generally more comfortable with the notion that the state will raise significant revenues from casinos and will embrace table games in addition to slot machines. But the political dynamic surrounding the issue in Annapolis is largely unchanged.

A House subcommittee has voted to amend the governor's gambling bill to give larger guaranteed tax breaks to casino operators in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore and to allow a casino in Cecil County to apply for a tax break. Del. Frank Turner, the subcommittee chair, said lawmakers examined financial impact studies commissioned by the General Assembly and felt the casinos would need the help if the state allows a sixth casino to open. "We looked at the venues and how they'd be affected," Turner said.

The casino in Perryville wants to give back 400 to 500 of its slot machines due to the impact of the Maryland Live casino ("Casino seeking to stem decline," Aug. 7) while the legislature considers a 6th location when the 4th and 5th locations are still in the approval process. Maryland owns the machines Perryville wants to give back. What's the cost to that investment, the state employees that will pick them up, the cost of storing them (space, utilities, security personnel), the cost to refurbish, assuming someone else wants used machines, etc. My advice: Vote for a name you don't recognize in November, 2014.

The Maryland Senate prepared to take up the governor's gambling bill Friday as Senate PresidentThomas V. Mike Millerexpressed cautious optimism that the General Assembly will approve the measure by early next week. The legislation will be on the Senate floor following its overwhelming approval Thursday by the Budget and Taxation Committee. The committee voted 11-1 to pass the bill just hours after the opening of the Assembly's second special session of the year.

A spokesman for the developer of the Maryland Live Casino received a warm reception from a hometown crowd Thursday morning when he appeared before the Anne Arundel County legislative delegation to warn of grave damage to the Arundel Mills facility if Gov.Martin O'Malley's propoed gambling expansion legislation goes through the General Assembly unchanged. Cordish Cos.executive Joe Weinberg told county senators and delegates that the developer made its original bid to build its giant slots-only casino based on the assumption that there would be no competition from a rival inPrince George's County.