Slot Machines

Even as the General Assembly prepares to return to Annapolis this week to discuss the expansion of gambling, one of Maryland's three casinos has asked its oversight agency to take back about a third of the slot machines because of declining revenue. Penn National Gaming Inc., which operates Hollywood Casino Perryville, is "prepared to unconditionally return between 400 and 500 of our machines to the State, without any expectation of a licensee fee refund or any right to reclaim those machines," wrote Carl Sottosanti, a Penn National vice president, in a letter last week to the Maryland Lottery's director.

Maryland's newest slots casino is expanding Thursday evening, opening more floor space with over 500 additional gambling machines and another bar. At 6 p.m., the two-month-old Maryland Live Casino at Arundel Mills mall will open the Rams Head Bar and additional floor space with 531 more slot machines and electronic table games, according to a statement released Thursday by the casino. The Cordish Cos., the owner and operator of the $500 million casino that opened June 6, expects to complete the facility by the end of November.

An Anne Arundel County judge pulled the plug Thursday on the gambling operation at a Chesapeake Beach bar, but said the Crooked I Sports Bar & Grill can try to restore its mini-casino when the case goes to trial. Judge Philip T. Caroom denied the Crooked I's request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed its 105 slots-like machines to continue operating until its case is tried. Caroom said he will file an opinion Friday. The business is challenging a new state law that would end its lucrative gambling business.

CHESAPEAKE BEACH - Doug Raines likes to travel by boat to his favorite gambling spot. He ties up at a marina outside Abner's Crab House and finds a seat in the "game room," where he pumps cash into one of the establishment's 100 slotlike machines. "I just come here for a good time," Raines, 53, said on a recent weekday. He pushed a button on a gambling terminal themed after the popular movie "Hangover. " He bet a dollar, lost eighty cents, then played again. The restaurant is one of four in this bayside town in Southern Maryland that also functions as a miniature casino.

When Maryland legislators voted to legalize slot machines in 2007, an overriding concern in Annapolis was to make sure the state got as large a share of the proceeds as possible. The reason was fiscal - the state needed the money - but also political. It helped to win some reluctant votes that Maryland would have one of the highest gambling tax rates in the country. But five years later, many have come to conclude that the focus on the bottom-line number - a 67 percent tax rate - betrayed an unsophisticated understanding of gambling economics.

A group supporting gambling expansion in Maryland released a new radio ad this afternoon that focuses on costs of the slot machines, which under the current law are funded by taxpayers instead of casino operators. "Maryland is one of the only states in America with government-owned slot machines - where taxpayers pay twice as much as private companies," says a disgusted-sounding man in the ad. "Maryland is about to waste more than $290 million over the next five years on government-owned slot machines.

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.

David Cordish seems to have set up a winner with the Maryland Live! casino in Arundel Mills ("Maryland Live! casino opens its doors," June 7), but the name that comes to my mind is much older: Millard Tawes. He was a governor, like many, the state would have been much better without. His "I know what is good for people" attitude took slot machines away from Maryland in the mid '60s, so instead of being the East Coast leader in allowing people to enjoy gaming, the state became a terrible also ran. Steven Sass, Baltimore

We can't offer you gambling advice, but we can tell you how to make your way around Maryland Live Casino, the new $500 million Cordish Cos. gaming destination at Arundel Mills. The good news is you don't have to drop a nickel to take in the excitement. There are attractions and amenities for the non-gambler, too. "All you have to do is walk through the doors to realize that we have created a very special experience here for our guests," said Cordish Cos.managing partner Joe Weinberg.

Maryland's two casinos took in about $14.6 million in May, with both facilities' revenues increasing compared with a year ago, according to state regulators. Hollywood Casino Perryville, in Cecil County, brought in slightly less than $10.1 million during the month and the Casino at Ocean Downs, in Worcester County on the Eastern Shore, had revenue just under $4.5 million, according to a statement Tuesday from the Maryland Lottery. Hollywood's revenue was up 5 percent and Ocean Downs' rose 21 percent over May 2011.