As Baltimore County police raid bars and seize video poker machines, the county government is granting permits to the very gambling devices officers are working to bust, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said Monday.
“There have been numerous busts, numerous court cases, numerous criminal charges, but it?s all for naught in the Baltimore region,” Franchot said, standing in front of the Corner Stable in Cockeysville.
“There is a tactic of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing and granting permits to these illegal slot machines.”
Baltimore County spokeswoman Ellen Kobler said the county police and permits officers are doing a better job of working together.
“That?s not the case now and hasn?t been for a while,” Kobler said of Franchot?s comments. “We go so far as to refuse to repermit additional machines in establishments where the police have gone in with enforcement.”
In 2007, Baltimore County police pursued 43 cases of illegal video gambling and charged 38 individuals, Kobler said. The police confiscated dozens of machines and, depending on the outcome of the case, the machines were destroyed, she said.
“As a result of increased focus on these machines, Baltimore County has really been refining our procedures,” Kobler said.
Franchot said he called a morning news conference at the Corner Stable because the restaurant has been the site of “illegal activity operating in broad daylight.”
A manager at the Corner Stable declined to comment.
Franchot also said he planned to testify in Maryland?s House of Delegates today about a bill to ban video poker machines across the state.
Video poker machines are currently legal for amusement purposes in Maryland.
A bill that would ban such machines in Southern Maryland is being considered in the Senate, he said.
But Franchot said the Senate bill was nothing more than a “loophole” for illegal gambling to continue in Maryland.
“A wink and a nod doesn?t work anymore,” he said. “If it?s good for St. Mary?s County and Southern Maryland, it?s also good for the Baltimore region.
In January 2006, the Abell Foundation released a study researchers said documented “an illegal, multimillion-dollar slot machine industry in Baltimore City and County,” costing Maryland more than $15 million annually in uncollected taxes from nearly 3,500 video gambling devices.
“Illegal gambling is taking place all across Maryland, and it?s time to put a stop to it,” Franchot said.
