For decades, the state has bet on gambling to produce big bucks.
The state lottery ranks eighth in the nation in total lottery sales, $266 per person in 2005, or about $500 million this fiscal year, according to the Tax Foundation.
Senate President Thomas Mike Miller, along withthen Gov. Robert Ehrlich, had pushed for slots to bring in more state revenues. Gov. Martin O?Malley also has said slots will be “an important part” of any deficit-reduction solution. He favors a “limited number” of machines at racetracks to buck up the faltering horse racing industry. Even a divided Republican caucus in the House of Delegates supports slots over tax increases
But slots may not bring in enough money soon enough to cover structural deficits.
“It’s hard to put a value for slots in Maryland because we’ve delayed five years,” Miller told The Examiner, particularly with slot machine look-alikes proliferating in some counties and increased competition from neighboring states.
O?Malley said the state lost $150 million to its neighbors as Marylanders crossed the border to wager in Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The number is based on a report by Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
Even legislative analysts estimate that slots could generate more than $400 million annually, but not until 2011. House Republicans have proposed an auction process for slot machine licenses that will bring in $600 million sooner.
Lawmakers however have yet to come to a consensus on the number of slot machines, where to put them, or who will operate them, and what kind of financial cut the state should give the operators.
“We want to make sure that the citizens of Maryland get the best possible return on the dollar, and that it’s not just an unjust enrichment of entitlement to a few people,” said House Speaker Michael Busch, an opponent of slots.
Comptroller Peter Franchot said O?Malley has failed to take “any substantive look at the negative impacts in terms of crime and violence, drug addiction, and the impact on small businesses, neighborhoods and entire communities.”
The $150 million a year the state is losing “would be a mere drop in the bucket in terms of whatis needed to address our financial situation,” Franchot said.
