A battle over casino table games will kick off in the Maryland legislature this week as lawmakers gather support for a bill to expand the state’s slots program.
Del. Frank S. Turner, D-Howard County, said he has gathered a dozen co-sponsors on legislation he expects to file by Thursday.
Senate President Mike V. Miller Jr. said he supports Turner’s bill, which would add games such as poker, blackjack and craps to the state’s slots sites, but said he thinks it will be a tough sell in the House of Delegates.
Miller, D-Calvert, and House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, have long clashed over gambling. As expected, Busch plans to oppose table games legislation, spokeswoman Alexandra Hughes said. Busch wants to focus on getting the state’s slots operating before considering expansion, she added.
Gov. Martin O’Malley said Monday he wants to secure the state’s five slots sites — three of which have been licensed — before talking table games.
But Turner said the state can’t wait any longer. Because slots legislation requires an amendment to the Maryland Constitution, table games would require a ballot vote — which, if not done in November, would have to wait until 2012.
“We need some additional revenue,” said Turner, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee. “All these gimmicks to balance the budget, I just don’t agree with them,” he added, referring to O’Malley’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal, which suggests closing a $2 billion shortfall with a combination of cuts, transferring cash between bank accounts and spending federal stimulus money. “The last thing I want is people to leave Maryland to go to other jurisdictions because they have table games and all we have is slots.”
Neighboring states West Virginia and Pennsylvania are expanding their slots programs to include table games, and Delaware is well on its way with recent approval from the state’s House of Representatives.
The House Ways and Means Committee will have first dibs on killing or approving the table games bill. Members say:
» Del. Justin Ross, D-Prince George’s: The wealthy would flock to table games, not the poor. “And if we’re gonna take money from poor folks [via slots] we should take it from the rich folks, too,” he said.
» Del. Anne Kaiser, D-Olney: The committee isn’t “ready” for table games and she will oppose the measure.
» Del. Jon Cardin, D-Baltimore County: Lawmakers should have been considering table games from the beginning. He will support the measure, but its survival is uncertain in an election year.
“You need to stay ahead of the game,” Miller said. “Otherwise, we’re giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Maryland’s sister states.”
But Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George’s, called the bill “way, way premature,” saying lawmakers have yet to see any effect from slots — like a rise in crime or prostitution — since none of the approved slot machine parlors is open. He said table games would tempt Maryland’s poor to dump their savings on gambling, more so than slots.
“It’s like putting crack cocaine in front of a recovering drug addict,” Pinksy said. “You don’t do that.”
