Anne Arundel County has become the focal point of Maryland’s gambling war.
State officials had promised that gambling would revitalize the state’s moribund finances, but in the year since voters approved gambling, there has been one setback after another.
Anne Arundel has become the crucible for the crumbling gambling lobby.
The county council for the last nine months has been chewing on legislation that would put slots at the massive Arundel Mills mall off the Baltimore/Washington Parkway.
A vote is scheduled for Dec. 7, but previous votes have all been put off.
Frustrated by the long delays, state officials — who say slots in Anne Arundel could bring in as much as $500 million per year — have given the county until Dec. 17 to use the slots license or lose it.
“It ought to be incumbent on all of our minds that our primary responsibility is job creation,” said County Executive John Leopold, who is pushing hard for the slots. “In this down-turned economy, with the looming additional budget cuts from the state requiring even more … it’s imperative that we secure this revenue.”
The County Council has been divided on the measure from day one.
Democratic Councilman Jamie Benoit, for one, is dead-set against slots, calling gambling “a fool’s errand.”
Council Chairwoman Cathleen Vitale, a Republican, meanwhile, supports slots but doesn’t want them to go into the mall.
She has introduced legislation that would restrict slots to the area south of Route 32 — below Arundel Mills but potentially at the Laurel Park horse-racing track.
“Citizens in Anne Arundel County joined the rest of [the] citizens in the state in voting for slots in the state,” she said.
Anti-slots forces are encouraged by the division.
“I don’t see this legislation passing on the seventh,” said Rob Annicelli, whose father has struggled with gambling addiction for years and who is leading the opposition to the slots.
Undaunted by the controversy, Baltimore developer David Cordish, who holds the license for the proposed Arundel casino, held a job fair last week [Thursday, Nov. 19] for future casino workers.
Cordish’s spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request seeking comment.
