Maryland is looking to hit the jackpot ? but it has to be willing to pay the price.
As the legalization of gambling, specifically slot machines, continues to be a hot local issue, taxpayers want to know what effect it will have on the community ? both financially and socially.
If slots were to come to Maryland, the yearly estimated gaming taxes for state and local governments comes in at around $700 million, SlotSense.com, an advocacy Web site for gambling in Maryland, said. The site also said that about $350 million in new spending would be introduced into the state economy, taking dollars back from Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Supporters of slots, such as State Senate President ThomasMike Miller, meanwhile, believe that through the addition of slots into the community, tax payers will be cut a break, and problems with the state?s $30 billion budget can be answered. Members of the local horse-racing community are also looking to support the legislation, with slots as a possible remedy to cure failing attendance at race tracks in Laurel and Pimlico. Live dates of racing in the state have already shrunk from 220 to 185 over the last several seasons, The Examiner reported during the last state session.
And with Senate President Miller keeping the discussions of slots alive in Maryland, it appears that steam may be picking up to pass a bill that has been shunned in three of the last four years.
“We have no choice but to have gambling now,” said Richard Clinch, director of economic development at the University of Baltimore. “We have made decisions in Maryland, right or wrong, that we need to find a way to pay for them.”
No doubt the economy could use that extra boost, but Dr. Mike Gimbell, drug-addiction educator at Sheppard Pratt medical center, sees an important priority that some of that cash must be allotted to.
“The biggest issue around gambling coming to Maryland is how are we going to stay ahead of the curve on addictions,” Gimbell said. “We need to see what is there that we can do differently than Vegas and Atlantic City, something progressive and set money aside for prevention.”
