Slots are no savior. They will not magically balance the budget. Nor will they save horse racing in Maryland. They will not provide an endless stream of revenue to build schools and pay for police and fire fighters. And they will not prevent the state legislature from raising taxes.
But they will capture money spent by Maryland residents who choose to play slots in Pennsylvania and Delaware and West Virginia.
For that reason alone, we should support them.
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Why should residents pay for schools in Pennsylvania when we need to build new ones here? Why should residents support police and firefighter salaries in Delaware when we can’t afford overtime here?
Those who argue against them for moral reasons fight a losing game. For the vast majority, slots are like seeing a show, or going to an amusement park. And crime statistics show little if no change with the introduction of slots.
Marylanders never should have had to vote on slots.
Cowardly legislators in Annapolis sent the vote to the people to avoid, unsurprisingly, having to take responsibility for themselves, a black mark on them. The delay has probably cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue given the downturn in the economy and extreme tightening of the credit market — which must be tapped to build the facilities for those 15,000 machines should the measure pass.
But we must not compound their error. And we must not let other states reap the benefits of how Marylanders spend their entertainment dollars. We can argue about how much revenue slots will bring to Maryland. And we can argue about how the state will spend the dollars. But we must not argue about whether Maryland should tap that money. Foregoing it is like building a bonfire with tax dollars instead of kindling and logs.
Vote yes on Ballot Question 2 and keep Maryland’s entertainment dollars in Maryland.
