Md. Slots Jockeying Intensifies

Potential Licensees Press Lawmakers

Behind the scenes of Maryland's intractable debate over gambling, some of the state's most powerful political insiders have been locked in a sharp-elbowed game of musical chairs, jockeying to be included in any plan to legalize slot machines.

Though Maryland's political leaders remain miles apart in their negotiations over the proposal by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) to allow slots in the state, this elite set of wealthy business leaders has stepped up pressure on all parties to find an agreement.

In recent weeks, top state officials said they have received phone calls or personal visits from several of those who have invested in sites where slots parlors could go, including Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos; Potomac builder William Rickman Jr.; National Harbor developer Milton V. Peterson; Maryland Jockey Club President Joseph A. De Francis; and Frank Stronach, the Canadian auto parts mogul whose company owns Pimlico and Laurel Park racetracks.

Still others have met privately with the governor and legislative leaders to express their interest in sites that could eventually become gambling venues. Among them: Baltimore bakery magnate John Paterakis Sr., who built his fortune selling hamburger buns to McDonald's, and Don H. Barden, the Detroit entrepreneur who was the nation's first African American casino owner.

"It's become a game of musical chairs," said Paul E. Schurick, Ehrlich's communications director. "We know some of these guys will wind up with a license if a slots bill passes; we just don't know which ones."

Their personal appeals are not easily ignored, considering that for years now, many have been patrons of Maryland's political universe, donating prolifically to candidates across the spectrum. De Francis alone gave $200,000 to a national Democratic committee overseen by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (Calvert) and $137,000 to state campaign committees through a catalogue of business entities.

Even more telling has been the entry into the slots debate of Angelos, one of the single largest donors to Democratic candidates statewide and nationally, and Paterakis, who is known in Annapolis as the "bread man," not just because he runs a bakery.

These high rollers have also plowed thousands of dollars into lobbying, and the result, say several lawmakers and advocates following the slots debate, is that each has found his property eligible for a slots license in one proposal or another.

"It's an interchangeable cast of characters, depending on the proposal you're talking about," said Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (D-Montgomery). "Without a doubt, though, this has become a feast for the well heeled and the well connected."

The increased pressure has driven House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and Miller to continue their search for common ground on slots legislation. The two legislative leaders resumed those talks yesterday at a private meeting in Boston during the Democratic National Convention. Busch said last night that he and Miller continue to have vastly different ideas about where slots should go if they become legal. But, he said, "there's room to be more flexible" if Ehrlich and Miller agree to put the issue before voters in November.

Under Miller's most recent proposal, slots would be placed at privately owned sites across the state -- three of them at horse-racing tracks and three at other locations, selected by a commission of nine government appointees, with members selected jointly by Miller, Busch and Ehrlich. That plan, which echoes legislation approved in the Senate, would favor track owners De Francis and Stronach, as well as Angelos, whose family recently signaled its intent to purchase Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George's County.

Miller said the proposal makes sense because it "locates slots where they have the most public acceptance and where gambling is already taking place."

When asked whether appeals from influential personalities have played a role in determining where slots should go, Miller was emphatic that they had not.

"Absolutely, positively, unequivocally, no," he said.