Slots on the Brink
Maryland lawmakers may vote for a referendum on legalization. But don't bet the house on the outcome.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

MOTIVATED MORE by exhaustion than conviction, Maryland's House of Delegates this week may follow the Senate in shunting the question of legalizing slot machine gambling off to voters. If the House does vote to put slots on the ballot as a referendum next year, the delegates will be punting on the most basic task of representative democracy: to cast votes on pressing issues. They may also be consigning the slots proposal to the grave it so richly deserves.

That may seem counterintuitive, given recent polling, including by this newspaper, that suggests broad support for slots. But considering the reaction of slots' leading advocate, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), who first balked at a referendum, there is cause to doubt the depth of popular support for legalizing slots. The politically savvy Mr. Miller may have sensed that the electorate, when confronted with the question at the polls, could recoil from the idea of the state's bailing out an obsolete industry (horse racing) to which few voters have any connection. He may also have suspected that the passion of slots opponents may be more than a match for the millions of dollars that the gambling industry is doubtless prepared to pump into a referendum campaign in Maryland.

Rather, make that millions more. As the Baltimore Sun reported over the weekend, pro-gambling interests have already spent almost $4 million in the last few years in a so-far-fruitless effort to have the legislature authorize thousands of slot machines at racetracks and gambling parlors. That spending comprised $1.25 million funneled directly to candidates and political parties since 2003 -- including donations to the former and current governor -- plus an additional $2.6 million in lobbying expenditures in the last two years alone. It's a good bet that those outlays would look like a modest down payment compared to the sums the gambling lobby is prepared to dump in a referendum. It's an equally good bet that many voters would look askance at such an obviously self-interested crusade for self-enrichment.

A referendum is not yet a done deal. Because it involves a constitutional amendment, it will need 85 votes to clear the 141-seat House. We hope the votes aren't there. Still, slots have tied the General Assembly in knots in recent years, and Mr. Miller has given every indication that he is willing to paralyze the current effort to close a budget deficit of at least $1.5 billion if he does not get at least a referendum. Battle-weary lawmakers may simply throw up their hands. If they do, it should be to fight another day and defeat at the polls a slots proposal that will foster corruption and gambling addiction while primarily hurting the poor.