By Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 24, 2008
For years, the Brass Rail was little more than a sleepy sports bar, a popular destination for locals in St. Mary's County and pretty much no one else.
Today, it is a mini-Las Vegas. Video gaming machines line the bar's wood-paneled rooms, bathing the Brass Rail in a colorful glow and drawing a new set of patrons, some of whom don't even buy drinks.
Video bingo devices, which bear a striking resemblance to slot machines, have suddenly appeared in bars and restaurants across the county, to the dismay of some state lawmakers. The number has gone from about 150 to nearly a thousand in the past month, according to Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron (R), who considers them within the law.
Slot machines are illegal in Maryland, and voters will decide in a referendum in November whether to allow them at certain locations, with the state taking a cut of the proceeds. But even as Marylanders consider whether to embrace legalized gambling, a related form of gaming is spreading in St. Mary's, driven by an odd coupling of business interests and nonprofit organizations.
"These things, whatever they are, have just popped up everywhere," said Francis J. "Jack" Russell (D-At Large), president of the Board of County Commissioners. "Nobody knows what to do. Everyone wants to treat this like a football, make someone else deal with it."
Unlike most counties in the state, St. Mary's permits "gaming devices" if the proceeds go to a nonprofit organization. By law, the company that owns the machine can take a cut to cover expenses, as can the bar or restaurant where it is located.
The Brass Rail began installing the machines in August, and other business owners took notice. The floodgates opened late last year, when Del. John F. Wood Jr. (D-St. Mary's) asked the state attorney general's office for legal guidance at the request of venue owners, nonprofit groups and concerned residents, none of whom he would identify in an interview. Wood said he was told that the machines are legal under the county's gaming law, written in 1968.
"I just tell them, 'Don't lock yourself into something that you can't get out of quick, and don't fund something in the long term with this money, because we don't know how long they will be around,' " Wood said.
Among the nonprofit organizations operating the machines are Little Flower School, St. Mary's Nursing Center, Rotary and Lions clubs, several volunteer fire departments and three Catholic parishes.
Some state lawmakers oppose the machines, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert), a leading supporter of legalized slot machines. Miller called them "clearly illegal."
"It's sad because they say they are for nonprofits -- and a little bit off the top goes to charities -- but most of that money floats up to private hands and is not kept in St. Mary's County," Miller said. "They are reaping thousands, and the state gets no part of that."
Several bar or restaurant owners contacted for this story, including at the Brass Rail, did not return messages or declined to detail the arrangements.
After seeing that other nonprofit organizations were cashing in, the Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Department and the Volunteer Rescue Squad each set up five machines at Coles Point Tavern, said Thomas A. Mattingly Sr., a longtime fire department volunteer and a county commissioner.
The tavern is on a pier off Virginia, in Maryland waters in the Potomac River. To satisfy a legal requirement that the nonprofit group "manage the operation" of the machines, department and squad members arrive once a month, sometimes by boat, to collect the proceeds, Mattingly (D-Leonardtown) said.
The fire department generally gets between 30 and 35 percent of the money, Mattingly said. Frank Moran and Sons, the Baltimore gaming company that owns the machines, takes about 60 percent, and the bar takes 5 to 10 percent, he said.
Bruce C. Bereano, a lobbyist for the company, said Frank Moran and Sons is paid a fixed amount for each round of play rather than a percentage. He declined to disclose the amount of the payment.
Mattingly said the fire department hopes the gaming income will replace the $60,000 it used to make at an annual carnival that, because of a volunteer shortage, is no longer held.
"We really couldn't find another way to replace that revenue without going to taxpayers," he said. "There are downsides to gambling, but people are going to gamble."
Danny Bowles, president of the rescue squad, declined to detail the squad's arrangement. Tavern owner Scott Rudge declined to discuss either arrangement.
St. Mary's Landing, a Charlotte Hall restaurant known for softball-size crab cakes, added video bingo machines in November. Owners Billy and Mona Hill ripped out a few booths to construct a game room with eight machines in January, and they opened a room with 12 more this month, bringing the restaurant's total to 35, Mona Hill said.
She said her husband got the idea from the Brass Rail. The Rotary Club and two churches are among the nonprofit organizations that receive a portion of the take from the machines at the restaurant, she said. Billy Hill did not respond to requests to describe the arrangements in more detail.
"The bad thing is, you can't go there to eat anymore because the parking lot is full of cars," said Rick Gentry, who was once a frequent patron at the restaurant. "I guess it helps the local economy and all. I just don't go there anymore."
In video bingo, players generally insert cash into a machine in exchange for one or more pull-tab cards, slips of paper with a printed grid of cherries, oranges or other icons. Players win if the icons on their card are lined up in certain combinations. The result also appears on a screen, giving the player the sensation of playing a slot machine.
But whereas casino-style slot machines are games of pure chance, video bingo machines have a preset number of winners and losers. Also, rather than a payout from the machine, players receive a coupon they can exchange for cash.
"The bells and whistles, the lights, the music, the symbols are all just marketing," said Bereano, the lobbyist for Frank Moran and Sons, which has 80 machines in St. Mary's. "These are not slot machines."
In 2001, the state's highest court recognized such a distinction, holding that video bingo machines at the Rod 'N' Reel restaurant in Calvert County were not slot machines because they did not rely on "the element of chance." Calvert is one of the few jurisdictions in Maryland that allows, under certain circumstances, for-profit companies to operate such machines.
Sen. Roy P. Dyson (D-St. Mary's), an opponent of legalized slot machines, introduced legislation this month that would require Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) to go to court to decide whether the video bingo devices in St. Mary's are legal. Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles) said he is drafting legislation to eliminate the machines.
Gaming issues have a particular resonance in Southern Maryland, home to an area once known as "Little Nevada." In 1949, the region became one of a handful of places in the country where commercial gambling was legal. Hordes of tourists flocked to the neon lights of Waldorf along the Route 301 commercial strip.
County budgets were soon heavily dependent on gambling dollars, but the machines were a magnet for organized crime. After a fierce debate that lasted years, slots were outlawed by 1968.
The line of cars waiting to turn into the St. Mary's Landing parking lot on a recent Friday night reminded Robert Fard, 63, of the out-of-towners who flocked to the area in the 1960s.
"If a man's going to gamble, he's going to gamble," said Fard, a Hughesville resident who plays the lottery every week but stays away from the video gaming machines. "At least now the money's staying in the county."
Staff writer Christy Goodman contributed to this report.
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