A Gateway Or Obstacle To Reviving Baltimore?

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Proposed Slots License Areas

Read the pros and cons of the slots referendum and get information on where the money is going.

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Would the Arundel site and one north of Baltimore in Cecil siphon out-of-towners? How would Baltimore's slots parlor affect another proposed project in the area, which calls for recreation fields and a children's learning center?

Baltimore leaders say the right kind of slots operator can work in the area and can bring tens of millions of badly needed dollars to city coffers. They support development of the family-friendly project and the slots venue, saying they are not incompatible.

In the past, Baltimore leaders were not enamored of slots. Dixon opposed placing them at two locations often mentioned: the Inner Harbor and Pimlico racetrack.

And just east of Russell Street, the city was pushing the kid-friendly redevelopment plan.

Called "Gateway South," the 11-acre, $200 million project is still very much a possibility, backers say. Ray Lewis, the Ravens' star linebacker, as part of the project, would open the Ray of Hope Center, described in a city news release last year as a "new educational and mentoring center that will help motivate and teach children city wide."

With Gateway South's office space, stores and businesses, developers envision parents dropping their children off at soccer or football practice and, instead of standing near their minivans in a nameless suburban recreation park, sauntering down the street for a latte at a Starbucks.

What a difference a $1.7 billion structural deficit in the state budget makes. Facing that prospect last year, Maryland politicians seized on the revenue possibility of slots and put the referendum on the November ballot.

Baltimore wanted in on the action. As the mayor wrote to residents in her Nov. 2, 2007, Dixon Report: "The difficult fiscal realities facing our city and state, combined with the decision to put the issue of slot machine gaming before the voters in November, 2008, have given me reason to broaden my thinking about the role of slot machines."

Rules for Baltimore were established: The parlor couldn't be within a quarter-mile of a residential neighborhood, would have to be constructed on city-owned land and had to be within a half-mile of Route 295 and Interstate 95.

Anderson, the Baltimore delegate, said the location was so site-specific that he figured it was tailored for the Gateway South developers. "Clearly, the skeptic in me was saying, 'They've got someone in mind,' " Anderson said in an interview last week.

The delegate fears that slots in Baltimore would send the wrong message to young people, endorsing a quick path to riches vs. one built on education and hard work. And he worries about such ancillary problems as sophisticated prostitution rings.

"Our local prostitutes are basically trash," Anderson said. "This is going to be a new league."