Ministers Join Effort to Defeat State Slots Measure

A group of prominent Southern Maryland ministers says it will work to defeat the Nov. 4 measure to legalize slot machines by preaching anti-gambling messages from the pulpit and distributing anti-slots literature until Election Day.

The Ministers Alliance of Charles County and Vicinity, which seeks to coordinate efforts by about two dozen churches in Southern Maryland and King George County, Va., joined Marylanders United to Stop Slots last weekend and vowed to help defeat the measure, which would bring about 15,000 slot machines to the state.

"The church has a responsibility to help bring morals to the area and help bring people out of certain lifestyles," said Bishop James M. Briscoe, pastor of Free Gospel Church of Bryans Road in Indian Head. "Gambling is something we don't need in the community."

Proponents say that legalizing slots would help produce badly needed revenue for education and other programs in a state facing serious budget problems.

Ministers have been an important part of the anti-slots effort, said Bridgett Frey, a spokeswoman for Marylanders United Against Slots. The group provides brochures describing arguments against slots to ministers and other community leaders, and the material "flies out the door," she said. Marylanders United lists more than 30 religious leaders among its roughly 150-member steering committee, including Briscoe, treasurer of the Charles ministers alliance.

"People are so jaded by Annapolis at this point that politicians are a difficult group to trust," Frey said. "But when your pastor looks at you and says this is the wrong decision for the state, we think that's a very powerful message."

Members of the ministers alliance said that moral and religious beliefs prompted them to oppose the legalization of slot machines. Many cite Scriptural prohibitions against gambling, including a passage from Proverbs that says, "An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed."

Pastor Willie R. Hunt, who leads New Community Church of God in Christ in Waldorf, said he has seen the harm that gambling can cause families. He said he has counseled people who have lost their homes and watched personal relationships deteriorate.

Briscoe, a lifelong Maryland resident and longtime pastor in Prince George's and Charles counties, said he remembers watching people put money into slot machines for hours during the 1950s, when they were legal. The machines prey on lower-income people hoping to get rich quickly, he said, and they contribute to the moral degradation of the community.

"Folks take what they don't have to try to get lucky," he said about slot machines and the lottery, which is legal in Maryland.

The Maryland legislature approved a measure last year authorizing the measure on slot machines. The plan calls for up to 15,000 slot machines at five locations: Anne Arundel County, home of the Laurel Park racetrack; Worcester County, site of Ocean Downs, a harness track; Baltimore; Cecil County, which borders Delaware; and a state park in western Maryland near Cumberland.

Legislative analysts estimate that slots could raise more than $600 million a year once all 15,000 machines are operational. Other proceeds would be used to subsidize the horse-racing industry, which operates in several surrounding states.

Fundraising efforts by pro-slots groups have outstripped those by opponents. The group leading Maryland's campaign to legalize slot machines, For Maryland For Our Future, reported last week that it had raised nearly $3.8 million, a figure bolstered by donations from horse-racing and gaming interests.

Hunt and Briscoe said they would do everything in their power to reach their congregants.

"The Coalition of Maryland Ministerial Alliances represents more than half a million parishioners across the state, so if we come together we can have a huge impact," Hunt said.

Staff writer John Wagner contributed to this report.