Victory for Slots Settles Long-Standing Question

A seven-member commission, to be appointed by the governor and legislative leaders, would be charged with picking the operators and precise locations.

Several potential bidders have emerged, some of them making substantial donations to the O'Malley-backed committee that ran the pro-slots campaign. Other groups are expected to scramble to put together financing plans and acquire land in time to meet a Feb. 1 deadline for submitting bids.

Slots parlors would be subject to local zoning provisions, and some politicians in Anne Arundel County have signaled their opposition to slots. The Anne Arundel site is envisioned as the state's largest, with almost one-third of the machines and about 40 percent of the estimated revenue.

Debate over the measure was as impassioned at some polling stations yesterday as it has been at the legislature. In heavily Democratic Takoma Park, voters Matthew Graham and Jared Hughes engaged in a boisterous discussion of the issue.

"Government should not promote and support a vice," said Hughes, 36. "It's a tax on poor people."

Graham countered by saying that Maryland already has the state lottery and gambling at race tracks. "The little old ladies who play slots don't do a lot of crime," said Graham, 48.

Defeat of the slots measure would have made a challenging state budget outlook even more bleak, O'Malley and legislative leaders had said.

Maryland is facing a $1 billion shortfall in next year's budget. Although that projection is largely unaffected by slots, estimated shortfalls in later budgets could grow significantly larger without the anticipated revenue.

Analysts estimate that total slots proceeds would approach $1.4 billion by fiscal 2013, the first full year in which all authorized machines would be generating revenue. About half would go to state education programs. Other shares of the proceeds are earmarked for the operators of slots parlors, the horse racing industry and the governments of jurisdictions where the facilities are located.

Concern about the state budget -- and the economy in general -- appeared to bolster support for slots among Maryland voters in the closing weeks of the campaign. A Washington Post poll published Oct. 22 found that 62 percent of likely voters supported the ballot measure and that 36 percent opposed it. Many people expressed concern that a loss on slots would lead Maryland to scale back spending for public schools, cut other programs or reduce aid to local governments.

Those concerns largely mirrored arguments made in television and radio ads by For Maryland For Our Future, the group leading the pro-slots campaign.

As of Oct. 19, the group had raised almost $4.4 million, more than seven times as much as was raised by groups opposing the ballot measure. Much of the pro-slots funding had come from gambling and racing interests.