Maryland slots to change state

"In only seven months, state voters will decide whether up to 15,000 slot machines - with a possible total of 4,750 in Anne Arundel County - will be legalized. No matter what the final decision is, the fiscal landscape of Maryland will be irrevocably changed.

Still what remains, of course, is the referendum on slots in the fall and that's still a big question mark on the horizon here,' Gov. Martin O'Malley said at a bill-signing ceremony last week. 'We're in a position of being more dependent on that than I think any of us would like, but I think people understand where they are on that issue.'

That dependency is a product of several economic factors: the leftover pieces of the state's $1.5 billion deficit; a faltering economy resulting in revenue writedowns; resources continually stretched thin by expanding educational and health needs; and little appetite to raise taxes across the board.

By fiscal 2012, slots would create more than $1 billion of gross revenue, according to the state's Department of Legislative Services. Almost $500 million would be set aside for education.

...Powerful lobbying groups already have started lining up behind the referendum in the waning days of the session. The Maryland State Teachers Association and the Maryland Association of Counties both came out in support of the referendum last month, citing the need for more local and educational funding.

But slots opponents are confident their strategy of grassroots organizing can make up for the millions in television ads that could be spent pushing expanded gambling..."