Casino Movement

Some political observers do not expect the issue to dramatically drive voter turnout or tip the scales in statewide elections. But less than a week after Maryland’s highest court ordered a ballot measure on the casino, politicians have begun staking out positions to appeal to local voters.

Some have shunned all contributions from gambling interests, while others have declared support for the Arundel Mills mall casino and its hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue destined for government coffers. Still others have taken a hands-off approach, saying they’re pleased voters will get a chance to clarify what they want.

Gov. Martin O’Malley said Friday that

Laurel Park racetrack is the best venue for a casino, but that he’ll make sure slots revenue begins rolling in quickly regardless of the referendum outcome.

“Anne Arundel can win either way,” O’Malley said in an interview. “Everyone wants to get this up and running, but I think it’s more important to do it right than to do it someplace that people don’t want it.”

His leading political adversary, former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., took a similar yet opposite approach, saying through an aide that the 4,750 slot machines destined for Anne Arundel are best suited for an entertainment destination at the mall in Hanover.

“We’re for getting slots into operation so that it could generate revenue for the state,” said Andy Barth, Ehrlich’s spokesman.

Grass-roots support

Organizations on both sides of the casino debate say they expect grass-roots support from county voters who have been moved to action either by the casino’s location or the fact that it has been delayed.

“Voters in Anne Arundel County are concerned about keeping their taxes down and creating job and career opportunities,” said Joe Weinberg, a principal with casino developer The Cordish Cos. “Our facility at Arundel Mills will generate over $30 million per year in revenue to the county and create 4,000 jobs.”

Heather Ford with Citizens Against Slots at the Mall, a coalition that includes the Maryland Jockey Club and Penn National Gaming, said the petition effort to put the matter on the ballot created an army of anti-casino volunteers.

“We hope that the people who are running for office will help this initiative, because they’ll see it’s in their best interest to support the cause,” Ford said. “They’ll see we have boots on the ground and that we’re well organized.”

The prolonged delay in bringing slots to Anne Arundel County began with the County Council’s 10-month hand-wringing over zoning for Arundel Mills mall. Casino opponents immediately began collecting signatures to put the zoning on the ballot, but were blocked by a lawsuit from the casino developer. The legal wrangling ended Tuesday with an order from Maryland’s highest court that ordered a referendum on the casino’s zoning be placed on November’s ballot.

If voters overturn zoning for the casino at Arundel Mills, the state would be back to square one and forced to rebid the license for an Anne Arundel gambling facility, officials said.

And that rebidding process would require another round of zoning fights before the County Council.

Councilman Jamie Benoit, a Crownsville Democrat who represents the Laurel area, has asked all candidates for county office to sign a pledge not to take money from gambling interests.

“The integrity of the referendum depends in part on the integrity of those who represent the county and who wish to do so,” Benoit said in a written statement. “If the voters invalidate the law to permit slots passed by the County Council last year, it is critical that the next council be objective.”

So far, Democrat Chris Trumbauer, a council candidate, and Mike Shay, the Green Party candidate for county executive, have signed the pledges.

“This ongoing train wreck has been undecided, and now that it’s going before the citizens again, they can clarify what they want,” said Shay, who says he’s against the government being in the business of gambling, but respects the will of voters. “This could possibly be in front of the County Council and the county executive again, and the titans of the gambling industry will be pouring money into campaigns.”

Joanna Conti, the Democratic candidate for county executive, said she thinks turnout from anti-casino voters will help her campaign because she prefers slots to go to Laurel Park.

“As county executive, I will implement the will of the voter as quickly as possible,” Conti said.

Not taking sides

Politicians such as County Executive John R. Leopold, who in the past heralded the money the Arundel Mills casino could bring to the county, have chosen not to take sides on the ballot issue.

“Mr. Leopold’s responsibility as the top administrator of the county is to abide by the law and the will of the people,” said Leopold’s spokesman, David Abrams. “That’s what he’s done, and that’s what he will continue to do.”

The intrigue surrounding slot-machine gambling in this election season may be a shadow of what voters experienced when the statewide referendum legalizing gambling was passed two years ago.

“Two years ago, we were fighting to get in the church door. Now we’re fighting over which pew to sit in,” said Annapolis-based pollster Patrick Gonzales of Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies. “It’s a big deal to the lobbyists, and they’re all whipped up about it because they will make a lot of money.”

Dan Nataf, a political science professor and head of the Center for the Study of Local Issues at Anne Arundel Community College, said the question before voters this time is more nuanced than when they legalized gambling in 2008. “The assumption had always been made that it was going to go to Laurel, and that was being voted for at the time,” Nataf said. “The dominant thinking process at the time was (a vote for slots was) to bolster the state finances. The question of whether it should be in my backyard is a more difficult question.”

Both Gonzales and Nataf predicted the ballot referendum would not generate enough interest to alter the gubernatorial election, but that it could sway local races. Candidates for those seats agree, and are honing campaigns.

“I think it will have a significant impact on races in our county,” said Councilman Daryl Jones, a Severn Democrat who represents the area around the mall. “This is an issue that has been highly volatile within our county.”

—

ecox@capitalgazette.com

Thanks to a court ruling this week, voters in Anne Arundel County will get a say in the fall over the future of Maryland’s largest planned casino, a 4,750-machine facility outside the food court at Arundel Mills mall.

Former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), whose law firm did communications work last year for the casino’s developer, said in an interview that he plans to support a November ballot measure to incorporate high-end dining and live entertainment, as well as gambling, at the site.

Ehrlich, who fought unsuccessfully as governor to bring slots to Maryland, said Baltimore-based developer Cordish Cos. has made “a good case” for the merits of its project. As an Anne Arundel resident he will have the opportunity to vote on the ballot measure, which seeks to repeal a county zoning law needed for the casino to move forward.

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said his sympathies lie with homeowners near the mall, who have argued that the casino will bring more traffic and crime to the area.

“I can certainly understand why the people of northern Anne Arundel County would prefer not to have a slots emporium at a mall in a residential area,” O’Malley said in an interview. “If I lived there, I’d rather see it at a racetrack.”

He said the state is prepared to move forward with its fledgling slots program whichever way Anne Arundel voters go.

Interested parties on both sides are expected to pour millions of dollars into the ballot measure between now and November.

Homeowners opposed to the casino have teamed with the deep-pocketed Maryland Jockey Club, which operates nearby Laurel Park racetrack. The Jockey Club provided the financial backing for a successful petition drive to put the zoning measure on the ballot.

The club’s hope is that sinking the mall casino will allow it to win the only slots license the state plans to issue in Anne Arundel.

A county judge ruled last month that the December zoning decision by the Anne Arundel County Council should not be subject to second-guessing by voters. That opinion was overturned this week by Maryland’s highest court, which gave its blessing for the countywide referendum to proceed.

The ballot measure could have implications for the governor’s race, although there is wide disagreement over how significant those will be.

By LYLE MORAN

BOSTON

A top Senate negotiator said Thursday “time is running out” for Massachusetts lawmakers to craft a compromise for a bill that would legalize casinos.

Meanwhile, half a world away visiting National Guard troops in central Asia, Gov. Deval Patrick asserted he’s “not the holdup” as conference committee members try to resolve differences between competing House and Senate legislation.

Sen. Stanley Rosenberg told The Associated Press he is not sure the six-member committee will be able to produce a final bill to send to Patrick before the legislative session ends July 31.

The Amherst Democrat, who has helped lead negotiations on behalf of Senate President Therese Murray, would not specify the areas of disagreement. The House passed a bill calling for two casinos and up to 750 slot machines at each of the state’s four racetracks, while the Senate approved legislation supporting three casinos but no slot machines.

Both Patrick and Murray oppose slots, but House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who has two racetracks in his Winthrop-based legislative district, has insisted upon them.

“Time is running out,” Rosenberg said, before adding, “It is still possible to reach an agreement.”

The senator also said the normal conference committee process has been slowed because of the deeper involvement of Murray and DeLeo. He said conferees are checking offers and counteroffers, with their respective chamber leaders, creating parallel tracks of negotiation.

“Both need to be going on at the same time,” Rosenberg said.

Patrick told reporters he was not at the point of issuing veto threats, but he said lawmakers would either have to agree on a bill he will accept and sign into law, or be able to pass it with veto-proof margins in their respective chambers.

“The first order of business is for the Senate and the House to try to find their way across some of (their differences),” the governor said in a conference call from Kuwait. “I am not the holdup.”

Patrick also insisted that his absence, which began Tuesday when he left for Washington, and continued Wednesday when he landed in Iraq and Thursday when he completed his stay, is not contributing to the logjam. Patrick would not say when he is returning, nor would he say if he was headed next for Afghanistan.

“Just to say the obvious, the work that has to be done right now is legislative work, and I’m not in the Legislature,” the governor said. “They know through staff and from me what I am looking for.”

The Top Online Casino Gambling News Reporting Organization!

It was not exactly the type of grand opening an online casino would hope for. Just hours after launching, PlayNow.com, the online gaming site in British Columbia, was shut down due to malfunctions in the security on the site.

Although there was always going to be a learning curve, online gamblers were not expecting that their private information would be out there for other players to see. When the B.C. Lottery recognized the problem, they immediately pulled the site down.

Now, a week later, the B.C. government is standing by their site. Premiere Gordon Campbell claims that he still has confidence in the site and the people who are operating PlayNow.com. Campbell understands that patience is going to have to be part of this process.

“I think we always have to be vigilant,” said Campbell, when speaking to reporters late last week. “We have to learn from all the mistakes that are made and when mistakes are made, I think that’s exactly what they’ve tried to do.”

Other online gaming sites that are regulated in other jurisdictions have come out and claimed that the B.C. Lottery Corp. has been careless and the breach of private trust is one that will be hard to get back. That is not the feeling of gamblers, however, as they wait for the site to re-launch.

“I have been waiting a long time to be able to play slots online at a place where the government ensures my safety,” said Margaret Lindsey. “If I have to wait a couple of more weeks, that’s fine. I have full confidence that this will be worked out and will not happen in the future.”

The US, along with other Canadian provinces, are looking into the possibility of Internet gambling regulations. If the B.C. online gaming site is successful, other provinces may move quickly into the market. The US would instantly become the largest grossing regulated online gambling market in the world if legislators change the current laws.

July 26, 2010
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
Submit News!

‘s got far more slot machines and table games,

New Jersey

has more casino workers and even

Iowa

has nearly twice as many casinos, but there’s one place where

Pennsylvania

gambling industry is king: taxes.

Pennsylvania collected more taxes from its casinos than any other state, passing Nevada for the first time, fiscal 2009 revenues show.

Perhaps most impressive is that the nearly $1.1 billion collected last year by Pennsylvania came from just nine casinos, while Nevada collected nearly a quarter-billion less from its 260 gambling halls.

“It is pretty amazing, but not unexpected,” said Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the state Gaming Control Board. “Our tax is so high because the intention of the gaming law was to bring in tax money.”

Whether that’s good or bad depends on who is doing the grading. Gov. Ed Rendell has argued that gambling revenues not only have transformed the state’s once-sagging horse racing industry into one of the nation’s highest-paying and helped balance the budgets of the communities that host the casinos, but $770 million was used last year to give taxpayers a reduction in their school taxes. The reduction saved the typical taxpayer about $190 per year, and senior citizens get an even bigger break, said Gary Tuma, a spokesman for Rendell.

Not everyone is a fan. Matt Brouillette, president of the fiscally conservative Commonwealth Foundation, sees it as politicians spending money lost by middle- and low-income gamblers. “All this did was create a windfall that feeds the state’s insatiable appetite to spend,” he said.

There’s no denying that when it comes to casino taxes, Pennsylvania has distinguished itself. Pennsylvania was able to surpass Nevada partly because while the recession caused Nevada’s tax revenues to fall by 10 percent over 2008, new casino openings in Pennsylvania caused its casino tax revenues to increase by 21 percent.

Still, having the Keystone State eclipse Nevada in any area of gambling came as a surprise to Nevada Gaming Control Board officials.

“Really? That’s incredible,” said Mike Lawton, senior researcher for the Nevada board, when told his state had been dethroned. “You guys must be charging a whole lot of money to run a casino there.”

Precisely.

Pennsylvania is now the casino tax capital of the nation primarily because its casinos pay one of the highest tax rates in the nation. So, while casinos pay roughly 8 percent tax on gross casino revenues in Nevada, and about 9 percent in New Jersey, Pennsylvania casinos give the state 55 percent of all the money left in their slot machines.

And there’s no indication Pennsylvania will relinquish its perch anytime soon. Even if the economy picks up fast and Nevada regains its pre-recession tax take of $1 billion, collection on new table games (and a new casino to open in Philadelphia in September) will keep Pennsylvania casino taxes climbing. Table games alone are expected to bring in $320 million a year.

The upside is that it’s helped the state reduce property taxes and balance a state budget in a bad economy. The downside, say analysts, is that it will prevent casinos from investing as much to build and update their properties. Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem executives earlier this year said if they had to do again, the company likley would not invest so much in a market with such a high tax rate. It certainly will not do it in the future, they said.

Maryland had difficulty finding bidders for its soon-to-be built casinos largely because its tax rate is set at a nation-high of 67 percent.

Analyst Grant Govertsen said it’s a balance of jobs and investment versus tax dollars.

“A higher tax rate brings in more money, but that usually means fewer jobs and less capital investment,” said Grant Govertsen, co-founder of Las Vegas-based Union Gaming Group, analysts for the worldwide gaming industry. “Most of the recent jurisdictions that have approved gaming have opted for the high tax rate.”

Just like Pennsylvania.

“The [gaming] law was designed to raise money that people were taking into other states,” Tuma said. “Obviously, it’s doing its job very, very well.”

.