Battle Heating Up With Legalizing Slot Gambling On Maryland November Ballot

Baltimore, MD (AHN) - When Maryland voters head to the polls in November they will decide whether or not to allow slot machine gambling into the state.

Western Maryland is likely to get a 1,500-machine slot parlor at the Rocky Gap State Park, near the Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort outside Cumberland. Tourists who stay at the resort, along with many Western Maryland residents, now travel 11 miles into West Virginia to a casino near an airport.

Proponents say that bringing slot gambling to Maryland would be a good way to raise money to cover state budget gaps. And that it would capture money from tourists and Maryland residents who now travel to Virginia to gamble there.

Opponents say it might help the state, but that it would hurt local government.

The casino would be built on state parkland, so it would not generate any local property tax revenue. Plus the area has more elderly and poor residents, who are often more susceptible to becoming hooked on gambling. Therefore, opponents say, the local government would suffer from the social costs of gambling, such as addiction, divorce, crime and suicide.

Ahead of the elections, the first ads on gambling started airing last week.

Proponents claim that gambling will bring in an estimated $600 million in revenue. In one ad, gambling proponents claimed that opponents were proposing $700 million in new taxes as an alternative to gambling, a charge that opponents have said is not true.