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11.11.2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — With Maryland facing tough budget challenges, Gov. Martin O’Malley said on Nov. 5 he is moving ahead with plans to put slot machines in place, a day after voters approved legalizing them in a constitutional amendment.
“We move on to those other matters,” O’Malley said, referring to appointments that will need to be made to form a commission on slot machine licensing and to the State Lottery Commission to handle additional oversight.
Meanwhile, the Maryland Jockey Club announced it will work with state officials to apply for a license at Laurel Park, a horseracing track in Anne Arundel County.
Bids for the five slot machine licenses must be submitted by Feb. 1. An initial license fee of $3 million for each 500 machines will be required, adding up to a total of $90 million.
Bids also must include $25 million for construction and related costs for every 500 machines.
The current five-member State Lottery Commission will be nearly doubled with four new appointments. The commission will own and lease the slot machines to the operators.
The governor also will appoint three members to a separate commission granting the licenses, while Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch will appoint two members each.
O’Malley planned to meet Wednesday with his staff to discuss moving forward, with details “rolling out in the weeks ahead.”
“I can tell you that it has always been our intent to move with some speed and to move forward carefully but very deliberately, so that we might realize those revenues as quickly as possible,” O’Malley said.
The law requires the Video Lottery Facility Location Commission to consider sealed competitive bids based on various factors.
Those include which bids will provide the highest revenue to the state, the extent a proposed location will encourage Maryland gamblers to play in state and the number of jobs a site would create.
The referendum that voters approved allows up to 15,000 slot machines in five locations, with one facility each in Anne Arundel, Cecil and Worcester counties, the city of Baltimore and state-owned property at Rocky Gap State Park in western Maryland.
While the location commission can alter the number of machines at a particular site to adjust to market conditions, no site can have more than 4,750 slots, the number allowed in Anne Arundel County, where Laurel Park is a potential site.
No additional slot machines or types of gambling games can be approved without another referendum.
Tom Chuckas, Maryland Jockey Club president and chief operating officer, said approval of the referendum should help keep the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, in Baltimore.
“Our focus will now turn to working diligently with state officials on licensing matters,” Chuckas said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in Dover, Del., the president of Delaware’s Video Lottery Advisory Council wants his state to consider allowing table games or sports betting, now that Maryland has legalized slot machines.
Ed Sutor said Delaware could lose slots patrons from Maryland.
He said 35 percent of customers at Dover Downs — where he is president and CEO — are from Maryland.
Sutor said Governor-elect Jack Markell’s openness to table games and sports betting would give Delaware’s casinos a competitive advantage over casinos authorized for nearby Maryland counties.
In Charles Town, W.Va.,A future of slot machines in Maryland already has some Jefferson County leaders worried.
The county gets $2.7 million a year — nearly a quarter of its budget — from revenues at the Charles Town Races and Slots.
Commissioner Jim Surkamp said the county may need to slow down capital improvement projects.
Delegate-elect and track employee Tiffany Lawrence said there likely will be an impact because so many Charles Town gamblers are from out of state.