Showing posts with label Slots qv MD Issues Slots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slots qv MD Issues Slots. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Washington Post editorial says No to slots … and so do I

Washington Post editorial says No to slots … and so do I

Sunday, October 19, 2008 – October 27, 2008

Hat Tip: Delusional Duck Maryland Southern Maryland

The Washington Post published an editorial on Sunday, October 19, 2008 that argued “No” to slots in the upcoming referendum to be held in Maryland on November 4th, 2008.

I think this is how I will be voting also. In spite of personal reservations about slots; I believe that I could’ve supported some of the formulations offering slots in Maryland under the previous administration.

At least I could’ve closed my eyes, held my breath, pinched my nose, and pushed the green button.

I happen to be old enough to remember slots and members of my family viewed them as harmless entertainment – and by and large, it was just that.

I never saw the ills that slots created for society and yet as I grew older I began to see that slots are a huge potential for harm to the fabric of the community.

Earlier proposals had more benefits than harms. I liked the revenue for agriculture and education and I certainly liked the jobs creation.

However, the current proposal is not very attractive in that there is not enough upside to the proposal to overcome the downside.

Overlooking for the moment that it places slots in the Maryland constitution where it does not belong; it appears that little of the revenue will go to help agriculture, or more specifically, the horse industry; way too little goes to education and too much goes to the general revenue fund coffers of Maryland state government.

Maryland state government already has a pathological spending addiction and the current legislation only fuels the problem as opposed to what a dedicated fund for ag and education would provide.

And there’s the rub.

Anyway, the Washington Post says: No on Maryland Slots:

Voters should oppose a referendum that would bring the machines -- and a host of maladies -- back to the state.

Sunday, October 19, 2008; B06

ON JULY 1, 1968, the last slot machines were wheeled out of the taverns and diners that dotted a stretch of Southern Maryland known as Little Vegas. Maryland banned the machines because they fostered crime and corruption and drained money from the poor. In the 40 years since, the lever on the side of the machine has given way to a button on the front, but the scourges ushered in by slots are the same.

Supporters of a Nov. 4 referendum that would restore slots to Maryland paper over these memories with dollar bills. Slots, they promise, will plug Maryland's $430 million budget gap, revive the faltering horse-racing industry and inject needed cash into schools. Marylanders shouldn't fall for this neon mirage.

[…]

Maryland had the good sense to rid itself of the machines 40 years ago, and voters should continue to resist the glow of slot machines and the false promise of pain-free revenue they represent.

[…]


Read the entire editorial here: No on Maryland Slots

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/18/AR2008101801534.html

20081019 Washington Post editorial says No to slots

Washington Post editorial says No to slots … and so do I

Washington Post editorial says No to slots … and so do I

Sunday, October 19, 2008 – October 27, 2008

Hat Tip: Delusional Duck Maryland Southern Maryland

The Washington Post published an editorial on Sunday, October 19, 2008 that argued “No” to slots in the upcoming referendum to be held in Maryland on November 4th, 2008.

I think this is how I will be voting also. In spite of personal reservations about slots; I believe that I could’ve supported some of the formulations offering slots in Maryland under the previous administration.

At least I could’ve closed my eyes, held my breath, pinched my nose, and pushed the green button.

I happen to be old enough to remember slots and members of my family viewed them as harmless entertainment – and by and large, it was just that.

I never saw the ills that slots created for society and yet as I grew older I began to see that slots are a huge potential for harm to the fabric of the community.

Earlier proposals had more benefits than harms. I liked the revenue for agriculture and education and I certainly liked the jobs creation.

However, the current proposal is not very attractive in that there is not enough upside to the proposal to overcome the downside.

Overlooking for the moment that it places slots in the Maryland constitution where it does not belong; it appears that little of the revenue will go to help agriculture, or more specifically, the horse industry; way too little goes to education and too much goes to the general revenue fund coffers of Maryland state government.

Maryland state government already has a pathological spending addiction and the current legislation only fuels the problem as opposed to what a dedicated fund for ag and education would provide.

And there’s the rub.

Anyway, the Washington Post says: No on Maryland Slots:

Voters should oppose a referendum that would bring the machines -- and a host of maladies -- back to the state.

Sunday, October 19, 2008; B06

ON JULY 1, 1968, the last slot machines were wheeled out of the taverns and diners that dotted a stretch of Southern Maryland known as Little Vegas. Maryland banned the machines because they fostered crime and corruption and drained money from the poor. In the 40 years since, the lever on the side of the machine has given way to a button on the front, but the scourges ushered in by slots are the same.

Supporters of a Nov. 4 referendum that would restore slots to Maryland paper over these memories with dollar bills. Slots, they promise, will plug Maryland's $430 million budget gap, revive the faltering horse-racing industry and inject needed cash into schools. Marylanders shouldn't fall for this neon mirage.

[…]

Maryland had the good sense to rid itself of the machines 40 years ago, and voters should continue to resist the glow of slot machines and the false promise of pain-free revenue they represent.

[…]


Read the entire editorial here: No on Maryland Slots

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/18/AR2008101801534.html

20081019 Washington Post editorial says No to slots

Sunday, September 7, 2008

The OC Dispatch: Slots Called 'Even Bet' With Two Months To Go

The OC Dispatch: Slots Called 'Even Bet' With Two Months To Go

By Shawn J. Soper, News Editor

Originally published September 5, 2008

OCEAN CITY – Despite strong rhetoric from an organized and vocal anti-slots contingent in the local area and across Maryland, the November referendum on the gaming machines appears to be an “even bet” with just under two months remaining before the election, resort business leaders heard this week.

The resort’s Economic Development Committee (EDC) this week hosted its bi-annual legislative summit, inviting its representatives in Annapolis including Sen. Lowell Stoltzfus and Delegates Norm Conway and Page Elmore, along with Ocean City Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Dennis Rasmussen to Ocean City for a frank discussion of important upcoming issues. Conspicuously absent was Delegate Jim Mathias, who is in Louisiana to assist with disaster relief efforts there in the wake of Hurricane Gustav.

Inevitably, the discussion at the meeting on Wednesday turned to the November referendum on slots, and the generally anti-slots local business community was not likely pleased when the race was handicapped. For years, certain segments of the Ocean City business community including the EDC and the chamber, along with the town’s elected officials, have made it known in no uncertain terms they are opposed to slots.

[…]


Voters across Maryland will likely settle the slots issue once and for all in November when they head to the polls to cast their ballots on a referendum question calling for an amendment to the state’s constitution to allow 15,000 of the gaming devices at five locations including Ocean Downs in Worcester County. The wording in the ballot question has been formally challenged because of the notion it unfairly paints a rosy picture of the benefits of slots without pointing out its potential downfalls, according to Stoltzfus.

“This issue is obviously very important to Ocean City,” he said. “The first thing to start with is the ballot language and it’s being challenged. It’s deliberately misleading and it’s wrong.”

Stoltzfus told EDC members on Wednesday the slots-for-schools premise is misleading because much of the revenue generated from the gaming machines will not go where it is supposed to go despite the language in the bill.

“The ballot language extols the virtues of the revenues going to education, but the reality is most of it is going into the general fund. The revenue will be swallowed up in the general fund and it could go to anything. The same thing happened to a large extent with the lottery.”


Read the entire article here: Slots Called 'Even Bet' With Two Months To Go

http://www.mdcoastdispatch.com/article.php?cid=30&id=4239

20080905 The OC Dispatch: Slots Called ‘Even Bet’ With Two Months To Go