Slots pass, fight begins anew

Maryland voters overwhelmingly approved legalizing 15,000 slot machines Tuesday.

Local hurdles still lie ahead before slots arrive at one of the five prescribed locations across the state, which include placing 4,750 machines near Laurel Racetrack in Anne Arundel County.

Zoning laws must first be changed at the county level, and opponents promise not to stop fighting.

“Round two is coming. The election results are not going to change my opinion,” said Councilman Jamie Benoit, a Crownsville Democrat who represents Laurel and opposes slots.

Yet, the vote by nearly a 2-to-1 margin ends a nearly decade-long debate in the General Assembly over whether to reinstate the gambling machines four decades after the state banned them. Proponents pushed the measure as a way to prop up the horse racing industry and bring $600 million more into state coffers, mainly for education.

County residents’ views on slots mirrored state wide results with 59.5 percent of voters approving the measure.

Precinct by precinct voting results from Anne Arundel were not immediately available last night, but Laurel voters at the precinct closest to the race track both supported the machines and opposed them.

“Anything might save me a dollar on my taxes, I’m in favor of,” said William Marshall, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle salesman from Russett. “We already have vices in the community. I’m not concerned about slot machines bringing any in.”

Both Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley and his predecessor Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich promoted slot machines, but could not push a measure through the state legislature. Last November, Mr. O’Malley and other state leaders agreed to put the question to the voters.

“We’re already facing some really tremendous challenges because of the downturn in the economy, and if this had been rejected, we would have doubled those challenges,” O’Malley said.

Comptroller Peter Franchot emerged as one of the most vocal opponent to slots, joined by pastors and other activists who decried slots as a false promise that not only would not deliver benefits, but would usher in social ills of gambling addiction and increased crime.

Voters approved placing slots at sites in Anne Arundel, Cecil and Worcester counties, the city of Baltimore and on state property in Rocky Gap State Park in western Maryland.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold opposes gambling, but has declined to take a position on promoting a zoning change to put slots in Laurel until after he sees county voting results. Mr. Leopold did not return a telephone call seeking comment last night.

Katherine Hayes, an archivist from Laurel, voted against the measure, saying it will not deliver the promised benefits.

“I don’t believe that it works the way the proponents say it does, at all,” Ms. Hayes said. “I’ve lived in other states where gambling was eventually legalized and I did not see the benefit.”

On the early voting question, Maryland now joins more than 30 states with the process. Sixty-one percent of county voters approved the change.

The constitutional amendment allows the General Assembly to enact legislation to allow qualified voters to cast ballots up to two weeks before an election and at polling places outside of their election districts.

The amendment was proposed because Maryland’s high court struck down a previous early voting law in 2006 as unconstitutional.

ecox@capitalgazette.com