Powerful groups align behind slots | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

Some of the state's most powerful organizations continued this week to line up behind Gov. Martin O'Malley's slots proposal, which could bring up to 15,000 slot machines to Maryland and 4,750 into Anne Arundel County.

Grassroots opponents, however, are not worried about the big names. Instead, part of their strategy to win in November is to wean away the rank-and-file members of those same groups.

"Luckily, the big special interests don't get to decide this race," said Scott Arceneaux, a senior adviser to the group Marylanders United to Stop Slots. "The voters do."

Last week, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce and the Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO formally announced their support of the ballot measure, joining the Maryland State Teachers

Association and the Maryland Association of Counties in backing Mr. O'Malley's slots program.

"It is a no-brainer. This option is far better than raising more taxes in Maryland," said Kathy Snyder, the president of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. "Marylanders go by the busload ... to spend their money on this type of entertainment."

The revenue from slots is imperative to keep the state budget from sinking into another fiscal quagmire, proponents say.

By fiscal 2012, slots would raise more than $1 billion in gross revenue, according to the state Department of Legislative Services. About $500 million would go to education, $340 million to the businesses with the slots licenses, and the rest would be spread out into horse-racing purses, local governments, racetrack renewal, lottery operations and minority business investment.

"What we have in front of us is a budget problem of historic proportions," said Frederick W. Puddester, a former state budget secretary who is leading the major pro-slots group, For Maryland For Our Future. "Without (slots) we have a major problem."

That mantra is part of the motivation for the teachers association - MSTA. If the referendum fails, the potential $500 million for education will vanish, hurting the pursuit of public school resources.

"We really don't see any other major revenue source on the table now," said Daniel Kaufman, a spokesman for the teachers association. "If (the referendum) doesn't pass, then we're going to be looking at drastic cuts."

But opponents of the referendum question whether the executive committees and boards of these groups are really representative of their rank-and-file members. Anti-gambling organizations have been confident their message about the social ills and false financial promises of slots will resonate more effectively.

Although the MSTA and the Maryland Chamber of Commerce have come out in favor, small business people and teachers will not vote in a monolith, Mr. Arceneaux said.

"They are going to be against slots," he said.

For example, businesses in Ocean City have been opposed to slots because disposable income will go into the machines rather than the hotels and gift stores on the boardwalk, Mr. Arceneaux said. Marylanders United to Stop Slots also recently made a pitch to the local teachers in Montgomery County.

The leaders of the chambers and associations backing slots, however, believe their own membership network will spur a ripple effect down from the top into localities.