Slots Yes or No
- Thread starter Otter
- Start date
Hell, why don't we just go all out and legalize prostitution and pot...then tax these vices to make money. I cannot believe that the Christian conservatives would vote for a person that would offer slots as an alternative. Slots are a short-term fix with long-term problems. It just opens the door for more corruption in an already corrupt statehouse. Gambling messed our state up once and we should not let it happen again.
Maryland already lets you play "games of chance" by allowing betting at the racetracks, playing the state lottery, playing Keno, purchasing those scratch cards, and the many bingo halls in just about every community. They are all gambling. So how is this any different?
Tim Mcneil
New Member
Slots are just another form of gambling, which Ken already said occurs in a wide arrange of mediums. I say let's go with them.
Hessian
Well-Known Member
Looks like I'm in the same boat as Dems and chuckster.
I do beleive in the slippery slope argument. I see it every day with kids.
"Why are you punishing me? I'm not the only one doing it!...he did it first!"
We say slots are needed to keep Md money from going to Delaware...This will keep that money in state. Then someone decides in Delaware they want crap tables & roulette to stay one up on Md.
(You know where I am going....)
We have pulses of reform in history..give it 20 years..problems have cropped up and then a big fight occurs trying to regulate/end the gambling cycle.
Sorry folks, this is human nature: The spiral is omore often down...with brief periods of moral reform.
I do beleive in the slippery slope argument. I see it every day with kids.
"Why are you punishing me? I'm not the only one doing it!...he did it first!"
We say slots are needed to keep Md money from going to Delaware...This will keep that money in state. Then someone decides in Delaware they want crap tables & roulette to stay one up on Md.
(You know where I am going....)
We have pulses of reform in history..give it 20 years..problems have cropped up and then a big fight occurs trying to regulate/end the gambling cycle.
Sorry folks, this is human nature: The spiral is omore often down...with brief periods of moral reform.
Hessian, thanks for your support. You can also look at the lottry system in MD. Didn't we start with just a daily number? Now look what is has grown into. You can play some form of lottery everyday PLUS have a choice of a minimum of 10 scratch-off tickets to play. This has grown to be a monster. Also look at the people who are standing in line trying to win the "Pot of Gold"
I am willing to bet some of them are taking their welfare, unemployment, social security, rent or grocery money to gamble. These are the people that the system feeds on. Not to many people driving up to the licquor store in the BMW to buy a lottery ticket. They have their Pot of Gold while the people playing don't have a Pot to p@#% in
Take the lotto and scratch tickets away and those same people would be pissing their money away on booze, drugs, or whatever. So should we close all liquor stores, bars, and other frivolous spending entities to protect these losers? No, because you can't save them from their own weaknesses.
Maybe, but I think that was an unfair statement. Kind of like placing them all in the same class. My point is Ken is that as long as they think they can win, and the odds are always against them, they will play. I would hate to thinkthat a child went to bed hungry because Mom and Dad lost their food money gambling.
We really need to think family values soon. Clinton made it ok to have sex that is not sex so now we have kids doing it on school buses. What are we passing on to our children?
We really need to think family values soon. Clinton made it ok to have sex that is not sex so now we have kids doing it on school buses. What are we passing on to our children?
Not sure which statement you think is unfair, but as far as the slot machines go (with Ehrlich's plan) these people would already be at a race track where gambling takes place, so what greater harm is it for them to pull the old one armed bandits for awhile while they are there?
Slots were getten rid of because the business owners that had slots were not paying the necessary taxes on them. Abuse of the system was widespread and the government did not get the amount of money that they desired. So, the legislature resolved to outlaw slots and then the next year they installed the state lottery. (A little bit hypocritical if ya ask me).
When I was about 12, I went into Snellman's in Hollywood and played the slots. It cost a nickel then and I pulled the lever and got about $20 back in quarters. The owner noticed that my pants pockets were sagging to the ground and asked what I had. I told him that I had won and instead of taking it away, which was his legal right, he decided to give me a $20 bill. I'm always gonna remember that.
When I was about 12, I went into Snellman's in Hollywood and played the slots. It cost a nickel then and I pulled the lever and got about $20 back in quarters. The owner noticed that my pants pockets were sagging to the ground and asked what I had. I told him that I had won and instead of taking it away, which was his legal right, he decided to give me a $20 bill. I'm always gonna remember that.
Are you sure this is accurate? Didn't Governor Tawes call for the phase out of the slots in Southern Maryland (the only places in Maryland that they were legal) in 1963 as part of a deal he made earlier (during the campaign for his election) to get the endorsement of David Hume?
From http://www.somd.lib.md.us/MUSEUMS/Somdhist.html
. . . 1941 to the present
saw enormous change in Southern Maryland, starting with the establishment of the Naval Air Station at Cedar Point in 1942, then the refurbishing of the old Powder Factory at Indian Head into a research and development center for Naval Surface Warfare, and the creation of several other auxiliary installations. Over the next several decades, and two more wars, the Department of Defense presence gradually became an all important factor in Southern Maryland's future. However, in the 1950s the region's economy was still in the doldrums and slot machines became the quick fix. This proved ephemeral and dilatory and they were banned in 1967. In counterpoint, this period saw an improvement in transportation and utilities; the encroachment of Washington, D.C.'s suburbs on the region's northern edges; a sixfold increase in population; the growth of a strong high technology industry; a gradual shrinking of the agricultural and fisheries base; the incipient emergence of Southern Maryland as a recreational destination; and a place which, by virtue of having been a rural backwater for so long, has encapsulated its heritage and, in microcosm, that of America.
. . . 1941 to the present
saw enormous change in Southern Maryland, starting with the establishment of the Naval Air Station at Cedar Point in 1942, then the refurbishing of the old Powder Factory at Indian Head into a research and development center for Naval Surface Warfare, and the creation of several other auxiliary installations. Over the next several decades, and two more wars, the Department of Defense presence gradually became an all important factor in Southern Maryland's future. However, in the 1950s the region's economy was still in the doldrums and slot machines became the quick fix. This proved ephemeral and dilatory and they were banned in 1967. In counterpoint, this period saw an improvement in transportation and utilities; the encroachment of Washington, D.C.'s suburbs on the region's northern edges; a sixfold increase in population; the growth of a strong high technology industry; a gradual shrinking of the agricultural and fisheries base; the incipient emergence of Southern Maryland as a recreational destination; and a place which, by virtue of having been a rural backwater for so long, has encapsulated its heritage and, in microcosm, that of America.
From J. Frank Raley
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/sc5100/sc5123/000002/html/raley.html
"In 1963 legal slot machine gambling, without restriction[,] was permitted in [Anne] Arundel, Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's Counties.
"In that year Governor Millard Tawes, under statewide prodding, submitted legislation to abolish this gambling. In those days[,] especially in Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's [Counties], the economies were weak and the counties poor. Gambling was touted as the mainstay of those economies and had a strong electoral following, well financed. I had won election to the Senate based on the reform of the economy in St. Mary's and Southern Maryland. I did not take a position to abolish gambling. (I don't think I would have been elected if I did.) I staked out a position of higher taxation and controls on gambling.
"The events of the Gubernatorial campaign overtook me, when a nobody ran up a huge amount of votes as a one-issue...candidate [taking the position of abolishing slot machines]. Governor Tawes was forced to adopt a protective position of eliminating gambling in Southern Maryland. The bill to abolish slots submitted as an administration measure brought fierce opposition from Southern Maryland and long and bitter debate. I was in support of getting rid of gambling as it was a serious economic drag on the Southern Maryland economy, but I had the campaign promise around my neck. The bill to abolish [slot machines] had a powerful statewide momentum and I turned instead to the development, together with my fellow Southern Maryland Senator John Parrin and Ed Hall of a[n] economic development program to replace the economic and tax loss. But the issue of gambling became, as I feared it might, a major factor in my defeat in the next election.
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/sc5100/sc5123/000002/html/raley.html
"In 1963 legal slot machine gambling, without restriction[,] was permitted in [Anne] Arundel, Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's Counties.
"In that year Governor Millard Tawes, under statewide prodding, submitted legislation to abolish this gambling. In those days[,] especially in Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's [Counties], the economies were weak and the counties poor. Gambling was touted as the mainstay of those economies and had a strong electoral following, well financed. I had won election to the Senate based on the reform of the economy in St. Mary's and Southern Maryland. I did not take a position to abolish gambling. (I don't think I would have been elected if I did.) I staked out a position of higher taxation and controls on gambling.
"The events of the Gubernatorial campaign overtook me, when a nobody ran up a huge amount of votes as a one-issue...candidate [taking the position of abolishing slot machines]. Governor Tawes was forced to adopt a protective position of eliminating gambling in Southern Maryland. The bill to abolish slots submitted as an administration measure brought fierce opposition from Southern Maryland and long and bitter debate. I was in support of getting rid of gambling as it was a serious economic drag on the Southern Maryland economy, but I had the campaign promise around my neck. The bill to abolish [slot machines] had a powerful statewide momentum and I turned instead to the development, together with my fellow Southern Maryland Senator John Parrin and Ed Hall of a[n] economic development program to replace the economic and tax loss. But the issue of gambling became, as I feared it might, a major factor in my defeat in the next election.
,,,and it won't stop with slots
Did you know that Steve Wynn has already set his sights on Maryland? He was in Annapolis in July
Casino King Shows His Cards in Meetings With Lawmakers
Date entered: 08/12/2002
Las Vegas casino king Steve Wynn waltzed into Annapolis last month and had no problem lining up face-to-face meetings with four of the General Assembly's top leaders to make his pitch for bringing more gambling to Maryland.
Wynn struck out, however, in his bid to gain an audience with perhaps the biggest proponent of bringing slot machine gambling to the Free State: Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
Although Ehrlich campaigned hard on his promise to legalize slot machines at Maryland's horse-racing tracks, he also had to assuage voters' worries about the Free State turning into Sin City, with glittering casinos popping up in Baltimore's Inner Harbor or Prince George's County's proposed National Harbor waterfront.
Ehrlich's aides fretted that it might not look good for the governor-elect to sit down for a chat with a man famous for building an empire of gaming temples in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
"We are drafting a proposal that may or may not involve Mr. Wynn's companies," said Ehrlich spokesman Paul E. Schurick. "We felt it was inappropriate to meet with any people or companies involved in slot machine gambling."
Wynn did score meetings with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's and Calvert) and House Appropriations Chairman Howard P. Rawlings (D-Baltimore), both of whom support slots at the tracks; House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), who opposes them, and Del. Sheila Ellis Hixson (D-Montgomery), whose committee will oversee slots legislation.
The gambling impresario told lawmakers he is interested in grabbing a slice of the slots business -- and perhaps more than that, should legislators cotton to the idea of gambling in other forms, or at sites other than racetracks.
So far, however, Ehrlich is refusing the latter temptation.
"He opposes casinos and will oppose any efforts to expand slot machines beyond racetracks," Schurick said.
Did you know that Steve Wynn has already set his sights on Maryland? He was in Annapolis in July
Casino King Shows His Cards in Meetings With Lawmakers
Date entered: 08/12/2002
Las Vegas casino king Steve Wynn waltzed into Annapolis last month and had no problem lining up face-to-face meetings with four of the General Assembly's top leaders to make his pitch for bringing more gambling to Maryland.
Wynn struck out, however, in his bid to gain an audience with perhaps the biggest proponent of bringing slot machine gambling to the Free State: Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
Although Ehrlich campaigned hard on his promise to legalize slot machines at Maryland's horse-racing tracks, he also had to assuage voters' worries about the Free State turning into Sin City, with glittering casinos popping up in Baltimore's Inner Harbor or Prince George's County's proposed National Harbor waterfront.
Ehrlich's aides fretted that it might not look good for the governor-elect to sit down for a chat with a man famous for building an empire of gaming temples in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
"We are drafting a proposal that may or may not involve Mr. Wynn's companies," said Ehrlich spokesman Paul E. Schurick. "We felt it was inappropriate to meet with any people or companies involved in slot machine gambling."
Wynn did score meetings with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's and Calvert) and House Appropriations Chairman Howard P. Rawlings (D-Baltimore), both of whom support slots at the tracks; House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), who opposes them, and Del. Sheila Ellis Hixson (D-Montgomery), whose committee will oversee slots legislation.
The gambling impresario told lawmakers he is interested in grabbing a slice of the slots business -- and perhaps more than that, should legislators cotton to the idea of gambling in other forms, or at sites other than racetracks.
So far, however, Ehrlich is refusing the latter temptation.
"He opposes casinos and will oppose any efforts to expand slot machines beyond racetracks," Schurick said.
Tonio
Asperger's Poster Child
Thanks for posting those articles, Chuckster. I think most of us knew already that the gambling interests won't be satisfied with slots at the racetracks.
My position? The hell with those interests. This is our state, not theirs. We as voters and citizens have the right to determine how and where gambling is permitted legally. I take Ehrlich at his word that he will fight any attempt to expand slots beyond the tracks, and he has my support on that.
In fact, I think the state should consider actually owning the racetrack slot operations, maybe under a contract-type situation. That wouldn't be much different from the lottery and Keno.
My position? The hell with those interests. This is our state, not theirs. We as voters and citizens have the right to determine how and where gambling is permitted legally. I take Ehrlich at his word that he will fight any attempt to expand slots beyond the tracks, and he has my support on that.
In fact, I think the state should consider actually owning the racetrack slot operations, maybe under a contract-type situation. That wouldn't be much different from the lottery and Keno.