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Newspaper Poll Shows Continued Support for Maryland Casino Push

Posted on October 1st, 2010

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A poll conducted by the Washington Post revealed that a majority of voters in the state of Maryland are fine with slot machine gambling, andhave actually thought of the practice as a good thing. Residents believe that revenue derived from slot machine facilities can be used to remedy the budget crisis of the state. This sentiment comes into view as the first slot machine casino in Maryland finally opened last Monday, days ahead of its scheduled opening on Thursday. With the slot facilities already gaining favor with the public, the poll proceeded to ask if the residents are ready to take gambling a notch further. Asked whether it is alright for the state to legalize table games into their casinos (in the likes of Las Vegas staples like craps, roulette and blackjack,) more than 50 percent of the respondents expressed agreement. A number of residents commented that since slot machines have already been legalized, why not table games as well? To think this poll was conducted days before the Hollywood Casino Perryville, located in northeastern Maryland, was opened to the public! This could mean that the residents of the state are quite bullish about the prospect of gambling in their state.

The casino, which hosts 1,500 slot machines, had its initial taste of success last Saturday when invited guests came to the facility for a test run with proceeds benefitting charities in the area. The doors of the casino opened to the public Monday, and on Thursday, important people such as the governor, Martin O’Malley came to celebrate. O’Malley must have felt like celebrating; after all, he avoided a stalemate which happened to his predecessor by letting the decision of allowing slot machine casinos fall into the hands of the public in 2008, 59 percent of which authorized for the state’s gambling authority to issue five licenses for casino facilities across the state.

Penn National Gaming owns the Hollywood Casino Perryville, which turned out to be a very bright spot in the struggle the state had to go through. Only a few bidders sought for the licenses at the start of 2009, when the economy took a beating. Even with four of the licenses already awarded, the three license holders have been struggling with a number of setbacks, with only Penn National going though the process without much of a roadblock. The second casino of the state is said to open in the middle of the last month of the year, after prevailing over one construction delay after another. The facility to open is located at a racetrack, Ocean Downs on the state’s Eastern shore. 750 slot machines are expected to fill the gaming floor.

Hollywood Casinos Perryville will not be the biggest gaming facility in Maryland though. Two facilities are poised to overtake Perryville in terms of size and number of slots to be hosted – that is, if they would ever be finished. The gambling facilities in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County have been finding it difficult to prevail over their stumbling blocks. Because of this, casino supporters are getting impatient over the $660 million in revenue that is not being realized and has already been earmarked for education programs of the state. The survey further revealed that more than a simple majority of Maryland respondents think that the budget of their state will get a boost from casino tax revenue (a whopping 69 percent). Only 26 percent think that casinos won’t be any help to the state in terms of budget.

Since the slots program was a no-go during the term of Republican governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., O’Malley is now using the issue to his leverage, painting himself as the champion of the issue. The poll also asked which of the two has come out victorious now that casinos are slowly making their mark. 35 percent of the poll respondents are on the side of O’Malley while 30 percent of them are on Ehrlich’s side. The delays during the term of Ehrlich may be attributed to the fact that the legislature was dominated by Democrats, who seemed to welcome any descending opinions. O’Malley silenced everyone by letting people decide and ending up the hero.