Slots opponents vow to stop gambling expansion

BALTIMORE - Despite the passage of a referendum yesterday legalizing slots in the state, slots opposition groups were still confident they could prevent the expansion of gambling in Maryland.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting, 59 percent of Marylanders voted in favor of legalizing slots.

Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), the face of the anti-slots effort and a gadfly to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), a slots supporter, said the groups will still fight to prevent slots from becoming a reality.

Slots opponents plan to lobby local officials in the five locations slots would be placed - Anne Arundel, Cecil, Allegany and Worcester counties and Baltimore City - to use zoning and other rules to prevent the machines from going in.

"If we lose, we're going to have to put pressure on local officials," Charlie Metz, a volunteer for Stop Slots Maryland, said after the Associated Press reported the referendum passed. "Financially and mathematically, it will never work."

Slots opponents were also gearing up for an anticipated battle over the renegotiation of the terms of the slots legalization. Under the law, 33 percent of revenues from slots would go to the casino owners, one of the lowest rates in the country. Legislative leaders have said that number may have to increase to around 45 percent, which is more in line with neighboring states.

"They're already talking about modifying it," Metz said. "We will fight that if it's not going to make sense economically."

The referendum that passed last night makes slot machines legal in the state, but does not actually mean they will come to fruition. The General Assembly must approve them in a vote that could occur as early as their next legislative session, which begins in January.

Slots supporters have said slots will generate as much as $660 million for the state, including money for education and capital construction projects at universities and community colleges.

Metz said politicians who supported the amendment should be held accountable for the changes, saying public county schools should be improved in two years or "politicians feet need to be held to the fire."

Despite the loss, anti-slots opponents remained pleased with what they viewed as an underdog effort. Aaron Meisner, the chairman of Stop Slots Maryland, called the work of the group and Marylanders United to Stop Slots a "heroic, grassroots effort."

"We have to face the reality that we are up against a multimillion-dollar casino machine," Meisner said, before the decision was made official. "I like to win; however, we have to live in the real world."

Yet at 10 p.m., anti-slot leaders were still hesitant to admit defeat with only 25 percent of the vote counted.

"We are the comeback kids," Franchot said. "We were written off two weeks ago. We have to find out what the results are first."

Even after the Associated Press reported the referendum passed, Meisner was still hesitant to admit defeat.

"The numbers will tighten up over night as the numbers come in," Meiser said, and eventually conceded, "The Associated Press has called it. They are professionals, they know what they are doing."

Meisner, for one, remains convinced slots will be harmful to the state, equating it to the tobacco industry.

"A lot of the states will have to face tough realities," Meisner said. "This is not a moral issue, this is a social justice issue."

"This doesn't solve any of Maryland's problems," he added. "It creates more than it could ever hope to solve."

Franchot and Meisner thanked the volunteers who worked on the anti-slots campaigns.

"We took a stand for Maryland and for our future and our values," Franchot said. "Thank you, Maryland, for stepping up for these special values."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. taustindbk@gmail.com