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I do not quite understand what the deal is in Anne Arundel County.  There are a few people that refused to allow slot machines to operate near the Arundel Mills Mall.  Why?  Because it is a place where families gather often?  I am not sure what that has to do with casinos.  Perhaps families are afraid that their children will be exposed at an early age to potentially destructive habits that could lead to financial ruin.  If that is the case then the slots parlor should not be allowed to operate near the mall AND the mall should be shut down for good.

People have a habit of being incredible selective about what vices they allow and condemn.  There is no bigger vice plaguing the United States than consumerism.  The mall is just one big venue filled with a bunch of crap that, for the most part, nobody needs.  Everything in the mall is geared toward people spending as money and staying in the mall as long as possible.  In truth there is little difference between a mall and a casino.

Store after store is lined up like a bank of slot machines.  As you walk through the hallways there are bright lights, flashing colors, and beautiful people convincing you that if you spend money here you can somehow be like them.  Perhaps the mall is just concerned about competition.  One thing that slot machines have going for them is that at least when you spend money on them there is a chance of you getting a lot of money back.

Maryland lawmakers set themselves up for failure when they drafted the constitutional amendment that legalized slot machines back in 2008.  What is the point of having legalized slot machines if you cannot put them in play?  Voters approved a constitutional amendment that finally legalized slot machines in five different locations.  However, I guess as a means of balancing the influence of state and local government, they inserted a clause that allows local government to resist the construction of a casino in their district.

This type of law seems incredibly counter productive.  The residents of the state voted in favor of slot machines and all of the benefits that come along with it.   Now, since a handful of people fear what slot machines could potentially do to their community, the desires of the majority of the state is held in limbo.  This seems like a take one for the team situation if there ever was one.  The slot machines have to operate somewhere and it is not as if the local government would not be compensated for having slot machines in their district.

Outside of that argument is the fact that it is not even so much the local government that has a problem with these slot machines.  There are a few antigambling advocates still fighting to make gambling illegal in Maryland.  It seems to me they lost that battle back in 2008.  It is time that Maryland gets their slot machine program rolling and generating money to help state schools.

Poor, poor Maryland.  Not only have they got a slot machine program that seems never able to get of the ground, the delays that are causing trouble for the program have evolved into a much bigger issue.  There has been an ongoing zoning laws battle in Maryland that has prevented the commencement of construction on what is supposed to be the biggest slots parlor in the states.  The slots parlor designated for Anne Arundel County is supposed to operate 4,750 slot machines.  There has been a local movement that has tried to get the venue out of the county or at the very least away from the Arundel Mills Mall.

The issue has gone through the local courts, up to the Court of Appeals, and now it looks as if the battle will finally make its way up to the highest court in the land.  Slot machines were legalized in 2008 by a constitutional amendment voted on by state residents.  The amendment that legalized the machines had a clause the allowed local governments to protest a slots parlor.  So this battle has become much bigger than just the slot machines.  The issue has been inflated to local rights verses state law.  The fear is that if the state is allowed to run over the local government that it will set a dangerous precedent that will tip the balance of power.

“The possibilities are endless, and the implications for home rule are considerable,” said Michael Berman, an attorney for the group protesting the Anne Arundel casino venue.

Maryland has very specific reasons as to why they attempted to legalize slot machines.  The bill passed into law during the election season of 2008.  The promise was that slot machines would be legalized and the revenue would be used to contribute toward the Maryland schools.  Maryland needs the money to improved their public schools and universities.  The state needs the money to help recover from serious budget deficits.  The state does not need the already legalized slot machines running into further legal trouble.

The biggest slots parlor planned in the state was supposed to be in Anne Arundel County right up against the Arundel Mills Mall.  There was a lot of protest against having a gambling venue so close to a family shopping center.  The concern is of course having a casino so close to a place where kid frequent.  It is ironic that in protesting the casino to protect children, the opposition is actually robbing children of a chance at better educational facilities.

I could understand protest if slot machines were not already legalized.  But it seems incredibly wasteful to spend all this time and energy delaying the inevitable.  The people of Maryland have already voted in favors of casinos and these slot machines have to be located somewhere.  What a waste of time the highest court in the state now has to hear arguments for and against gambling devices that have already been made legal my a constitutional amendment.  Slot machines could be making money for schools right now.

The Ohio Lottery Commission is being forced to keep their legal strategy for installing slot machines at the state’s racetracks close to the vest.  It is not yet clear if there will be more legal battles waged against the Governors plan to use slot machines to aid in closing the state budget, but the slot machines are still vulnerable to such attacks.  People that oppose Governor Ted Strickland’s slot machine plan believe that an attempt to install slot machines at the state’s racetracks as an extension of the state lottery is a violation of the Ohio constitution.  These are pretty serious claims.  Even the Ohio Supreme Court agreed that in order for slot machines to operate in the state legally it would take a referendum.  This was the exact thing that the organization LetOhioVote was pushing for.  If they had not ended their campaign, the issue would have been on state ballot this November.

There are already threats being made against the plan to install slot machines.  The conservative Ohio Roundtable has already made claims that they will sue if the state chooses to proceed with the plan though there is no indication of how serious the threat is.

So, as a means of not tipping their hand about just how they plan on getting slot machines legalized in the state, the state Lottery Commission and their legal team are not volunteering any information about just how they plan on moving forward legally, thus not giving the opposition any ammunition against them.

Ohio is on the verge of having a very active gambling scene.  By 2012, the state’s gambling market will look nothing like it does now, with slot machines operating at racetracks and casinos starting to spring up all over the state.  Slot machines are not completely in the clear.  The push by the legislature to install slot machines at the state’s racetracks could still be delayed by a lawsuit.  A lawsuit could tie up process on installing slot machines from anywhere between a few month to several years.  However, there does not seem to be much opposition springing up after LetOhioVote gracefully bowed out from the insistence that the issue be placed on a ballot.  If opposition has indeed finally been put to rest, the slot machines are expected to be operating in seven Ohio racetracks by 2012.

According to the latest rule drafted by the Ohio state lottery, the racetracks in Ohio would be able to offer slots gaming 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  The legal gambling age in the casino will be 21.  21 makes sense since the casino is obviously going to be serving alcoholic beverages.  It makes it easier not to serve alcohol to minors if there are no minors in the building.

The Ohio racetracks are still hoping to beat out the four casinos that are also on the way in the state.  There will be less construction required to install slot machines, but there are no legal threats looming over the casinos.

A lot can change in only a year.  That certainly has been the case for the Ohio slot machines plan.  Now that the state has finally jumped through all of the legal hoops to move forward with a plan that was supposed to start helping with the budget deficit a year ago, the landscape is completely different from when the plan was initially hatched.

When Governor Ted Strickland first decided to go through with his plan to introduce slot machines to the state, estimates projected that the slot machines would be able to generate $933 million in the first two years of operation.  Part of the $933 million was the $63 million in upfront licensing fees that the tracks would pay.  Profit margins do not look anything like this anymore, although new estimates have not been released.  Last November, the state approved the construction of four brand new casinos.

At one point in time the state planned on taking about a 50 percent cut from the tracks slot machines.  The state’s share has been reduced to 33 percent.  The licensing fee has also been reduced to $50 million.

“Because the competitive landscape has changed, that will have an impact on the rate,” said Kathleen Burke, the Ohio Lottery Director.

The state may not be able to expect as much revenue from slot machines since the plan was delayed for a year, but slot machines are certain to contribute handsomely to the state’s budget.  Racetracks will be happy to receive a bigger cut of the slots proceeds as the tax has been reduced.

Ohio has managed to get past all the difficult business of legally satisfying everyone in the implementation of slot machines at the state racetracks.  But there is still a good bit of difficulty that must be worked out by the Ohio Lottery Commission.  It took, Governor Ted Strickland over a year to navigate through the tough legal opposition of his plan to install slot machines as a means of subsidizing the state budget.  Now his biggest opposition, LetOhioVote, who sued the Governor for his slot machine plan, has voluntarily stepped aside believing finally that the Governor has the approval of the voters.

The most interesting thing that the Governor has to maneuver is the language of the state constitution.  According to the Ohio constitution any funds generated by the Ohio Lottery must be used for schools and education in the state.  Governor Strickland is actually using the authority of the Ohio Lottery to get slot machines in the state.  Though the slot machines will operate at racetracks, they will be operated by the Ohio Lottery.  Since they are property of the Lottery, the slot machine revenue should rightfully all go toward education.

“It’s a budget thing and the more money we can make, the more we can send to the schools,” said Allan C. Krulak, chairman of the Ohio Lottery.

“We’re here for one main purpose, and it’s education money.”

However, the Governor would like to use the revenue to help the state’s budget as a whole; just how he intends to do that remains to be seen.

Ohio will soon have a whole host of new rules surrounding slot machines.  That is not a bad idea since the original plan was drawn up over a year ago.  It was June of last year the Governor Ted Strickland thought to have slot machines installed at Ohio racetracks as a means of generating more tax revenue to fill the massive hole in the state budget.  The plan seemed to be all systems go until LetOhioVote got into the mix and got the Ohio Supreme Court to agree that the issue should be left up to a referendum.  The vote was supposed to take place this November, but LetOhioVote pulled out saying that they have enough evidence to satisfy their belief that state residents actually want slot machines.

Now that the Ohio Lottery Commission is in the process of drawing up new rules about slot machines, rules that no longer limit the racetracks to operating 2,500 slot machines a piece, they are determined to receive the approval of the court.  LetOhioVote was a force to be reckoned with.  They were a well funded and well organized outfit.  They spent more than $1.5 million to obtain about 320,000 signatures to put the slot machine issue on the November ballot.

However, simply because LetOhioVote is convinced that the Governor is free to go forward with his plan to install slot machines that does not mean that the courts are satisfied.  If the Lottery Commission can get the approval of the courts then there will be no opposition in the way of slots expansion.

It has been over a year since Governor Ted Strickland came up with the idea of implementing slot machines in Ohio racetracks as a way to close the serious budget gap being suffered by the state.  Along the way, Governor Strickland had to deal with a series of political debates, legal battles, and a ballot campaign.  Finally all of that has come to an end.  It would appear that all of the legal opposition, if not the moral opposition, to brining slot machines to the state has dried up.  The victory that indicated that the war had been one was when LetOhioVote decided to drop out of its ballot campaign that would have made slot machines a ballot issue this coming November.

The Ohio Lottery has now taken the reigns on the whole slot machines issue.  They are currently in the process of getting every thing organized to have the state’s seven racetracks operate slot machines.  The Lottery even decided to do away with the old rule that they had initially drafted for slot machines.  The tracks will no longer be limited to operating only 2,500 slot machines.  I would not be surprised if the state is making room for the tracks to eventually, perhaps a few years out, become full on racinos with table games.  Although it has been a year in waiting the much needed slot machines could be in place and generating revenue very quickly.  Governor Strickland has promised to make the process as speedy as possible.