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Had the legislative session not been allowed to come to a close without action being taken on the gambling bill, Maryland would have been looking at a very different gambling industry.  The bill in question would have introduced quite a few dramatic changes to the industry.  At the moment there are only five gambling venues approved in Maryland, this new bill would have increased the number to six, creating a venue in Prince George’s County, very close to Washington, D.C.  In a addition to the creation of a new casino, the state was finally be given the chance to compete with neighboring states with the legalization of table games.  There was even a measure in the bill that would have finally lowered the unreasonable gambling tax on slot machines.

Some have argued that the only people that could possibly care about the changes being introduced in this bill would be the gambling industry.  However, I think that is very short sighted.  Certainly all of these changes are a ploy to get the gambling industry interested in doing more business in Maryland, however, Maryland’s gambling industry will never crawl out of its infancy and it will never be able to compete with neighboring states unless the gambling industry is given a reason to invest in it.  The whole idea behind building a gambling industry in Maryland was to provide additional revenue to the state’s educational program without hiking up personal taxes.  None of that will happen if the state does not become host to a market that the gambling industry wants to invest in.

While this happens in the state and federal legislature all of the time, I believe Maryland placed too much focus on one issue that related to a very important bill for their gambling industry.  This is not a foreign tactic in the world of politics.  The business of writing bills is very complicated and when the legislature tries to pass a law they attempt to get as many agendas as reasonable sated in the process.  However, in an attempt to block a law from being passed, opponents will often focus on one issue of a very complicated bill in order to dissuade people from voting in favor of the bill.  In the case of the most recent gambling bill in Maryland, the issue focused on was the creation of a new gambling venue in Prince George’s County.  It was widely agreed upon that this bill was not exactly necessary or wise.

However, I do not know if the creation of a new casino venue overshadows the several positive things that the bill would have done for Maryland’s gambling industry.  Maryland’s gambling laws were seriously in need of being revamped and this new bill was all about that.  One of the major issues holding the Maryland gambling industry back from success was the unreasonably high taxes placed upon slot machine revenues.  This bill would have lowered those taxes to something within reason for slot machines.  The new bill would have also allowed gambling venues to offers table games without tax on them.

At some point in time Maryland is going to have to start acting like they have a gambling industry.  In 2008 there was a referendum and the people voted in favor of starting a gambling industry in Maryland.  It was not even a very ambitious plan, calling for only the legalization of slot machines at only five casinos.  However, it has been the habit of Maryland lawmakers to treat the gambling industry in Maryland like the redheaded stepchild that nobody wanted.  This not the way to establish an industry that will thrive and if there is one thing that the Maryland gambling industry has not been doing, it is thriving.  This most recent bill would have made some necessary and dramatic changes to the Maryland gambling industry.  Changes that would have finally given it a chance against stiff competition from states like Delaware and West Virginia.

While the Senate President was doing everything in his power to get this bill passed that would have done things like lower the tax on slot machines and introduce table games to the casinos, the rest of the state has been taking out their aggression on the casino industry.  I completely understand not being in support of state operated slot machines, however, this is what the people wanted.  At this time it is no longer acceptable to sabotage the industry simply because you are not in support of it.  The Maryland gambling industry is not going to disappear so it does not make sense for lawmakers to saddles the state with a failing industry.

I do not know whether to cast shame or applause on the recent actions of Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.  It is clear that in American politics.  Sometimes it is absolutely necessary to do some political strong arming in order to get things done.  Miller had become something of a master at that.  It was Miller’s job to somehow make a tax hike look favorable to law makers. In order to do this Miller suggested a 2 percent cut of the state’s general fund spending.  This cut would have taken a bite out of very important social programs in the state, such as law enforcement and public education.  All of this was going according to plan until Miller’s baby project ran into some opposition.

Of course that baby project was the Maryland Gambling industry.  At this point Maryland offers only slot machines in two casinos, with three more underway.  However this new bill would have expanded the state’s gambling industry with table games and an additional casino.  I have very mixed feelings about the fact that Miller would let the legislative session come to an end without acting on the very important tax business of the state in favor of moving forward the gambling agenda.  While I do not believe that any state should be held hostage for the gambling industry, I think Maryland lawmakers need to be woken up to the fact that do in fact of a gambling industry that needs to be looked after.

Maryland is a state full of problems.  To their credit, there are few states that are not in the same boat.  The recession is loosening but it is far from over.  However, Maryland is in a unique situation where an industry that was supposed to be the solution to many problems seems to be becoming the cause of many problems.  Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. may be too close to the gambling project in Maryland.  He was very much in favor of a bill that would have legalized table games and allowed another venue you to open up with both slot machines and table games in Prince George’s County.  Miller was so adamant about his support for this bill that he was willing to let the legislative session end without passing other very important items on the table such as a tax issue.

There is a concern in Maryland that as long a Miller is in the role of Senate President that he will continue to hold the State’s business hostage unless his gambling agenda is moved forward.  This is obviously a very scary concept and not a very reassuring way of handling the state’s affairs.  Because legislators did not move forward on the major gambling bill Miller allowed the time to run out on the legislative session so that there was no time to move forward on a measure that would have raised taxes, but prevented funding cuts to very important social project in the state.  Not a good way of going about things.

For now the ambition to build a casino in Prince George’s County has been placed to the curb.  The most recent Maryland legislative session failed to pass the bill.  The venue was the point of much controversy.  Supporters of the bill believed that having a massive casino venue so close to the Nation’s Capital, Washington, D.C., would have helped draw gamblers from not only Washington but also Virginia.  However, people that did not support the bill recognized that Maryland had barely figured out what to do with the casinos that were already legalized in the state.  I have to say that I tend to agree with the people that were hesitant to build another casino in the state.

While the Prince George’s casino would have certainly made some revenue, especially since the new bill would have also legalized table games, I am not completely sure it would have made more money for Maryland.  The problem with the Prince George’s county casino is that it was being planned so close to the Cordish Cos. casino that will soon open its doors to the public in Anne Arundel County.  The Maryland Live! venue being constructed by Cordish Cos. will offer more than 4,000 slot machines and will serve a wide market in Maryland.  I also believe that it is located close enough to draw people from both Washington D.C. and Virginia.  To build another casino of that size so close would simply have split the market in half.  Cordish Cos. would have made significantly less revenue.

I am certain that there are many very disappointed parties in Maryland since the bill that would have dramatically expanded the state’s gambling industry failed to pass during this legislative session.  This bill would have done wonders for an industry that seems to have been hobbling along ever since its inception.  Maryland’s gambling industry has thus far failed to meet any of the expectations placed onto it.  The venues were much smaller than initially planned.  Casino operators do not seem to be particularly interested in building casino in Maryland as the state placed absurdly high taxes upon slot machines and did not have the foresight to legalize table games as well.  This latest bill would have amended many of these missteps.

However, there is one party that I am positive is celebrating the failure of this bill in one way or another.  Cordish Cos. will soon open the Maryland Live! Casino in Anne Arundel County.  It will be the largest casino in the state.  If the bill had passed it would have approved the construction of a casino in Prince George’s County.  The venue would have only be a few miles away from the Cordish Cos project and would have carried just as many slot machines.  There is no doubt that having another casino of that size in the neighborhood would have negatively affected the performance of Maryland Live!  While there is always a chance that the issue of another Prince George’s County casino will arise again in a later legislative session, Cordish Cos can rest easy for a time.

It is an absolute shame that Maryland did not succeed in passing this sorely needed bill for their gambling program.  I have to hand it to Maryland, what they planned for their gambling program was very ambitious.  It was similar to that of the Pennsylvania program where they had a simple aim of keeping gambling dollars in the state and stealing a few residents from neighboring state.  With that simple goal in mind it was okay charging high amounts for tax on slot machine revenues because the casinos had no real ambition of expanding to an international destination as they do in Nevada or New Jersey.  However, Maryland’s plan was severely flawed.  They planned to build too few casinos and charged way too much for gambling tax.  In addition to that, they never really seemed to garner enough support for the gambling industry from legislators.

One could argue that the failure of the Maryland gambling program was more of a self fulfilling prophecy.  While it was clear that the Maryland voting public supported the establishment of a gambling industry in Maryland, it never seemed as though elected officials were on board with the plan.  The failure to pass this very important bill is yet another sign of the legislatures divide on gambling in the state.  However, there have been signs that Maryland legislators were not fan the casino program, long before this.  The fact that members of the legislature attempted to oppose issuing funds to pay for slot machines that would go in the state’s first casinos was a very bad sign for the future of the Maryland gambling industry.

Some things come too little, too late.  That seems to be the case in Maryland.  Back in 2008, Maryland defied the odds and approved a slot machines program.  The state had a very bad history with gambling and there were many people that just were not interested in bringing casino back into the state.  However, the choice was left up to the voters and it seemed to be the right offer at just the right time.  Unfortunately, after the approval of gambling there new industry was just so mismanaged with one major bumble after the next.  Despite the fact that Maryland tried to get a gambling program off the ground during one of the worst economic crisis in American history, there were several poor choice made in the process.  All of those poor choices may have been enough to cause people to lose faith on the promise of the Maryland gambling industry.

It has been four years since Maryland voters approved gambling.  The only thing the state has to show for it are two small casinos that are not doing nearly as well as anyone had hoped or predicted.  A new bill was supposed to be in the works that had the chance of really turning things around for Maryland, but it feels like there are some people that are just losing faith in the program as a whole.  When people have lost faith in a gambling program it is hard for the program to turn around.  This may not have been the case if Maryland casinos were showing promise from the start and convincing the naysayers that they were wrong about what gambling could do for the state.

Better luck next time Maryland.  It looks as if Maryland will have to wait until the next legislative session if they would like to add table games to their gambling offerings.  There was a bill circulating the Maryland legislature that would have not only added table games to the Maryland casinos but it also would have approved the construction of a fifth casino in Prince George’s County, Maryland.  The idea was that having a casino in Prince George’s county would have made gambling in Maryland more enticing to people travelling from the Washington, D.C. and Virginia.  Unfortunately, it looks like the most recent legislative session has come to a close without any action on the bill.

So, what does this mean for gambling in Maryland?  Unfortunately, it does not change much for Maryland and there are people that are convinced that even the passage of the bill would not have done much for the struggling Maryland gambling industry.  There are already two casinos operating in Maryland and both of them are underperforming their estimated revenue.  At the end of the day, Maryland has done a lousy job building a gambling industry.  They have done everything wrong from placing the venues in terrible locations to charging way too much for taxes.  Adding a new casino would not really have helped.  Unfortunately, there were a few other amendments in the bill that would have possibly made the Maryland casinos more attractive to developers.  So it looks like it is back to the old drawing board for casinos and slot machines in Maryland.