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LWVMD Testimony on Video Lottery Terminals — Authorization And Limitations

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Presented To: 
House Ways and Means Committee, House Appropriations Committee Senate Budget and Taxation Committee
Presented by: 
Barbara Matzen Coit
Date: 
1 Nov 2007
LWV Position: 
Very strongly Oppose
The League of Women Voters of Maryland is very strongly opposed to a referendum on slots and slots casinos in our state. The proposed legislation is a sly means to bring slots casinos to Maryland for all time. We say that because the bill denies any possibility for local governments to have any control whatsoever over whether there will be slots casinos in Maryland. And, just as bad, if slots were to be adopted, where the slots casinos might be placed is also fully controlled by the legislation. Thus, the five slots locations could be placed in Anne Arundel County, Cecil County, Worcester County, Rocky Gap Lodge and Golf Resort in Allegany County or in Baltimore City. The citizens of these communities will have no say in this; the citizens and local governments will be cut out of the planning. At least in past years, legislation provided that the local governments had a voice in the process of whether there should be slots casinos in their jurisdiction and where they should be placed. The bill is so tightly drawn that it is both frightening and very alarming. This is a dangerous path to follow. The bill has no requirement to educate the citizens of Maryland about what this bill will create and its long-term consequences. It makes no attempt to explain to the citizens the consequences of adopting slots by referendum: that if the referendum passed, it would, for all practical purposes, be impossible to ever oppose or eliminate the five slots casinos. Yet it is essential that the citizens of Maryland understand the consequences if our state government established five slots casinos around our state without considering the citizens’ concerns. That consequence arises because Maryland only permits referenda via Maryland’s constitutional process. Using Maryland’s Constitution to adopt legalized gambling in Maryland through a vote of uninformed voters is indeed disingenuous. It remains the position of the League of Women Voters that it is the state’s responsibility to pay for the public education of its citizens, and that the use of gambling proceeds to accomplish this is inappropriate. It is impossible to emphasize too strongly that we want to urge the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee members and the House Ways and Means Committee members to vote NO to this very dangerous proposal.