Maryland Casino Slot Machines Measure on Ballot for November 2008

In a photo finish, Maryland lawmakers have approved a voter referendum on slots that may save the state's historic horse-racing industry. After years of bitter debate and acrimony, legislators narrowly passed a bill placing the future of slots in Maryland before the state's voters on the ballot in November of 2008.

Like several other states before them, Maryland has found the installation of slot machines to be the path most likely to shore up the floundering business at Pimlico, the home of the Preakness Stakes, and other tracks.

Because of complications in Maryland law, the law would actually take the form of an amendment to the state constitution. Still, Governor O'Malley and his allies pushed the plan as necessary for the state's well-being.

Not only was the referendum passed to the voters, but an implementation system was set up in a separate measure, allowing for dispersal of expected revenues to education, which gets the lion's share at 48.5%, increased purses at racing tracks, and local governments, along with slot operators.

The president of the Maryland Jockey Club, Louis J. Raffetto, Jr., was quoted by a local paper as saying Maryland's racing industry might now have a fighting chance to survive.



2007-11-19