Article in the Baltimore Sun today. Gov. Glenndening has stated his opposition to gaming on many occassions. I do not see much hope for passage until he is out of office.
Lobbyists set to go for gold
Payday: The possibility that casino-style gambling might be a part of Maryland's future has the corps aquiver over the profitable opportunity to represent a gaming company.
Political Game
By Thomas W. Waldron
Originally published Feb 13, 2001 That's the new rallying cry in Annapolis - at least for the State House lobbying corps who see a potentially huge payoff coming in the next few years.
We're talking, of course, about casino-style gambling.
Back in the mid-1990s, when it looked as if Maryland might take the plunge into the world of blackjack and slot machines, casino companies hired just about every big-name lobbyist in the capital.
The companies even attempted to carve up the state. One company sent a representative to Cumberland while others sent troops to Cambridge, Cecil County and downtown Baltimore.
The big paydays for lobbyists essentially stopped once Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who had flirted with the idea of legalizing slots, slammed the door shut in 1996.
Now, with Glendening leaving office after next year, that door has been cracked open as various legislative leaders begin talking about the issue again. And last night, Del. Howard P. Rawlings, the influential chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, introduced a bill to legalize slots at four locations in Maryland.
Once again, State House lobbyists are quivering in their tasseled loafers at the prospect of landing a casino company as a client.
Thursday, the action picked up as the Senate's newly formed committee on gambling - or the slightly gentler "gaming," as the casinos and some legislators like to call it - met for the first time.
As the members of the panel assembled, they looked at an audience made up of almost exclusively of two Annapolis subgroups: reporters and lobbyists.
"It made me want to throw up," a lawmaker said later - referring, we hope, to the dozen lobbyists.
Naturally, the state's horse tracks, which have been angling for years for the right to install slot machines - and make a king's ransom in the process - had their representatives in attendance.
But other lobbyists sat in with only one thought in mind: How can I land a client during the great gambling debate?
In the end, the committee did little but review past reviews of the issue - and crack a few jokes.
Baltimore County Sen. Michael J. Collins, co-chairman of the panel and a big blackjack fan, suggested the committee "might want to sharpen our skills by playing some blackjack, and I'll be the house."
As the discussion veered into the booming world of Internet gambling, Sen. Patrick J. Hogan of Montgomery County clicked a few buttons on his laptop computer and seemed to quickly find an online casino site.
"Just won my first hand," Hogan announced.
