Bingo has 3 more years

Compromise allows machines to stay until 2012

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The bill, which now awaits Gov. Martin O'Malley's signature, provides a lifeline to businesses affected last year when the General Assembly wrote the death notice for the devices that resemble slot machines, ordering them to be turned off by July 1.

But legislators from Anne Arundel and Calvert counties appealed for an extension of the machines in their jurisdictions, arguing that legal operators were caught up in the push to prohibit illicit businesses last year.

The bill sailed through the House of Delegates last month, but faced resistance in the Senate before gaining final passage hours before legislators adjourned for the year.

The additional year of operation was a tradeoff to provide the state additional revenue until slot machines are fully implemented. In exchange, operators must pay an additional 10 percent tax that will be placed in a special fund designed to prop up cultural institutions hurt by the economic downturn.

"The intent is not to expand gaming. The intent is to get revenue for the state," said Del. Sue Kullen (D-Calvert).

Vendors already must pay a 20 percent state amusement tax and a local amusement tax of up to 10 percent. Calvert's levy is only 0.5 percent. Commercial bingo operators in Anne Arundel County pay a larger percentage.

Legislators capped the total amount of taxes that can be assessed on machine owners at 35 percent.

The final product allows licensed gaming operators to stay in business, saving about 100 jobs in Chesapeake Beach alone.

"It's fair. It helps this small town during a really tough time," Kullen said.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert, Prince George's) said he too was satisfied that the bill passed, but preferred that at least some of the additional revenues would have benefited the local economy.

The issue was far less of a political hot potato this year than last, when lawmakers banned electronic bingo machines that had proliferated in St. Mary's County amid concerns that they were cannibalizing state lottery revenues and putting too much money into private hands. Nonprofit organizations that were strapped for cash leased the machines and received a portion of gambling proceeds, but powerful legislators feared that the continued allowance of such devices would jeopardize the November referendum on legalized slot machines.

After voters overwhelmingly approved the ballot question, the effort to save commercial bingo operators began. Kullen argued that the commercial gaming operators in Chesapeake Beach have long played by the rules and were unjustly caught up in last year's effort to protect the referendum.

abrody@somdnews.com