Legislation would add sixth casino, shift more revenue to operators
ANNAPOLIS – A state Senate panel approved legislation that would allow a sixth gambling site in Maryland, this time in Prince George’s County, and add Las Vegas-style table games to all the state’s casinos.
Casino operators could earn up to 48 percent of slots revenues and 90 percent of revenue from table games under the bill, which passed the Budget and Taxation Committee 10-2. Maryland residents would have to approve the gambling changes on the November ballot.
The operators, who now get 33 percent of revenue, would get a 7 percentage point increase in their share if a sixth casino license were issued, while an additional 8 percentage points would be added to operators’ revenues if a plan to shift the cost of slot machines to casino owners were approved.
Sen. Douglass J.J. Peters, who introduced the bill, made several other amendments, including efforts to ensure that a majority of Prince George’s residents would have to vote in November for a casino to open in the county, either at National Harbor or Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington.
The move was aimed to appease the Prince George’s County Council, which was divided last fall over banning gambling from the county.
Council members won’t be pleased by amendments that would increase the casino operators’ share of revenues, which cuts into the money from slots machines slated for the state’s education trust fund.
The bill dedicates 5.5 percent of casino revenue to local grants to help aid human services and infrastructure improvements, not the 8 percent the council wanted.
But 10 percent of table game revenues would go straight to counties, and a provision tying slots revenue to a proposed regional medical center in Prince George’s was removed.
Those amendments should go far to please County Executive Rushern Baker, who is pushing a $1 billion casino at National Harbor.
“Rushern is ecstatic,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said before the committee’s vote.
“The bill that the Senate panel released today is a step in the right direction and speaks to some of the amendments we proposed,” Baker said after the vote.
Less pleased are lawmakers from other counties where gambling licenses already have been issued, including Anne Arundel County. The Cordish Cos. is scheduled to open Maryland Live at Arundel Mills mall this summer.
“I have a facility that hasn’t even opened yet in my district,” said Sen. James DeGrange, D-Anne Arundel, one of two votes against the bill. “I don’t know what impact [the legislation] will have. Changing the rules before this place opens is not the right thing to do.”
The bill now goes to the Senate floor, where lawmakers will seek to pass the bill before Monday evening — the deadline for bills in one chamber to pass over to the other.
