ANNAPOLIS -- Maryland's casinos could give table game players free promotional cash to get them to keep playing under a bill approved by the House on Thursday.
The measure, which passed 97-35, allows casinos to engage in "promotional play," giving cash to gamblers to get them to come to or stay at new table games.
The state already allows casinos to give out the promotional money for slot machines and video lottery terminals, and they did so to a tune of $26.7 million in 2012, according to a legislative analysis. The casinos do not have to count the money as income and therefore don't pay taxes on it.
Casinos in Pennsylvania and Delaware engage in promotional play, according to the analysis.
The bill now goes before the Senate.
