|
Gambling PhD - Online Casino News - March 2004
If Md. Gets
Gambling, Wynn Wants It 'High-End'
By Craig Whitlock and Paul
Schwartzman
Albert R. Wynn doesn't like to
gamble. In his lifetime, the Maryland congressman has done
so only once: several years ago in Las Vegas, when he
inserted a grand total of six quarters in a slot machine.
He won $7 and quit while he was ahead. "I don't have
enough money to gamble," he said.
Wynn knows, however, that plenty of
other people are willing to gamble away large sums of
money, which is why he is pushing hard for the state of
Maryland to legalize a luxury casino resort in Prince
George's County.
As Wynn explains it, a casino
attached to a four-star hotel would serve as an economic
engine for Prince George's and the region, creating
thousands of jobs with union wages and lucrative
construction contracts. It would lure big spenders from
around the country, whose gambling losses would generate
hundreds of millions of dollars a year for public schools
and other civic needs.
"What we're looking at
is attracting tourists on a national scale and generating
revenue," he said. "If the state is going to force gaming
on us, then we need to insist that it be high-end gaming,
creating an economic engine."
Gambling is high on
Maryland's political agenda. As many as 15,500 slot
machines would be installed at race tracks and other sites
in the state, with many of them designated for Prince
George's, under a bill approved by the state Senate last
month.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) has
championed slots as a cure for Maryland's financial
problems. But he and legislative leaders have flatly ruled
out casinos, arguing that the presence of such table games
as blackjack and poker would make them more prone to
corruption than a bare-bones slots operation, which would
be largely controlled by computers.
Despite the entrenched
opposition, Wynn has persisted, making his case to
everyone from local county officials to state delegates to
Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R), whom he lobbied
while the two sat through a Maryland Terrapins basketball
game in November.
Steele told the congressman that the
Ehrlich administration wouldn't budge. "We've made it
clear that despite all the noise about a casino, that's a
non-starter," Steele said in an interview.
Read the complete article
at:
Washington Post
Historical Archive
|
