Welcome to St. Mary's Today Online Edition!

Bell Motor Co.

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

SEE MOST WANTED BY FBI FOR TERRORISM

Attorney General Rules St. Mary's

Slot Machines are Illegal

Senate President Mike Miller who sought ruling from Attorney General, has bill pending that would have outlawed them, thus they will be removed now, rather than July 1st as had been anticipated.   ST. MARY'S TODAY photo

Highlights of Attorney General's Opinion:

* Machines with electronic cartridge or chips inside of them are illegal slot machine and therefore operating illegally in St. Mary's County, Allegany County and Calvert County.
* Payment of percentage of proceeds from machines to bar or restaurant as is occurring in some counties (St. Mary's and possibly others) is prohibited. Sharing of proceeds with a for-profit entity violates the law which prohibits any individual or group receiving proceeds for personal use or benefit and gaming machines conducted this way is illegal gaming.
* Bars and restaurants may not obtain machines and operate them on behalf of a charitable organization. (Situations as described last week at Senate hearing on outlawing these slot machines.)
* Organizations cannot just pay rent for the space the machines take up, as is done at St. Mary's Landing and other locations, as the law requires the organizations to be managing the devices.
* Locations with 40 and 50 machines are clearly violating the law.

LEONARDTOWN --- " I appreciate the efforts of Senate President Mike Miller and the Attorney General and we are going ahead with our plan of action to evaluate all of the slot machines on Thursday, determine which ones fall under the ruling from the Attorney General and on Friday we will seize the ones which are determined to be the illegal ones," St. Mary's Sheriff Tim Cameron told ST. MARY'S TODAY.
The Sheriff said he won't be taking them to the dump as they are evidence and he will be consulting with St. Mary's States Attorney Richard Fritz about prosecution of those found to have illegal slot machines in their possession.
Maryland State Police Leonardtown Barrack Commander Lt. Brian Cedar told ST. MARY'S TODAY that he and Sheriff Cameron would be meeting this afternoon to plan changes to their joint enforcement action which was already planned for Friday and to now focus on the criminal investigation since Attorney General ruled that the machines which do not dispense pull tabs are illegal.
Cameron said that he believes that the only ones which are not illegal are 60 machines in the ADF Bingo Hall in New Market.
But Cameron said that those machines will likely be illegal in that they are far in excess of the five allowed by the law which covers the simple pull tab machines.
The bottom line, the "Deadwood Era" of anything goes gambling in St. Marys' County with dozens of corner casinos, just came to a screeching halt.
"I hope there are trucks on the way here right now to pick up the slot machines," said Cameron when asked about the Comptroller's threat to come to the county with a truck and take them all to the dump.
The Comptrollers Office was contacted to find out if they have truck and are on the way and Deputy Comptroller Craig Zucker said that the Comptroller would be notified of the ruling of the Attorney General and a response would be forthcoming.
Number of machines
As part of the Attorney General's ruling, the number of the only legal machines, those which drop pull tabs, which the player has long been able to operate at the Rod n Reel in Chesapeake Beach, must be restricted to five machines.
"However it is calculated, there cannot be sixty machines in a single location," wrote Assistant Attorney General Kathryn M. Rowe.
The ruling specifically stated that Maryland law covers the number of gaming devices operated by a qualified organization as being: "it may not operate more than five gaming devices and the premises in which the gaming devices are operated may not contain more than five gaming devices."
Bars and restaurants sharing in the proceeds of the gaming machines
As for the issue of St. Mary's Landing and Boatman's, among others, taking as much as 90 percent of the take from the machines, a take which is strictly on the 'honor system', the Attorney General said, "...the payment of a percentage of the proceeds for rental of either space or machines cannot be deemed a reasonable or necessary expense that would take the payment out of the restriction against the use of the proceeds for the personal use or benefit of an individual or group of individuals. Therefore, it is my view that an arrangement under which a large percentage of the proceeds is paid to the premises where machines are located and not to the qualified organization violates the law and gaming conducted in this way is illegal gaming."
Qualified organizations
As for the question raised to the Attorney General by Senate President Miller in his request for a ruling in the matter of the St. Mary's slot machines, the Attorney General had this to say about the role of "qualified organizations".
"Criminal Law Article, Title 13 Subtitle 21, applicable in St. Mary's County, provides that a qualified organization may hold a gaming event and may operate a gaming device if an individual or group of individuals does not benefit financially from the operation of the gaming device, or receive from the operation of the gaming device any proceeds for personal use or benefit," said the Attorney General in the ruling.   "This authorization also requires that members of the qualified organization personally manage the operation of the gaming device. It further states that all proceeds from a gaming device shall be used solely for the legitimate charitable, benevolent, or tax-exempt purposes of the qualified organization and that the proceeds may not be used to benefit personally any member of the qualified organization."
Operation of Gaming by For Profit Organizations
The Attorney General addressed the question of arrangements where "restaurant or bar obtains machines and operates them on behalf of qualified organizations, paying them a percentage of the proceeds." The Attorney General said in this case that law requires the qualifying organizations to "manage the operation of the gaming device".
"Clearly, a restaurant or bar that obtained pull tab dispensing machines, placed them on its premises and recruited one or more qualified organizations to be the "beneficiaries" would be both conducting and managing the gaming in violation of the above mentioned provisions."

READER FEEDBACK: Has any one heard if this magic trick from the comptroller's office is going to roll into Chesapeake Beach and haul away the hundreds of slot machines at the Rod n Reel?? Just wondering if Mr. Miller wants them removed or if he was just worried about the competition from St Marys' County.
R. L. Moore
Benedict, MD
(Editor's Note: from the first read of the Attorney General's Opinion, it appears that only the pull tab machines are legal. The ruling may mean that the Rod n Reel will be not be allowed to continue to have machines of any type or number.)
READER FEEDBACK:
The slot moguls have been hard at work at St. Mary's Landing. They changed the buttons on the machines. I can't remember what they used to read, but now they say something to the affect of "purchase tab" to make your bet and "dispense tab" to spin the reels. Other than that it's the same old machine.
You really have to wonder how these guys think?

How about Whorehouses for Charity?

Maryland Lottery Director Buddy Roogow, right, testifies as to the steep decline in lottery income where illegal slots are present in St. Mary's County. Behind him are left to right, lobbyist Bruce Bereano, slot machine kings Steve and Frank Moran, Billy Hill of St. Mary's Landing Restaurant in Charlotte Hall, which is packing in players. ST. MARY'S TODAY photo

Would Little Flower parents like to see cheaper tuition from proceeds of a brothel?

Why not drug dealing?

Editorial Opinion:
No one can have any fun in Maryland, now that the cops have busted a brothel in an apartment house in Laurel, this madam should have taken a page from the slot machine guys and donated 15 percent of the take to Little Flower School, the Leonardtown Lions Club and to the Mechanicsville Vol. Rescue Squad and then when she is hauled into court for prostitution, all of the members of the charities would line up to sing her praises, just like they did in Annapolis on Wednesday for the corner casino crowd....if the parents of the children at Little Flower School want to send their kids to that school why won't they pay enough tuition to pay the cost of the education, don't they believe in the value of a good Catholic education?
The bars who are using the school and other non-profits as fronts for their slot machine parlors are taking advantage of the horrible and pathetic woes of those who go into these slot machine joints and lose their social security checks, their house payments and their rent...all so the kids of cheapskate parents can get cheaper tuition for their kids at a private school. This is called blood money.
Shame on the parents from Little Flower School who want to gain advantage from the slot machine losses of the less fortunate and exactly what is wrong with the Catholic Church for being a part of this nonsense?
Little Flower School has a fine tradition of providing a structured and safe environment for students that is lacking in public schools, but the tuition is too low to afford to pay competitive salaries to teachers and therefore less qualified educators are on the staff and sooner or later, parents figure this out and remove their children from the school.
Some educators such as Lila Hofmeister, principal of St. Michaels School, have gone to work at Catholic schools at a big pay cut because they put their money where their mouths are, unlike those who just want cheap tuition.
Families who shell out big bucks on large homes, SUV's and fancy vacations could lower their standard of living and spend more on tuition instead of profiting from the gambling addicted poor of St. Mary's County.
If we didn't have hundreds of illegal slot machines, many of these gambling addicted would be pouring their money into the lottery, is an argument made, but there are many of us who didn't vote in favor of instituting the lottery.
What in the world has happened to all the fine people involved in these fraternal, charitable and civic organizations to allow themselves to become so blinded to the damage done to society by the proliferation of illegal slot machines, without controls or accountability, to become fronts for such destructive forces.
Our fire departments are supported by tax dollars and donations, but running the carnival in Leonardtown became too much work for the young guys, but nothing slows down the appetite for any of the fire departments to all the latest toys, bells, whistles and ladder trucks for departments that don't need them.
Their bravery and unselfish dedication to others should not be used as a smokescreen, but it is, as the politicians are gutless wonders and are afraid to put the brakes on the fire departments.
Go ahead, bring on the slot machine parlors on every corner, add brothels and strip bars and soon the Golden Goose Pax River missions will be transferred one by one, to Edwards Air Force Base.
Of course, some of these Little Flower parents will be uprooted with their jobs and have to go to China Lake at Edwards and then perhaps they will find a reason to try to run the local Catholic school there on slot machine dollars. Are these people even embarrassed? Just a little?
The Catholic Church has meant an awful lot to many people, but this is a real stretch to play around and say that these slot machines are "Bingo". They are not bingo, they are slots and the whole deal is a scam.
READER FEEDBACK:
Your views are welcome, but be careful, these folks think they are sacred cows, use your own name at your own risk as retaliation will be fast and furious. Send your views to staff1@stmarystoday.com
Question for our Readers:
Should charities provide themselves as fronts for illegal slot machine parlors?

READER FEEDBACK:
Take the money for our firehouses so everyone benefits not just a few.
Carolyn

READER FEEDBACK: I think that if people want to play slots/pull tabs, let them play - regardless of what you call them! If people want to throw their hard earned money away, they will find a way! Whether it be in St. Mary's County, Atlantic City, or the race track! Why shouldn't there be a benefactor to collect the unwanted money that they people are throwing away! We certainly don't close down the local bars just incase an alcoholic might want a drink. I also don't feel that the parents of Little Flower should feel ashamed of taking the money as a donation to the school. Most of the parents (I for one) that have put their children through private education have done without, to give their children the benefit of a private religious education. The old wives tale of "only the rich attend private school" is so far off the chart! Parents do without boats, vacations and fancy new cars, not to mention they have put several children through these schools, not just one! These parents have elected to pay for their child's education, they do not benefit from the taxes that they pay, except for bus service. They pay for books, uniforms (in counties other than St. Mary's) busing to the school of choice. The public education system is available to them, but don't look down on these parents for wanting more for their children than they public system has to offer, and their sacrifice to make that happen. I'm sure if it was a donation to one of the local high school booster clubs - we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Local organizations including the private schools should be able to accept any donation - no matter who the donor might be!

Gail

READER FEEDBACK:
The slots are just a by-product of the bigger problem which this county, state, and country faces. The issue isn't gaming devices, slot machines, or whatever else you want to have, it's the law (or lack of) concerning charities. I say many of our charities need to be reigned in. I boldly say that even more of them need to be totally eliminated. This is just another example of government and society getting taking advantage of when they attempt to allow private enterprise to do something good.

Look around you. Captain Jack has the Bay Labs Foundation, one of our big local builders has the Mid-Atlantic Housing Fund, and on the national level there's no shortage of charity fodder as well.

If it's so easy and completely legal to create a charity, collect money, give yourself a job, and pay yourself a salary (you decide how big), or not pay yourself a salary but use the charity to enhance your business, then why not do it? After all, there is no shortage of notable causes to claim your fame (and fortune). Take your pick: save the bay, disabled veterans, hurricane Katrina victims, the homeless, and of course the children of Little Flower and the other Catholic Schools. You don't expect these kids to go to Spring Ridge or Great Mills High School with the rest of our kids do you?

Let's face it, these charity czars are much smarter than average working folks. The first time I stepped into the bingo/pull tab/these aren't slot machines room of the Rod & Reel I was completely amazed that nobody on our side of the bridge had caught on about how to succeed in business by playing the nonprofit game.

They say that one of the hardest parts of starting a business (this is a nonprofit charity business - remember that - never deviate when questioned) is coming up with the business plan, so I've created this one for you. This way you can get in on the "gaming device" action too - before it's too late. My plan is offered to you for free. You're on your own if you use it though. I take no responsibility.

1. Hire a lawyer to create a nonprofit charity business that enjoys tax exempt status.
2. Give yourself (and your relatives) a job at your charity.
3. Lease your existing real estate, business and personal property to the charity.
4. Fill the place with leased bingo/pull tab/ these aren't slot machines.
5. Call the Emptyprize for a fluffy interview and press release about your good deeds. Don't worry, they won't ask incriminating questions or want to see the books.
6. Donate some token proceeds to the religious folks and their schools.
7. Put some oars in the water at the local college.
8. KEEP socking the money away into the charity coffers.

Step eight is very important, because eventually the state is going to get wise that you've shut down the lottery and caused a lot of harm in your community. At that point, they'll shut your good deed machines down. But by socking away the dough from the start, you'll be prepared for this inevitable ending. So even though you'll no longer have a money making product to support your charity, you'll still be able to continue paying yourself a handsome salary for being the director; that is until the money runs out. But that could take years if you play cards right, or maybe even decades if you invest wisely. Sadly, you might have to cut all but the closest family members loose from their employment roles, but somebody's gonna have to run to that charity, aren't they?

There you have it, a free business plan to put you and yours on the road to riches.

Of course, you're probably wondering why I haven't enacted this business plan myself, or why I'm not charging you to prepare it. The answer is I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Deep down inside something didn't feel right about running such a (fake) business, because while helping others is a great thing, helping myself under the pretense of helping others is rather reprehensible in my book.

Now somebody might read this and say all of this stuff shouldn't be happening anyway under the existing laws concerning charities. If that's the case, that means we have an enforcement problem. Imagine that.

PS: Can you guys running these bingo/pull tab/ these aren't slot machine charities start picking up the tab for the public school buses to these private schools as well? And can we start getting some free drinks (yeah alcohol) while we're playing? How about some gaming subsidized buffet meals? Oh, and don't forget the skimpy outfits for the female wait staff. Bunny tails are always nice when the wife isn't watching me watch them! Thanks in advance.
Anonymous

READER FEEDBACK: Your suggestion that whorehouses could benefit local charities appears to have merit. However, I'm somewhat confused. Do charities benefit by receiving a percentage of the take (like slot machine proprietors) or, could there be "freebies" extended to senior citizens who are romantically challenged?
Jim

READER FEEDBACK: Being that we're not gambling by playing these machines and that they are being ran by charities, is the money that you put into the machines tax deductible?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but generally if you make a donation to a charity you can take the tax write-off. Same goes for dropping money into the church collection plate.
Can we start asking the Brass Rail and the others for a receipt? You can't keep the pull tabs as a receipt, because half the time the machine never gives you any.
Reader Feedback
Your question in regards to "Would Little Flower parents like to see cheaper tuition from proceeds of a brothel?" Depends on how you define brothel. Also, I'm sure the state would step in once they found out they were not able to collect full taxes because it has no way to prove how much money comes into the the establishment.
Based on the below quotes out of your paper and other papers, one has to speculate that the core issue is not charitable organizations directly benefiting and the LFS parents being cheap but the state not getting their fair share as per the following comments:
Of the nearly 50 machines in the Brass Rail, about half of them had players on this Monday night while no one was playing a Maryland Lottery machine near the front of the bar, which the State Lottery Director told ST. MARY'S TODAY last week is posing a big problem for the state.
"With no government control to track the system, the state cannot collect full taxes because it has no way to prove how much money comes into the machines," said Sen. Thomas "Mac" Middleton (D-Charles), the bill's lead sponsor.
According to the MD Lottery website http://www.mdlottery.com/
Fiscal Year 2007 sales were $1.577 Billion.
Richard Dover
Reader Feedback

Once again, St. Mary's Today talking out both sides of their mouth. In one article you write how Lila Hofmeister didn't sell her soul to the devil and in another article you quote the bar owner as saying, "I have given thousands of dollars to different Catholic schools and one of them being St. Michael's."

The only reason this is an issue is because the state is not getting their cut of the profits. How about all of the thousands of public school parents who have taken money from the "whorehouse" state, with the profits from the Maryland State Lottery going to fund our schools and senior citizens. My understand is that if a business sells a lottery ticket or a scratch off, that business profits from the winnings. What is the difference between Maryland Lottery and the "illegal" pull/slot machines? Is it because our government says so. One more question that comes to mind, if they are "illegal" than why would there be a vote to get rid of them? If they are "illegal" than the police should come in and tell the bar owners to remove them. Obviously, not that "illegal" if the state can wait until July 1 to vote on this issue.
Richard Dover
(Editor's Note: The reader mistakes telling both sides of the illegal slot machine story with taking both sides of an issue. First, we do present both sides of an issue and second, we tell our readers what we think about these issues and we don't make any bones about what we feel is best for the community, which is likely the reason you are mad. Both tasks are important for a publication and our readers can make up their own minds and vote, which will be on Nov. 4, not July 1. If you go back and read the bill, the law will take effect on July 1 if first passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor. The General Assembly needs to pass this bill and outlaw these illegal slot machines once and for all. The last thing this state needs is for casino bar owners, slot machine suppliers and hack politicians making law from the back of a slot machine delivery truck. The way our laws are made in Annapolis is bad enough without a bunch of backroom wheelers and dealers dealing themselves in for millions and using naive charities as a front for their corruption and dark deeds.)