Billy Hills and Frank Moran at the St. Mary's Landing Restaurant in Charlotte Hall. 
ST. MARY'S TODAY photo  see update on this story now on newsstands

Boatman Bashful About Backing Up Boasts

Comptroller Promises to Haul Slot Machines to

Dump Once Emergency Legislation Passes Assembly

By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

CHARLOTTE HALL --- “It’s a cash business and its ripe for corruption and tax evasion,” Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot told ST. MARY’S TODAY.  “I look forward to the filing of emergency legislation in the General Assembly, which Governor O’Malley has said he will sign, which will outlaw these machines from the entire State of Maryland.”

Franchot said that the legislation is being drafted by Sen. Thomas E. “Mac” Middleton, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and an ardent opponent of slot machines, to outlaw the various illegal slot machines which have exploded in popularity in recent months with as many as 1,000 of them now in St. Mary’s and Calvert Counties.

While Calvert County has enacted some approvals of machines placed at the Rod n Reel, Traders and Abner’s Crabhouse in Chesapeake Beach, no county approval has been taken in St. Mary’s County.

The machines in question are clearly slot machines as even when they run out of paper slips to drop in the tray at the bottom of the machines, with lights and buzzers flashing, they continue to take money, allow bettors to manipulate the play and therefore the amount wagered, and pay off accordingly. 

The term “instant bingo machine” which was the covering label used to bring about a court decision in 2001 involved machines which simply had a reel of tabs inside with numbers on them and the machines simulated the play of a slot machine.  Those are about the only machines which would be legal, but the Class 1, 2 or 3 machines will soon likely all be illegal.

“It’s guaranteed that if the legislature approves this emergency legislation, I am coming to St. Mary’s County with a truck and we will be picking these machines up and taking them to the dump,” warned Comptroller Franchot. 

“The Sheriff’s of Carroll and Allegheny Counties have taken this step and clamped down on them and I am disappointed that the same response was not given in St. Mary’s, where we can see that once they have come in the door, they have spread like a terrible virus and pose real problems for law enforcement and prey on those who have gambling addictions,” said Franchot.

Franchot pointed out that soon after the slot machines take hold, the next step is political corruption and organized crime.

In the 1960’s when slots were being phased out of the four counties of Maryland which had them, Calvert, St. Mary’s, Charles and Anne Arundel, slot machine interests attempted to block or extend the deadline with a bagman offering $10,000 to a Western Maryland Senator.  The Senator was told by the man with the money that he was being offered $10,000 because the slot machine owners felt he was honest and it would take more to bribe him than the $1,000 bribes being given to other legislators.

After a Grand Jury investigation and other brouhaha, the effort to keep slots in Maryland failed and for the last 40 years, there have been no slot machines with the exception of a few on the Eastern Shore and then only in a few American Legion posts.

Talbot County Sheriff Dallas Pope told ST. MARY’S TODAY that he warns the fraternal groups which do have slots not to exceed the legal limit of five machines or he will show up and remove all of them, not just the one extra.

St. Mary’s Sheriff Tim Cameron said that he welcomes the audit teams of the Comptroller that arrived in the county this week.

“I don’t have the manpower to do this and I don’t have the expertise, we have Baltimore County police sending an expert in dealing with the machines to help us determine if some of these machines are here in violation of the law,” said Cameron.

Little Flower School has been the recipient of as much as $125,000 in recent months, but Father Joseph Sileo, Pastor of Holy Face Church, which oversees the school told ST. MARY’S TODAY that he could not confirm the amount.

“The Archdiocese doesn’t want us to comment on the amount,” said Father Sileo. “We do not have the keys to the machine, at least I don’t, but some of our parish men might, but these are not slot machines.”
Asked if there is a conflict between the churches stand on gambling and taking money from the slot machines at the Brass Rail, Father Sileo was adamant.

“These are not slots, they are instant bingo machines and we do bingo,” said Father Sileo.

Sheriff Cameron said he was happy to learn that emergency legislation was being considered and said that a clear cut law which governs the gambling/gaming devices has been needed all along.

The slot machines have been placed in liquor stores, bars and restaurants all over St. Mary’s including the Brass Rail, Monk’s Inn, Fred’s Liquors, St. Mary’s Landing, Boatman’s Minimart, Petruccis, and reportedly many others are in the process of installing them.  One local bar has had the machines shipped in but is not hooking them up until the issue of legality has been settled.

The Leonardtown Vol. Fire Department installed the machines at the Coles Point Tavern, located over the Maryland waters of the Potomac at Coles Point, Virginia.  The fire department reportedly takes a boat over to Virginia once a month to pick up the cash from the machines.
The slot machine vending companies have been spreading the devices over the area since the passage of legislation in a special session of the Assembly last fall which provides for a referendum in the fall for voters to approve of legalization of slot machines and placing them at racetracks and five other locations.

The following is a draft of the proposed legislation outlawing the illegal slot machines:

Statewide Phase-Out of Electronic Gaming Devices Legislation:

• This bill would provide for the phase-out of the use of electronic gaming devices under the guise of bingo, instant bingo, tip jars or other gaming authorized at the local level, which was never intended by the General Assembly to be an authorization of slot machines
• The electronic gaming devices that would be prohibited under the bill are so similar in appearance and operation by players to slot machines that the contention that they are not slot machines is absurd and has caused confusion among the members of the public as well as law enforcement officers who are charged with upholding the State laws prohibiting the unauthorized operation of slot machines
• The exponential increase of these machines has made it imperative that action be taken immediately and that no more machines be approved. The bill is therefore an emergency measure that would take effect on the date of the Governor’s signature into law
• The bill does NOT prohibit traditional bingo, tip jars, or any other form of gaming that have been authorized by the General Assembly through statute to be carried out for charitable or commercial purposes at the local level
• The bill DOES prohibit the use of electronic gaming devices machines under the guise of bingo, instant bingo, tip jars or any other form of gaming that were not authorized by Maryland statute
• The bill prohibits the machines by providing that no more machines may be authorized after March 1, 2008 and provides for the phase-out of machines over a one year period starting on July 1, 2008 depending on how long the machines have been in operation.
  • Machines in operation less than 5 years and the date of prohibition under the bill (March 1, 2008) and no longer permitted after July 1, 2008
  • Machines in operation between 5 and 10 years are no longer permitted as of January 1, 2009
  • Machines in operation 10 or more years are no longer permitted after July 1, 2009
• The bill does not address the limited use of slot machines on the Eastern Shore as the machines were specifically authorized as slot machines by the General Assembly in a very limited fashion.
• The bill is directed at gaming that was never contemplated by the legislature to be done on machines so similar in operation and appearance to slot machines that there is no substantive difference.
• Penalties for violations of the bill are the same as they are for illegal use and possession of slot machines. It would be a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of $1000 or imprisonment for one year or both.