St. Mary’s Sheriff Tim Cameron is right, the law on slot machines should be clear and right now, the illegal slot machine purveyors have muddied the legal waters enough, at the direction of one of Maryland’s top lobbyists, to completely bamboozle the quirky jurists of the Court of Appeals, some of the states attorneys of the many counties and all in the name of installing as many slot machines throughout the state as possible.

The big slot machine and gambling interests in the nation have decided Maryland is going to be wide open and the big boys are here to play and here to stay.

What this means, is that the relatively low-tech bingo that has supported the church schools and fire departments are going to be a thing of the past. The fraternal groups, some of whom may be making a few bucks now, will soon see their proceeds dwindle away to nothing. Some groups, such as the Avenue American Legion have already experienced severe drop-offs in their Texas Hold – em nights, to the point that they canceled it last week.

Why?

Because people are lining up to play the slot machines at the bars and nobody is monitoring these slot machine parlors, the money is flowing in by the barrel full and soon, in fact, in just a few short weeks, St. Mary’s County is going to be right back into the 1950’s with families seeing their house payment money being dumped right into the slot machines.

They are slot machines and people are putting their money into the slot in the machine, only to never see their money again.

Here’s what happens to a dollar which is deposited into a slot machine: 60 cents goes to the machine supplier, 35 cents goes to the bar owner, 5 cents, maybe, goes to a church which agrees to "front" for the slot machine parlor.

What will happen to all of the church and fire department bingo and casino nights? They will soon disappear.

The issue of allowing slot machines will be on the ballot this fall. In the meantime, the officials, namely the Attorney General needs to act to put a halt to this spread of unregulated gambling until the voters have spoken.

The General Assembly is now in session and if the Attorney General needs legislation, emergency laws can be enacted quickly and signed by the Governor.

But to let supply and demand dictate the spread of unregulated and illegal slot machines marks the downturn of the quality of life in Maryland.

If we are to have unregulated slot machine parlors on every corner, the red light districts can’t be far behind. At least, for now, in Maryland, prostitution is limited to the 90 day session of the Maryland General Assembly.