Suspense Slithers to Bitter End; Bill to Gut Glut of
Slots Sluts Slogs Through
ANNAPOLIS --- When it came down to the last minute of
this year's session of the Maryland General Assembly it
wasn't the Fat Lady who sang but it was the Cash Cow,
Del. Johnny Wood, who tried one last time to help out
all of they mystery money of the unregulated and
corruptible slot machine interests, but he failed.
The House passed the Senate version of the dump out the
illegal slots bill in the last 30 minutes of the
session, according to Del. John L. Bohanan (D. Lexington
Park).
An amendment by Del. Johnny Wood (D. Mechanicsville) was
offered at about 11 pm Monday to make legal all the
machines which were in place Feb. 28th, would
have made legal statewide. Like most of Delegate Wood’s
bills, a veteran delegate from St. Mary’s County who was
demoted from being a committee chairman by current
Speaker Michael Busch, the Wood, anything goes slot
machine amendment failed on a 74-49 vote. A last
minute amendment on Monday to make slots legal at any
commercial bingo establishment, which essentially would
have done the same thing as Wood’s amendment, passed but
was then defeated in the last minutes of the session.
Wood and other sleazy advocates for the illegal slot
machine operatives in the House then began a strategy of
talking to death every bill as it came up, effectively
avoiding a filibuster but still slowing everything down
to a snails pace. The real deal now appears to be
that ADF Bingo won't have slot machines, that the corner
casinos are out of business and will now have to go back
to running businesses which serve their customers well
without having a slot machine parlor. Charitable
groups will be able to have the devices as long as all
proceeds go to the charity and not to others.
Millions were made by slots mafia
CHARLOTTE HALL --- While
local yokels involved with various charities such as the
Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Department, Little Flower
School and the Mechanicsville Lions Club, groups which
were suddenly laden with big bucks, enough to turn them
into prostitutes for an illegal group of casino owners,
all of which have vanished as fast as they appeared; the
big money was unaccounted for and wound up being split
up by characters as diverse as out of state slot machine
kings, local saloon keepers and a guy who runs a
business which distributes illegal phone cards all over
the state. See more in this week's print
edition...and more coming up this weekend...
Sun Report: Final
bill bans slots; session extends time for homeowners
facing foreclosure
Maryland's big spenders had brakes
put on their spending habits this year
ABC 7 Report:
After big push by ACLU against
voluntary gun searches, DC dumps effort to weed out
weapons
GOP leader:
Maryland doesn't have a revenue
problem but has a spending problem, state spends too
much money
Slots to get
audit by Comptroller's Office
ANNAPOLIS (Feb. 26, 2008) --- The wild west Dodge City
atmosphere surrounding the neighborhood casino bars of St.
Mary's County are soon going to get a visit from the
Maryland Comptroller's Office.
The slot machines which have been devouring money of
gamblers at ever increasing rates, have been lining the
pockets of the casino bar owners from Great Mills to St.
Inigoes to Charlotte Hall without any review by the
Comptrollers Office, who until last week didn't even know
the machines were in dozens of county bars, liquor stores
and restaurants.
While the Maryland General Assembly voted in a special
session last year to put to a ballot question in this fall's
general election, the issue of bringing slot machines to
race tracks and five other locations in the state, the old
slot machine crowd found the chance to bring the so-called
"instant-bingo machines" into the county.
As many as a thousand of the machines are around the county,
with patrons putting money into the slots of the machines,
and rarely seeing their money again. With more than
half of gamblers playing slot machines, being problem
gamblers with addition and compulsion problems, the social
consequences of making casino-bars available on almost every
corner and village area of the county will be around for a
long time to come.
The bars and liquor stores who run these machines in their
stores, have, in some cases, scotch-taped a piece of paper
with a hand-written notice that the slot machine is
sponsored by a local charitable organization, in an attempt
to use the county's bingo law to play slot machine parlor.
The county's bingo law specifies that the profits must all
go to charity.
The amounts deducted for expenses have long been an issue at
the ADF Bingo Hall in Charlotte Hall, with volunteers who
work at the bingo nights freely admitting that are kept in
the dark about the books and simply accept the word of the
ADF Bingo as to how much the charities are given.
Whenever the threat of audits or accountability have been
proposed, last time by former Sheriff Dave Zylak, the ADF
Bingo operator manipulates the volunteers with several local
Catholic schools to besiege the legislators with complaints
and raise the specter of the county having to build new
schools to replace the parochial schools which now are
partially supported by the unaudited bingo operated by the
family who owns ADF.
Prior articles on illegal slot
machines of St. Mary's County
Washington Post report
