Slots bids due today
It could be a crucial day both for Maryland's finances and for the long debate over legalizing slot machines in Maryland. Today, the state's slots licensing commission is opening bids for the five potential slots sites in Maryland, and we may get some indication of how much competition there is for each of them.
At the top of the list is the Anne Arundel County site -- designed to be a license for Laurel Park and, in the minds of many, destined for Magna Entertainment Corp, the Canadian company that owns that track and Pimlico. But the language in the slots law doesn't guarantee that the slots casino would go at that location, and if it did, it's no sure thing that Magna, which has been losing money like crazy in recent years, would get the license. Among the possible competitors is Baltimore's Cordish Co., and Halsey Minor, a wealthy entrepreneur, has also expressed interest in bidding.
Another big question is whether anyone at all bids on the potential slots license at Rocky Gap, the long struggling resort in Western Maryland. It may be too far in the middle of nowhere for anyone to express interest, given Maryland's high 67 percent tax rate on slots proceeds. If no one bids, expect momentum in the legislature to add flexibility to the bid requirements so that an operator at that site could pay less to the government.
Other locations seem pretty clear cut: Penn National, one of the nation's biggest gambling companies, has expressed interest in the Cecil County location, just off of I-95 on the east side of the Susquehanna. And a site just outside of Ocean City seems destined for William Rickman, a Montgomery County developer who owns the Ocean Downs harness track and a racino in Delaware.
Baltimore City's potential slots site is also a big question mark. Its location in a developing area of the city's waterfront has potential, but Baltimore's demands for millions in rent from a casino's rent on city-owned land may dampen interest. If that's the case, the city may have to scale back its ambitions for how much property tax relief or school funding a slots site could produce.
And undergirding all of this is the question of how much money Maryland might reap from its plunge into expanded gambling. With the state scrambling to fill a $2 billion budget hole this year, the question of how realistic the slots revenue projections are at a time of economic uncertainty is becoming a crucial one. Gadi Dechter reports today that other states have had trouble finding bidders for their slots site recently, and problems like that here could be a severe blow to Maryland's long-term fiscal plans.
