SLOTS...Ooops!

The Kapital editorialized last Friday about the disappointing showing to date of the slots amendment. But of course, no one can be blamed. Who knew that we'd be smack-dab in the middle of the "worst economic crisis since the Great Depression" on November 4th? The Kapital wrote:

"But no one anticipated the deep recession facing the country today. So, those who always scoffed at the inflated revenue estimates were proven right far more quickly than they anticipated."

What a minute, weren't we already up to our necks in the the Great Depression II by Nov. 4th? Yes. Hadn't the first tranche of TARP money gone up in smoke by then? Yes. Hmmmm. But I guess the news was a bit late getting out to Maryland provincial precincts. But surely our business and financial leaders at the various Chambers of Commerce could have warned us. They could have gone to the Kapital and Sun papers and pulled back.

"After warning Maryland voters this election season that if they didn't approve the slots amendment that schools would crumble around their childrens' ears, the state chambers of commerce is now advising the opposite," is a lede we would have liked to have seen.

"Given the rapid deterioration of the national economy," Maryland Chamber of Commerce President Kathy Snyder began in a statement this afternoon, "I no longer believe that the slots amendment will 'pump $600 million a year directly into the school system' as the ads on radio and TV you've been hearing would have you believe. So I am advising Maryland citizens to vote NO on Question 2 on Nov. 4."

But no. Not a peep was heard. I would have been shocked to have heard a peep, though. By November the Chamber of Commerce, the Democrats and gaming industry were locked in. Their money and their reputations were on the line.

Now, where are the stories comparing the cost, year-to-date, of regulating slots with the revenue? Hmmm? Where are the hard-hitting Liam Farrell interviews with Kathy Synder and the pack of bacon feeders at the MD Chamber of Commerce? I guess we are now going to have to raise taxes by $700 million AND live with a misbegotten amendment to the constitution, eh?

I don't blame the gaming industry for prying open the MD casino market. I blame current and would-be MD politicians for promoting this scheme and pimping our State Constitution and our children's education so shamelessly.

And I blame the gullibility of MD voters who swallowed this tripe hook, line and sinker!