homeless question

Vote for Question A means:

1. There will DEFINITELY be slots in Anne Arundel County;
2. They will DEFINITELY be at Arundel Mills;
3. The casino MAY or MAY NOT be built directly into the mall;
4. The license will DEFINITELY stay with Cordish Companies;
5. There will DEFINITELY be 4000 new jobs opened up;
6. Laurel Park and Pimlico MAY close down (and if so, 15,000 people MAY lose their jobs, but if so Cordish MAY buy and restore the tracks if the State of Maryland claims the facilities under the power of eminent domain);
7. And there will DEFINITELY be a lot more traffic on Route 100.



Vote against Question A means:

1. There still MAY be slots in Anne Arundel County;
2. They will DEFINITELY NOT be at Arundel Mills;
3. Laurel Park MAY be able to get them under these conditions:
* Penn National Gambling (affiliated w/ Laurel Park) sells their Perryville license because by law they cannot have two separate casino locations in Maryland;
* Bidding for the license is reopened and Cordish is stripped of it;
* Laurel Park wins the bid, which they lost the first time because they tried to legally dispute the initial contract fee rather than paying it;
* AND Laurel residents who oppose the slots at Laurel Park cannot prove that the section of BW Parkway immediately adjacent to the racetrack is under federal jurisdiction and therefore the location is not technically within 2 miles of 295 (as required by the zoning law);
4. And due to the uncertainty of slots actually being in Anne Arundel County, there MAY or MAY NOT be 4000 new jobs created in the county.



Things I couldn’t figure out:

1. Are there any other viable locations for slots in Anne Arundel County besides Laurel Park if Question A is defeated?
2. How likely is it that, if Question A is defeated, that bidding for the license would be reopened?



Slots are inevitable in Maryland, but something to think about if voters don’t get their desired results in the next few years:

***The revenue MOST LIKELY will be allotted to the Maryland Educational Fund and various other funds, but the money MAY only supplant funds that can be rerouted to other interests. In other words, there’s no guarantee the slot revenues will actually mean more money for whatever interests you support, be it the teachers, firefighters, or police.