Over the course of a number of years, through many rigorous debated in General Assembly, the issue regarding legalizing slot machines in Maryland has gone up and down and all around. Finally, in this week’s election, the people of Maryland finally came to a decision. They voted to legalize slot machine gambling by 59-41.

An amendment to the constitution is now set up to let as many as 15,000 slot machines reside in five separate locations including one venue each in the city in Baltimore and also within the counties of Cecil, Worcester, Allegany and Anne Arundel. As the only Washington-area location where the slots legislation includes details for a slots palace, the Maryland Jockey Club-owned track in Laurel has declared that it will push to apply for a license.

Many voters say that they went for the slots decision because they have seen a great many Maryland license plates parked in front of gambling venues in West Virginia. Much better would be to have those players putting their dollars into Maryland’s economy rather than those of other states.

Not everyone voted for the amendment, however. Some folks rejected it because they believe that it will lead to an increase in crime within the state of Maryland. As for online slot machines, the jury is still out. But with the passion for slots that Maryland voters have demonstrated, it only seems natural that improvements in online slot machine legislation will be in the works in the near future. Keep your eyes and ears open so you can get on board when the time comes.

Tags: legislation, Maryland, slot machines

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 2:38 am and is filed under Slots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.