Maryland lawmakers are criticizing the decision of the states Gaming Commission to grant permission to Maryland Live! and Horseshoe Baltimore, to replace as many as 300 slot machines each with table games.
Lawmakers, of course, are focusing on the revenue they get from an onerous 67 percent tax rate on slot revenues, compared to 20 percent on table game revenues. State Senator C. Anthony Muse called it a “bait and switch,” telling Baltimore TV station WUSA9, “We expect certain revenues from slot machines and now you’re saying do away with all that revenue. There’s lots more money going into (casino owners’) pockets.”
Casino executives quickly countered that there is actually no money going into anyone’s pockets from the floor space occupied by these particular slots. “You can’t force someone to play if they don’t want to,” Maryland Live! President and GM Rob Norton told the station. “Right now we have higher demand for tables than we do for slots.”
Norton also pointed to evidence that the state will ultimately receive more tax revenue from tables that are being played than slots that are sitting idle. In 2012, Maryland Live! replaced 500 slot machines with table games, and two years later, overall tax revenue for Maryland was up by $5 million, mainly from the operations of the state’s largest casino. He added that table games have created 3,000 jobs in Maryland, along with the payroll tax revenue that goes with them.
The table revenue tax is lower because of those jobs, and the labor costs associated with them, which are absent in the case of slots.
Muse took the position that the Maryland General Assembly, rather than the gaming commission, should be responsible for decisions on the required numbers of slots an tables, and said he will introduce a bill that would make that change.
