LOCAL NEWS:

New UMBC Report Calls Into Question Slots Revenue Estimates and Highlights Extraordinary Social Costs

SOURCE: Marylanders United to Stop Slots

Study finds that the revenue estimates put forward by the casino-financed pro-slots campaign are based upon faulty assumptions and bad facts.

Annapolis, MD –On October 14, 2008, the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County released "An Analysis of the Impact of Introducing Video Lottery Terminals in Maryland," considered by slots opponents to be the first real comprehensive independent study of the actual impact—both good and bad—of slots on Maryland. The report addresses the slots plan in question (which will be subject to a referendum in the Nov. 4 election called Question 2) in terms of public policy and public revenue impact. The report acknowledges and discusses the fact that social costs to society from slots are real and substantial. It also finds that the revenue estimates put forward by the casino-financed pro-slots campaign are based upon faulty assumptions and bad facts. The report can be viewed in full here.

Highlights from the report include:

Slots revenue estimates have been grossly overestimated by the Department of Legislative Services. Total revenues may be far closer to $688 million—producing only half, or $333 million, of what the pro-slots lobby has “guaranteed” voters for education.
Social costs will be very high, and have not been factored in to DLS estimates. All told, the cost to the state, according to the report, could be as high as $627.5 million.
Slots could create almost 100,000 new pathological and problem gamblers in the state of Maryland.
Money spent on slots does not add dollars to the economy, but diverts it from other purchases. Slots therefore can be expected, according to the report, to have a negative impact on the business community, and mean less sales tax revenue for the government and less lottery revenue.

Scott Arceneaux, Senior Advisor to Marylanders United to Stop Slots, said in a prepared statement to the press that “revenue estimates [from slots proponents] are a fantasy. They are based not only on the fallacy that we can recapture 100 percent of the money spent out of state, but that we can increase current gambling expenditures spending by 150 percent.."

Marylanders United to Stop Slots is a coalition of community, business and labor leaders, clergy, Republicans, Democrats and citizens from across Maryland. The coalition is undertaking a grassroots campaign to stop a large-scale commercial gambling referendum in November that would amend Maryland’s Constitution. The group maintains that slots will "do nothing to cut taxes and ease the financial burden working families are experiencing."

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This story was published on October 15, 2008.