At 11:00 a.m. on 2 November, in the JOINT HEARING ROOM, the House of Delegates Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee will hold a hearing on the Governor’s Video Lottery Terminal legislation. We have no idea as yet when the committees will vote on the bills. NO MATTER WHAT: The StopSlotsMaryland coalition very strongly urges our League members and friends to come to the Legislative Services Building to pack the building with opponents for slots casinos in Maryland. The League of Women Voters of Maryland remains firmly against expanding gambling in Maryland. Your help is critical to stopping this major pressure for adopting slots. Your phone calls are especially important. The delegates and senators need to hear from us. REASONS TO SAY NO TO SLOTS IN MARYLAND: ° Slots casinos in Maryland are not panaceas. Experience by other states indicates that revenue raised by slot machines will not over time provide adequate revenues for planned expenditures without expanding gambling further. ° Within three to five years after communities establish gambling at casinos/racetracks, they are confronted with cost increases for public safety and social problems, in some cases eventually matching or surpassing the revenues raised by gambling. How long would it be before Maryland’s increased social and public safety costs match or surpass the state’s NET gambling revenues? ° Where gambling has been established, many local businesses have been negatively impacted and forced to close, in part because people are often bussed to and from a gambling site and disposable income spent on slots leaves fewer dollars for the local businesses. ° Because the record indicates that revenues raised by gambling, including slots, decrease or level off over time, a state must then decide whether to increase gambling (e.g., add more slots, more games, more locations), accept a reduced level of revenues from that source, and/or raise revenues from other sources. ° If Maryland had a graduated income tax, with a series of rates and income brackets, it should be the first choice if a revenue increase is necessary. Maryland does not need slots to balance the books (and it would not bring any revenue to balance within 2 to 4 years, even if we did adopt them). THE BILLS PROPOSING VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS — SLOTS — IN MARYLAND: Unfortunately, as of the time this Action Alert was prepared, the bill numbers for the legislation Governor O'Malley intends to present to the General Assembly at the Special Session were not available. Indeed, the legislation itself is not available to the public. We still urge League members to communicate with their elected representatives to oppose the expansion of gambling in Maryland. We will inform League members of the specifics regarding legisltion once it become public. HOW TO CALL THE LEGISLATORS: >From the Annapolis or Baltimore areas, dial 410-841 (plus the legislator’s extension number). >From the Montgomery and Washington, D.C. areas, dial 301-858 plus the legislator’s extension number. If you call 800-492-7122 (the General Assembly switchboard), simply ask for your legislator’s office, or give the operator the extension number. WHAT WE ALL CAN DO TO STOP THIS EXPRESS TRAIN FOR SLOTS: Our first line of defense is in the hands of the members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. In past years, a strong majority in the Committee saved us from slots being established all around Maryland. But, there is no certainty about how any vote on slots will result this time. We cannot wait and hope for the past to quash the slots initative. Our second line of defense is to contact all your delegates ASAP. This is also extremely important. If any of the bills authorizing slots/VLTs in Maryland are given a favorable report by the Ways and Means Committee, there will very quickly be a full vote by the House of Delegates. We must ensure that a majority — and even better, a strong majority — will have the courage to vote NO on all the slots/VLTs legislation. The committee members need to be contacted directly by telephone. Tell them to vote NO on all of the bills proposing Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs), which are more commonly known as slots. Whether they are your delegate or not, call them.