loco_moco's Blog

Gov. O'Malley has tipped his hand.  What he really wants to put slots in a whole slew of places far removed from horse tracks.  Also, coincidentally, far removed from the concentrations of people in the Baltimore/DC Metro area who remain unalterably opposed to the idea in any way, shape or form; "out of sight, out of mind".

Well, there's a shred of logic in his proposal anyway.  By scattering the slots to the far corners of MD -- Allegany, Anne Arundel, Frederick and Harford -- they'll become less accessible to the urban poor who stand to lose the most if they succumb to the allure of cheap, state-legitimized gambling, aka "regressive taxation".  Instead, they will drain the meager resources of our rural poor -- but there's not near as many of those folks, so the social impact will be less.

Thus, I'll have to modify my original proposal that MD forget all about slots and instead simply establish a state monopoly on crack sales to help balance the budget.  But it's an easy modification.  They will only have to change from crack to crystal meth instead, which is by far the preferred drug of choice in the hinterlands where these slots are proposed to be located.

With this latest revelation it becomes abundantly clear that Gov. O'Malley is much less concerned about preserving MD's horse tracks, and much more intent on preserving a sweetheart relationship with a certain horse's patootie who is the MD Senate's slots-pimp-in-chief.