Maryland to players: Drop dead

If you suddenly find that you’re in a Free State casino and your gambling budget doesn’t go as far as it once did, you can thank the Maryland Lottery & Gaming Control Commission. It’s prepared to vote on a staff-recommended change that slot holds in the state be lowered from the 90%-95% range to 87%-95%. In a slight concession to players, holds are not being tightened to the 85% sought by casinos. Now I understand that casinos in Maryland are taxed to within an inch of their lives, but they’re big boys. They didn’t go into the state with their eyes shut. They knew the tax rate was (initially) 65% and they fought hard — and in the case of Penn National Gaming, dirty — to get a foothold just the same. They even got a tax break during the last election and they still want to sweat the percentages. It all adds up to a big “screw you” for the consumer.

Both the state and the industry are offering the rationalization that competition will nullify the tighter slots. And if you believe that, lemme tell you about this great bridge in Brooklyn I can for you cheap. What incentive does, say, Maryland Live have to relax its holds when it’s easily the top-grossing casino in the state? By the same token, Horseshoe Baltimore is struggling to live up to expectations. You think it isn’t going to ratchet up those slot holds the first chance it gets?

“Casinos said the proposal would give them needed flexibility to develop innovative slots offerings with widely varying payouts,” reported the Baltimore Sun. Yeah, three percentage points wider and all to the house’s favor. If it’s any consolation, West Virginia still has the tightest slots on the East Coast, with a measly 80% minimum.

* Speaking of one-armed bandits, outdoor slot machines have been a big hit with smokers at Hollywood Casino Columbus, so much so that landlord Penn is adding a second slot patio, only this one will have 71 machines compared to the first veranda’s 21. A fully enclosed “patio” at Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati, by contrast, went over like a lead balloon. The Columbus upgrade is budgeted at 700 grand.

* It’s been less than a full quarter since craps, roulette and keno became legal in Deadwood, South Dakota, but they’ve already pumped an extra million dollars into casino coffers, mostly from craps. Slot revenues are down 2% but the jolt in table-game play appears to be more than offsetting it.

* The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is finally one step closer to its casino goal. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is going to issue an opinion on the tribe’s Taunton land-in-trust application within the next month. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has the final say but a favorable opinion could enable the Mashpee Wamps to make an end run around the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and build their $500 million dream project on their own terms. By the same token, it could also make the MGC that much more reluctant to issue the third and final license, slated for the southeastern region.