Stop Slots at Arundel Mills

State Leaders may bring Slots to site near your home as well.

• "A spokeswoman for House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Anne Arundel Democrat, said that calls by developers to expand Maryland's gaming options are likely and could result in a new referendum effort if legislators follow suit.

  "It's certainly a possibility. As other states create more gambling options, we'll see calls by developers to expand their options as well," said Busch spokeswoman Alex Hughes. "It all depends on what's brought up during the legislative session.""  - Washington Times 5/35/09

Traffic on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and MD 100 will get much worse with a slots casino, but no one has done a study to see exactly how bad it will be.

• If you commute from Pasadena, Severna Park, or Glen Burnie to D.C., Columbia, or points south and/or west  you will be impacted!
• The Maryland State Highway Administration in a January 2009 report found that two state controlled intersections near the Mall are already failing under the weight of local trafic plus over 14 million visitors to the mall each year! Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) at Ft Meade, and the associated 22,000 additional jobs combined with a 31% increase in traffic to the Mall will make this worse.
• Executive Leopold originally wanted to require one additonal parking spot at the Mall for every three Video Lottery Terminals ('slots'). The new bill changes this to two additonal parking spot at the Mall for every three Video Lottery Terminals ('slots'). This means that the bidder would only be required to add 1,584 parking spaces for people playing on the 4,750 machines due to a 'shared parking' provision in the Anne Arundel County Code (which permits John Leopold's Administration to reduce the parking requirement by 50%), as well as whatever percentage of their promised 1,500 employees are working at a given time. If you think parking at Arundel Mills is a problem now just imagine how bad it could get if bill 40-09 passes.

Anne Arundel County will likely pay more for increased public services than it will collect in additional revenue, translating into increased taxes to individual citizens.

• The slots bidder has previously requested and recieved tax breaks for other developments.
• The $30 million in "local impact grants" associated with a casino, which supporters routinely cite, can only be spent by the county in the areas in 'immediate proximity" to the Video Lottery Facility. This means in terms of impact revenue versus expenses Anne Arundel County can only break even at best by spending money on Infrustructure improvements, public safety, and other uses described in the enabling state legislation. This money is not tax revenue and will not go into the County's general fund!

Despite the fact that near 60% of voters in Anne Arundel County voted to approve slots, only 16% of Anne Arundel County residents surveyed want slots located at the mall according to an Anne Arundel Community College survey of 625 residents.

The people have spoken...against slots at the mall!

"People have the right to go to the ballot box and determine what they want the quality of life to be in their own area. Now if someone were to come along and tell me that they were going to put a casino in McLean , Virginia , where I live, I would probably work very very hard against it. I just don’t -- what’s the old saying, ‘NIMBY, not in my back yard?’ Now I may be in favor of gaming, but I just don’t want it located in a particular area." - American Gaming Association CEO Frank Fahrenkopf, Oct. 24, 2006
See and hear it for yourself! (Windows Media File)