Tuesday, 31 July 2012 17:01
After months of planning, a group led by gambling giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. is expected to get the green light Tuesday to build a 3,750 slot-machine casino ringed with restaurants a few blocks from M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
Maryland's slots location commission — which has been considering an application by CBAC Gaming since September — is scheduled to vote on the plan when it meets Tuesday. The Las Vegas-based gambling company has teamed up with a number of local partners, including Baltimore financier and philanthropist Eddie C. Brown.
"We're hoping to be in a position to make the award,"Donald C. Fry, the commission chairman and president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, said Monday.
The vote comes as the General Assembly is set to return to Annapolis next week for a special session to consider major changes to the state's nascent gambling program. Proposed legislation would authorize a sixth casino in Maryland and allow table games like poker at all six. Voters would have the final say in November.
The extra casino would be in the Washington suburbs, about 45 miles south of the new Baltimore site. Caesars officials say they could accept the additional competition as long as they could offer table games, which the casino brand is known for. The company runs the popular World Series of Poker tournaments.
The Baltimore casino would operate under the Harrah's name. As planned, it would be Maryland's second largest when it opened in mid-2014. Company officials estimate it would bring in about $324 million annually in state taxes. Through a separate city tax, Baltimore expects another $16 million a year. MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake says she would use much of the cash to reduce the city's property tax.
CBAC Gaming was the only group to submit a qualified bid last September to build the city casino. It included 27 principals — so many that a minibus was required to transport them all during a site visit last fall. The group has since swelled to 37.
"We anticipate a decision, we can't comment beyond that," said Robert Ruben, an attorney for CBAC.
The group was far more effusive in a recent letter to Baltimore city lawmakers, writing that it awaited the slots commission decision with "great excitement" and promising its casino would "anchor" economic development and growth in the neighborhood.
Plans call for a two-story, 3,750 slot machine casino on Russell Street.
Caesars CEO Gary Loveman pledged in November that he would bring a "world-class" casino to Baltimore. He said it would attract gamblers from across the country and the world.
However, Rawlings-Blake has since said that the company would build a "slots barn" — shorthand for a cheaply built facility — unless the state allows table games like blackjack and poker. Currently, state law allows only slot machines. The mayor is among those who have been pushing for a special session so the General Assembly could vote on a bill to allow table games.
Loveman and others in the Caesars group also have supported proposed changes to the gambling program. Jan Jones, an executive vice president with Caesars, said the city casino could be the "nation's next great destination location."
Members of Baltimore's House delegation have been skeptical. Several have said they believe the city's interests would be best met by adding table games — but not the competition of a sixth casino.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-07-30/news/bs-md-commission-preview-20120730_1_sixth-casino-city-casino-table-games
