Just think of it: Four massive barges -- each the size of a football field and four-stories tall -- permanently tied to docks along the Inner Harbor. Each one contains a full-service gambling casino with no limit on the maximum stakes, no limit on the types of gambling and loans of all sizes available from the management.
That is the view of the future as Del. Sheila E. Hixson of Montgomery County sees it. She chairs the House Ways and Means Committee and has introduced a bill for casino-gambling interests that she is trying to portray as a bid to bring "riverboat" gaming to Maryland. In truth, her bill isn't referring to quaint paddle-wheel boats chugging slowly down the bay. It is geared toward money-gobbling hulks of steel that never move from the docks and that are neither quaint nor seaworthy.
Mrs. Hixson's bill, though, isn't the worst one being concocted. Other casino lobbyists are drafting more far-reaching proposals to let free-wheeling gaming roam the entire state of Maryland. If they have their way, casinos would line Maryland from Backbone Mountain to the Atlantic, from the Mason-Dixon Line to the Potomac. And Baltimore's Inner Harbor would be a mecca for those with an urge to gamble away their money.
The dangers to Maryland are clear. Horse racing at Laurel and Pimlico would be jeopardized. The state's lottery would lose hundreds of millions of dollars to the new competition. Charity gambling nights would take a nose-dive. In fact, any charity enterprise dependent upon gambling revenues would be under attack.
What's in it for Maryland? Not much. A promise of huge sums of new revenue that could be as elusive as that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. A promise of huge employment gains from the mammoth casinos.
But what the casino lobbyists don't talk about is the wave of crime that follows casinos, the damage casinos do to restaurants and competing hotels, the harm they do to surrounding neighborhoods and especially to the quality of life in the region. If anyone wants proof, take a ride to Atlantic City some day. More than a decade after the promised revival, that Southern Jersey town is still a depressed basket case -- a dozen casinos surrounded by a sea of poverty. The town doesn't even have a single supermarket anymore.
Is that what we want for our future? Is that the mayor's master plan for the Inner Harbor? Is that what Gov. Parris N. Glendening wants for Maryland? It is time for them to speak up. Legalizing casinos is bad social policy. It is false economics, too. Our elected leaders should have the courage to stand up to the casino interests and just say "no."