WITH A huge budget deficit and the prospect of higher taxes to erase it, Marylanders reversed their opposition to slot machines.

Polling revealed that reversal as Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was making slots at the race tracks the cornerstone of his campaign for governor.

There's more of a mandate than one may think. Even some of those who voted for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend must have wanted them: Mr. Ehrlich's victory margin was much slimmer than support for slots.

Given the depth of the fiscal hole dug by Democrats, the state was certainly vulnerable to the allure of found money and eager to have a Republican deal with it.

Candidate Ehrlich asked people if they weren't tired of seeing so much Maryland money building schools and roads in Delaware and West Virginia, where slots have been legal for some years. Did it make sense to keep giving our millions to other states? Doesn't Maryland have needs? Don't we already have a lot of gambling? Surely no one wanted to revisit the morality question.

No, but slots remain a troubling prospect.

They will turn us all into gambling promoters: Teachers unions, city administrations, county governments and advocates for various programs will see salvation in gambling. Yet in some places, gambling dollars replaced but did not add to money spent on education, for example.

The image of money pouring into the state treasury made everyone feel education was taken care of and reduced their willingness to pay. Thus pressure to add more gambling. Slot machines may not lead inexorably to casinos, but they have been the leading edge of casinos all over the nation.

Lotteries, casinos and slots represent more erosion of our commitment to the idea that government is us: We pool resources to handle problems too large for any of us to confront alone. Responsibility for these services rests not with gamblers but with citizens. Public education, public safety, highways, state aid to Baltimore or Bethesda must be paid for by the taxpayers.

Of course, voters and politicians have been undermining the social compact for years. When was the last time a candidate argued for a new program?

George H.W. Bush got un-elected in 1992 when he raised taxes after he said, "Read my lips, no new taxes." Walter Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan in 1984 after he promised new taxes. Neither man lost entirely for these flirtations with toxic language, but their words have been handed down as hazardous to a politician's health. As a result, the connection between what we pay for government and the valuable services we get in return is lost.

Sometimes it's worse than that. The Maryland General Assembly last session passed a new education funding program knowing the state was essentially broke. Those who urged a connection between education and higher taxes - which they thought we would need - were shunted aside.

Maryland needed a new party in power after 36 years to confront such contradictions - new or better services without money to pay for them.

So now we move toward slots at a moment fraught with peril. We will be hard-pressed to avoid making a bad bargain, because we're in such need. The ravenous gaming industry won't even have to sell us on the wonders of its product.

A veteran legislator, already aware of the industry's reach into Maryland, had one warning for his friends in Annapolis: "Someone's going to jail." It's happened in other states as the lucrative contracts for slot machine sites, slot machines, slot machine software, slots this and slots that turn state capitals into a jamboree of competition for pieces of the action.

And slots won't even raise enough money to handle that ugly deficit. So our representatives may be unable to avoid voting for a temporary income tax on the relatively wealthy or a sales tax increase. It won't be pretty. No one wants to vote for higher taxes - particularly not for a mopping-up exercise.

Of course, there's too much momentum to stop the voter-driven slots express. Perhaps it will bring us painless improvement in the quality of life. Already, county officials are being urged to lobby their legislators - vote yes on slots or suffer cuts in state aid. Advocates for the poor may join the lobbying league, too: How can they ask for help if they won't help with new revenue?

So we're all about to own devices designed to relieve our fellow citizens of every loose quarter. Right now, billboards beckon Marylanders to gamble in West Virginia. Soon, the destination will be closer. We'll be seeing messages like this one offered in Chicago: "This could be your ticket out."

C. Fraser Smith is an editorial writer for The Sun. His column appears Sundays.