For anyone wagering the over/under on how long it would take one of Maryland's fledgling slot machine operators to seek permission to run table games, you can now tear up tickets that predicted three months or longer. Representatives of Penn National Gaming say their Hollywood Casino at Perryville needs blackjack and the like to stay profitable.
After a better-than-expected opening month in October, the machine-only casino's revenues plunged by more than 42 percent, to $6.5 million, in December. The owner says the state will need to make fixes by permitting longer hours of operation and complimentary food and drink to patrons, which is banned by state law. But officials would also really like to see table games if they are to compete with neighboring states.
That should come as no surprise to anyone even vaguely aware of what's been going on with gambling in this country. Casinos in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware now offer tables games and are open on a 24-hour basis.
The shock is that table games were so little discussed when Gov. Martin O'Malley and the Maryland General Assembly moved to approve slot machines four years ago. Even Mr. O'Malley's predecessor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., demonstrated little interest in table games despite his strong advocacy for slots when he was governor.
Perhaps there was some thought that slot machines are the beer and wine of gaming, while blackjack, roulette, poker, etc. are the hard liquor. In reality, table games broaden the customer base to include more affluent players and offer more employment opportunities, as the games require dealers and supervising pit bosses, not just machines and a few technicians.
Frankly, it's a modest change. Some slot machines already offer the equivalent of a blackjack game, down to the life-size image of a dealer and video table where players sit. The only difference is the dealer would be human, the cards real.
Many in this state (including Governor O'Malley and this newspaper's editorial board) were reluctant to embrace expanded gambling, but now that casinos are legal, we should do what it takes to make them successful. There's no moral difference between electronic games and the human-operated variety. If customers prefer live blackjack to video blackjack, why not accommodate them at any or all of the five locations were casinos have been approved?
That will require voter approval, of course. That's not unreasonable, given how controversial full-service casinos have been in the past with some people. Baltimore County state Sen. Katherine A. Klausmeier has already introduced a bill to add a handful of table games to the existing slots parlors, and a House version is expected shortly.
But this does not mean that the Maryland General Assembly ought to seek an indiscriminate broadening of gambling by asking voters to approve poker games at Rosecroft harness track, for instance, or to allow Worcester County fraternal organizations to install slot machines, as some Eastern Shore lawmakers would like. The hard-fought parameters of casino gambling debated in 2007 (covering the size and location of five casinos) should still apply.
It's simply difficult to see how casinos at Perryville, Arundel Mills or Ocean Downs would be made any more burdensome to their communities if live table games were approved. Conversely, allowing them to compete with facilities in surrounding states — and thereby raise millions of dollars for education — would seem to present a victory for all involved.