History of Casino Gambling in PGC???? (Baltimore, Clinton: houses, to buy, casinos)

[Tom Lennox 70]

With the debate about the National Harbor casino site, I'm actually curious about the history of casino gambling in PG County. I've talked to a few people here in Baltimore County who say they remember going gambling in PGC and one lady who said she worked in a casino somewhere in PG (I forgot what city) as a dealer. I heard there were roulette and blackjack tables in these casinos. I find this curious since I don't recall ever having gambling in the 12 years I've lived here. In the Baltimore area, it was big news when the Perryville and Maryland Live casinos opened up, and downtown leaders were very eager to build a new casino in Baltimore City.

How many casinos did PG County have back in the day and what was the story behind them? The Baltimore Sun never mentions the history of gambling there in all its coverage of the Maryland casino debate. DId the county at one time allow gambling and then it was outlawed? I do think the all Maryland casinos should have had table games and be open 24 hours and be allowed to serve free alcohol, and that National Harbor should have been one of the original 5 sites, instead of Rocky Gap. I also hope that if the DC suburbs need more mass transit infrastructure, part of the new casino's revenue should be directed toward that, and not statewide taxes that all of us elsewhere in the state of Maryland have to pay for.

[North Beach Person]

Until about 1970 there were slot machines throughout SoMD including Anne Arundel and Prince George's. Waldorf was known as Little Las Vegas along 301.

What the woman may be talking about is the PG (and other Counties) volunteer fire companies having Las Vegas nights with table games as fund raisers. This went on for years but there developed more and more issues, primarily around payment to the volunteer dealers and other ethics issues. The Las Vegas nights were illegalized when Glendening was Governor.

[North Beach Person]

Throughout SoMD nearly every little store, gas station wherever someone would stop to buy something would have a slot machine or two. Common perception is split on whether that was a good thing or not.

When the State started talking about reauthorizing slots the Navy went to it and in no uncertain terms made it very clear that if St. Mary's County or southern Calvert County got slots NAS PAX would be on the BRAC list and the Flight Test and other programs there now would be sent to NAS Miramar and Edwards AFB. PAX is the main economic driver in SoMD so that's why, even though Chesapeake Beach in northern Calvert has psuedo slots, there's been no push to put them in Solomon's Island across the Thomas Johnson Bridge from PAX or in St. Mary's County

[Tom Lennox 70]

North Beach PErson,

This is very interesting. I was wondering why if there was gambling down there in the past why it was taken away I'm surprised the military actually pressured state and local authorities to prevent more slots in Southern MD Very ironic given that Nellis AIr Force Base in Las Vegas is one of the biggest military bases in the nation (the military and federal government actually employs more people in LV than the tourism industry) and BRAC is actuallly adding more jobs to Aberdeen even though they are a short drive from Perryville as well as the new Baltimore City casino.

It was hard to believve Maryland had slots in stores and gas stations.....I have ONLY seen this in Nevada, when I stopped in a supermarket to buy sun screen before a hike and there were around 5 or 6 slots by the entrance of the store. But I stilll wonder what happened with the slot machines in PG County aside from the BRAC stuff. So appparently Maryland did have legalized gambling in the past. Did they not want all the revenue that was being collected? And I truly am surprised the news in Baltimore never mentioned this history and if I had not heard the things about PG County I would have believed that Ocean Downs was the first casino to ever open in Maryland. Well I hope these new casinos are here to stay. I also hope Virginia and North Carolina don't legalize non-Indian gaming (NC has one Indian casino on the Cherokee reservation in the Smokey Mountains far from its major cities) the next few years as the market is being saturated. I think if National Harbor's casino resort is approved, VA, DC, and NC will shelve any plans they might have for gambling.

[North Beach Person]

The Navy took the position that the problems associated with gambling before weren't worth keeping PAX operating if slots came back. Was it an empty threat to close the base? Probably, but the local politicians took it seriously and pretty much stopped any talk of slots nearer to the base than Chesapeake Beach (which technically aren't slot machines but video lottery terminals).

As far as why slots were outlawed the reason can be summed up in one or two words: rampant corruption, from the local governments (County, Town) to the Vice-President of the United States (Spiro Agnew).

For the casino part earlier I mentioned fire companies. It wasn't just them, a lot of non-profits like the VFW, Am. Legion, Boy Scouts would have casino night fundraisers. The PG fire companies pushed the envelope, got busted and the nights were banned. One of the fire companies down here pushed it, too, and got busted.

[CommonsenseDMV]

Prince Georges County Volunteer Fire Departments often had "casino night" awhile back too. They were a major revenue generator, often generating millions for each volunteer fire department. This helped pay for new apparatus (which is not cheap at almost $1 million for a ladder truck nowadays) building improvements etc. They had blackjack, poker, roulette, all of the great table games. Security was good as it was provided by PGPD working part-time security to ensure there were no robberies. There was a steady and loyal crowd that would attend these functions, almost similar to the crowd that attends bingos and such. However after some scandals and mismanagement of funds (as always in Prince Georges County) casino nights were banned. Some volunteer companies like Kentland, Berwyn Heights, Bladensburg made smart decisions with their money and invested it for the future so that they would have it to purchase equipment for the years to come. Other Companies like Hillside Co. 6 (which is now closed) located on Larchmont Ave. or Riverdale Heights VFD had embezzlement issues, issues where treasurers stole the money, issues where members used the money to purchase personal items instead of fire department equipment etc. To my understanding, most of the equipment that was used for casino nights in the different firehouses now collects dust in the top of Clinton VFD Co 25. Fire departments both career and volunteer in Prince Georges County now operate with substandard equipment, poor staffing levels, poor leadership with often spats between career staff and volunteer members. The career fire officers that manage the place often don't purchase quality equipment like their local neighbors such as fairfax or Montgomery Co. the department often purchases low level apparatus so if you are lucky and are stationed at a volunteer firehouse you work with better equipment because volunteer companies often put more money into the apparatus they purchased and took better care of the equipment. Casino nights are banned now in Prince Georges County and there isn't many ways for Volunteer Fire houses to collect much needed revenue to purchase new apparatus to replace an aging fleet.

[MrMaryland455]

MOVING A CASINO TO PG COUNTY IS ONLY GOING TO HURT THEM.....tHERE ALREADY STRUGGLING TO REBUILD....THIS WILL DO MORE DAMAGE THAN GOOD