LOCAL NEWS:

New UMBC Report Calls Into Question Slots Revenue Estimates and Highlights Extraordinary Social Costs

Highlights from the report include:

• Slots revenue estimates have been grossly overestimated by the Department of Legislative Services. Total revenues may be far closer to $688 million—producing only half, or $333 million, of what the pro-slots lobby has “guaranteed” voters for education.
• Social costs will be very high, and have not been factored in to DLS estimates. All told, the cost to the state, according to the report, could be as high as $627.5 million.
• Slots could create almost 100,000 new pathological and problem gamblers in the state of Maryland.
• Money spent on slots does not add dollars to the economy, but diverts it from other purchases. Slots therefore can be expected, according to the report, to have a negative impact on the business community, and mean less sales tax revenue for the government and less lottery revenue.

Scott Arceneaux, Senior Advisor to Marylanders United to Stop Slots, said in a prepared statement to the press that “revenue estimates [from slots proponents] are a fantasy. They are based not only on the fallacy that we can recapture 100 percent of the money spent out of state, but that we can increase current gambling expenditures spending by 150 percent.."