Is this the future of American Gambling ?

Slots Mall Envisioned Along I-95, Near Del.

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 5, 2004; Page B01

Thousands of drivers who pour south from Delaware on Interstate 95 each day will be welcomed to Maryland by a slot machine emporium sporting a five-story mock lighthouse, if gambling wins legislative approval and a developer’s vision is endorsed by the state.

Maryland officials have been in talks with a Pennsylvania real estate developer who wants to install thousands of slot machines, retail stores and the faux lighthouse on a 300-acre tract next to Maryland’s tollbooth on I-95 in Perryville.

Stewart Associates of York, Pa., has received support for the idea from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s administration, as well as Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George’s), an architect of gambling legislation that passed the Senate last week.

“That would be a great location” for slots, Currie said of Stewart’s Cecil County land, minutes from the Delaware property. “There’s something like 70,000 cars a day that drive by there. Geographically speaking, it’s a wonderful location for people who come up and down I-95.”

Last Friday, a few hours after the Senate approved a bill to legalize 15,500 slot machines in Maryland, Currie arranged for executives of the Stewart firm to meet with two of Ehrlich’s Cabinet secretaries and other officials to discuss how to promote the developer’s quest for a slots license with the House of Delegates, which will take up gambling legislation this month.

Under the gambling bill passed by the Senate, Cecil is one of a handful of locations in Maryland that would be eligible to host slot machines. The state would hand out six gambling licenses — three to racetracks and three to private bidders who would be required to put the slots in Cecil, Prince George’s County or Baltimore.

Michael Vaughan, an executive with Stewart Associates, confirmed that company officials visited Annapolis to pitch plans for their Perryville property but declined to discuss details.

Sen. Nancy Jacobs (R-Harford), whose district includes part of Cecil, is also backing the developer’s push for slots. “It would be a perfect site,” she said.

Jacobs said Stewart Associates has for years proposed building a new Maryland welcome center next to the Perryville exit on I-95. The boat-shaped rest stop would include stores, a hotel and a giant lighthouse in the center.

If constructed, it would enable the state to replace Maryland House and Chesapeake House, two nearby highway rest stops that attract millions of travelers each year.

The possibility of adding slot machines to the mix, she said, had given the project new momentum. “It would promote tourism for the state of Maryland,” she said. “It’s going to be beautiful.”

Jacobs said she was unaware of any other potential bidders for a gambling license in Cecil. Under the Senate bill, the site could operate as many as 2,500 slot machines.

Vaughan said that the firm has no experience with gambling but that the legalization of slots might give it the opportunity to move forward with its long-held plans to build the I-95 welcome center.

Stewart officials discussed the project last Friday with Currie, Jacobs and two of Ehrlich’s Cabinet leaders, Budget Secretary Chip DiPaula and Aris Melissaratos, the secretary for business and economic development. Also attending was Dennis M. Castleman, the assistant secretary for tourism.

The group also presented details of the proposal to House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), a leading critic of Ehrlich’s campaign to legalize slots in Maryland.

“They were very nice,” Busch said of the Stewart executives. “They said that if the [slots] bill passed the House, they’d be interested in bidding for a license.”

Busch said he was not endorsing the project.

:rolleyes: