Prince George's cowardly punt to Annapolis on slots - The Washington Post

AT A STROKE, the Prince George’s County Council has decided to allow the 85 percent of Maryland voters who are not county residents to determine whether slot-machine gambling should be allowed inside the county. That’s the sad, politically cowardly but probable outcome of the council’s vote Tuesday, urging the state legislature to authorize a referendum next fall on putting thousands of slots at Rosecroft Raceway.

The council was sharply divided. Four of its nine members wanted to ban gambling in Prince George’s outright. They argued, correctly, that slots would further smear the county’s scandal-tarred reputation; cultivate gambling addiction, crime and other social ills; and exercise a pernicious influence on the economically stressed neighborhoods around the racetrack, which already suffer from some of the highest foreclosure rates in the state.