For months now Anne Arundel Countin in Maryland has struggled with the issue of slots. Slots are highly popular in the world today and since the late 1800s the game has brought in millions of players. It began as an unassuming game that drew consistent numbers and has elevated to the point where it provides over 60% of land-based casinos’ revenues. A new study proved how lucrative the games are and for that reason, casinos everywhere are focused on maintaining a heftier number of games to bring in as much revenue as possible.

Now, states are jumping on the bandwagon. State legislators have seen how profitable the games are and are now trying to bring them into their legislature to increase revenues. The recession was very hard on the US and most states were left with huge deficits, huge expense and no way to overcome them. The states are hard-pressed to find more ways of generating revenue and slots is a viable option.  The issue comes in however with trying to get the approval for the machines. The side are staunchly drawn– on one side some legislators are trying to legalize slots to bring in millions of tax-revenue dollars, and on the other side legislators are worried that bringing in slots creates additional problems. Opponents believe that slots and gambling in general, will inevitably bring a rise in corruption, money laundering, addictions and crime. Without the added police and watchdog force to manage it, it could mean sheer disaster for communites throughout the US.

The fight has been going on now for months and Maryland is one state that has joined in on the debates. The state’s Anne Arundel County has more issues now with gambling and legalizing slot machines. A coalition against slot machine gambling near a popular shopping mall has submitted thousands of additional signatures to force a vote on the proposal. The coalition, which includes community groups and the Maryland Jockey Club, says it delivered 16,702 signatures to the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections on Friday. Opponents need 18,790 signatures to put a zoning measure needed for the project near Arundel Mills Mall on the November ballot. The elections board already has verified 13,136 signatures. Cordish Company, the builder of the casino, filed a lawsuit last month against the board of elections claiming that it is overlooking fraud in the petition drive. In the next few months the issue will play out but only time will tell if Anne Arundel county finally brings in slot machines.

Black Bear Entertainment LLC is hoping to collect 80,000 signatures before February 1st 2010. The signatures are centered around the companies desire to win public vote in building a casino in Western Maine. The company is hoping to win the right to force a vote for next year regarding construction of the facility.  Peter Martin, spokesman for Black Bear Entertainment, said that getting 80,000 people involved would be enough to create a vote on the November 2010 ballot.  

Originally the organization did not want to be a part of the construction of the casino in Oxford County. The proposal acknowledged that there were problems with the issue. In particular, the issue of lowering the gambling age to 19 was a problem that hampered the deal.  Martin said that the new gambling proposal does not involve moving the gambling age and also earmarks 32% of all slot machine revenue to the state’s education funding program. It also promises to bring much-needed jobs to the state. Oxford County in Maine has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

There are critics of the plan, however. Anti-gaming organization Casinos-NO! released a statement citing how residents already dismissed a proposal for a casino in the county and they will pass on it again. Dennis Bailey, representative for Casinos-NO! said, “Black Bear is trying to push for the same thing and expect a different outcome that they will not get!”

The issue of building a casino is not a new one. Back in 2003 the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Indian tribes both pushed for a facility to be built in Sanford. Instead, voters opted for a race track and denied the full casino. Governor John Baldacci denied the request by the Indian tribes for a racino in the county of Washington.

With the previous casino campaign, supporters believe that the casino would be a positive change for the community. They believe in job creation as a huge motivator for building the casino. They also don’t have a problem with the taxation issue. If built, a casino would have a taxation rate of 42% and slots at the casino would be taxed at 46%. Casino gaming tables would be taxed at 16%. The largest group to enjoy the added revenue would be educational-based organizations.

European gamblers are seeking some rights regarding gambling. They have come together to form “Right2Bet.” Right2Bet is a group of online gamblers whose goal is to be able to bet with “whichever European Union-licensed betting company they want, regardless of in which member state that company operates from.” The goal came about due to the Lisbon Treaty that was brought into effect by the EU in late 2007.  The treaty concluded that the European Citizens Initiative, or ECI, states if citizens can collect one million signatures that support any petition then that petition can be submitted for review to the European Commission. So far twenty-six of the twenty-seven member countries have already approved the treaty, but without the one last approval the Lisbon treaty and the ECI will be insignificant. The Right2Bet organization, however, is not one to sit by the sidelines and wait. The group is rallying to reach their signature quota. They want to be the first ones to submit their petition to the EU.

The overall decision is an important one because a large number of European countries were denying the free trade act across the EU. Although with goods and services the rule was slowly being accepted, it seemed like online slots and online gambling, in general, were not in the mix. Very few European countries have taken the steps necessary to open the channels for the online slots, online poker and online gambling markets. Each country has somewhat of a monopoly on their market because they have people already running gambling organizations.  They don’t want to open those doors for fear of losing additional gambling tax revenues to competing nations. Because of this they are wavering on building laws that are acceptable to online gamers.

The Right2Bet organization is still hoping to garner 1 million signatures. They are hoping on a significant name list coming from the millions of online slots players and online gamblers. This allows people from around the entire globe to join in on the petition and aid in the organization reaching its goal number. Thus far, two large affiliate associations of Right2Bet have called for members to support the initiative. The GPWA and the APCW are both working to bring their own members to support the petition. The three organizations together have called upon various social networking tools to aid in their procurement of signature support. They are using Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube to bring awareness to their campaign.