Apr 29, 2004 By Rick Martinez For The 3 min read

HARRISBURG – Likening gambling to a crack cocaine addiction, a group of Maryland lawmakers descended upon the Pennsylvania Capitol yesterday to urge legislators here to follow their lead and reject the lure of slot machines. The three Maryland delegates – as legislators are called there – said repeatedly that the same atmosphere of inevitability that surrounds the gambling issue here was for years just as thick in Annapolis. But last year and again this year, the delegates said they were able to marshal groups ranging from sororities to clergy to neighborhood activists to derail slots bills.

In fact, a couple delegates said, the key to defeating slots in Pennsylvania is not necessarily by lobbying legislators, but by educating voters to the enormous social toll gambling has on a society.

“If you think overflowing hospitals, drugs and alcohol are a problem now, put gambling in your state and you’ll see an increase in all of that,” said Joanne Benson, D-Prince Georges County.

Unlike in Pennsylvania where anti-gambling forces are largely led by Republicans, in Maryland, it is the Democrats who have fought hardest to stop slots from ka-chinging in Prince Georges County and Baltimore.

Delegate Curt Anderson, D-Baltimore, said he was shocked to come to Harrisburg and learn that the House black caucus is largely supportive of gambling.

“I’m really surprised they’d condone something like this in their neighborhoods; bringing in something as addicting as gambling,” said Anderson, who is black. “I’m going to meet with members of the Pennsylvania black caucus and tell them about the impact this has on families.”

But state Sen. Tommy Tomlinson said black or white, Democrat or Republican, the people of Pennsylvania have repeatedly said they want slots. Tomlinson, a leader in the movement to legalize slots, said in his Bensalem district, where slots would be installed at Philadelphia Park, close to 80 percent of people want the machines.

“The majority of legislators, the governor, all want gambling,” he said, noting that last year both the House and Senate passed two different versions of a slots bill.

Tomlinson said gambling opponents tend to overstate and exaggerate the social costs of gambling. Gambling addiction affects 1 percent of the people where it is legal, he said. “Alcohol is much worse and we tried prohibition and it didn’t work.”

The senator mused that the dramatic visit by the Maryland lawmakers all may be for naught. Because it is not gambling’s foes who have stalled slots legislation in Pennsylvania, he noted, but its proponents who can’t decide on a winning formula to get a single bill through both House and Senate.

Still, both the Maryland delegates – all Democrat – and the handful of Pennsylvania representatives – all Republican – who joined them yesterday said they were now allied in keeping gambling at bay in both states.

State Rep. Paul Clymer, who arranged the “historic” meeting, described it as two states’ lawmakers sharing a common mission.

The social disorder, the social costs, the states would pay by legalizing gambling are just too prohibitive to continue with the idea, he said.

Or as his colleague, state Rep. Matt Baker, said; “Gambling is based on the victimization of people losing money over and over again.”