Free Republic

Let’s highlight developments in these entertainment devices having slots for accepting coins as a sequence of historical events to provide insights into the next technological advancements from slot machines.

VIDEOIt's absolutely AMAZING how lucky my wife is at the casino. Many of you have seen my previous videos of just how lucky my wife is. We came out of the Caesar's casino in Pompano Beach (where the old harness track was) as winners FIVE TIMES in a row. However, a month ago on the sixth try there we LOST. That's the bad news. However the GOOD NEWS is that due to our money management we only lost $20. We took that as a sign that Lady Luck didn't want us to take too much of an advantage with my...

VIDEOMy wife loves the images of fat rich piggies on slot machines so, naturally, on July 3 she played the machines with that porcine image. Our strategy, as always, was to put $20 into the slots and to cash out whenever the winnings go over about $30. That way the most we can lose for the evening would be limited to the initial $20 in the machine. After cashing out we place another $20 in the machine and if we lose that then we are done for the day. However, if we win again we repeat the process of cashing...

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- The coronavirus could be a literal game changer once America's casinos reopen. Many decisions remain to be made. But prepare to have your temperature scanned at the door. Maybe a half or third of slot machines will work. Every other table could be closed, and there could even be plexiglass barriers between dealers and customers or separating slot machines. Dealers and servers and customers - including those who smoke - all could be required to wear masks in many places. Workers may be standing by to wipe down slot machines, kiosks and even elevator buttons as...

A consulting firm will present its findings Tuesday on the potential impact of expanded gambling in Maryland as lawmakers continue to discuss possible legislation to add table games and a sixth casino in the state. Representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers are expected to testify at the second meeting of the state’s Work Group to Consider Gaming Expansion, a panel of lawmakers and executive-branch officials charged with deciding whether the General Assembly should pursue a gambling expansion bill at an expected special session next month. State officials say the panel’s recommendation will be largely based on the firm’s findings. Lawmakers have said the...

ANNAPOLIS — The General Assembly adjourned Monday night after a chaotic closing session in which members failed to pass a set of proposed tax increases or a bill to expand gambling in the state. Lawmakers passed a balanced budget and hoped to pass accompanying bills raising income taxes and shifting teacher-pension costs onto counties, but they ran out of time before the assembly’s required midnight adjournment. The House attempted to extend the session by passing a resolution shortly before midnight, but the Senate did not address the measure in time. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said he was...

On Saturday afternoon, Maryland horse racing once again will take its place in the sporting world’s spotlight with the 136th running of the Preakness Stakes at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course. The other 364 days of the year, however, Pimlico and the Maryland racing industry aren’t proving ready for their close-up. Plagued by poor planning and without the expected revenue from slot-machine gambling, Maryland’s storied racing industry has been left with fewer horses, smaller purses, aging facilities and no visible plan for long-term stability. “The state of Maryland racing is not something that happened yesterday morning. It’s been an attrition over...

Arundel County, Maryland has agreed to allow gambling casinos in shopping malls. Since West Virginia is in lockstep with its neighboring states when it comes to gambling, how long will it be until we have Hot Spots in our WV malls? Has the state considered slot machines in restrooms--attached to the inside of the stall door? A lot of gaming time is being wasted--and think of the relief for people who want to gamble all the time! Or, above urinals? Only one armed men might be handicapped in playing a one armed bandit. Think of the tax income going down...

Harrah's Operating Company, which owns 38 casinos and two thoroughbred race tracks, is the new owner of Thistledown Racetrack. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware approved Harrah's $89.5 million bid for the North Randall thoroughbred racing facility. It ended 40 rounds of bidding on Monday that began with a so-called stalking-horse bid of $22.3 million by Penn National, bidding as Cleveland Gaming Ventures LLC, and included bids from a subsidiary of Pinnacle Entertainment. Harrah's will pay $42 million in cash when it closes the deal, and another $47.5 million in contingency payments. Thistledown is one of two horse racing tracks...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- U.S. Sen. George Voinovich used biblical verse Thursday to blast gambling proponents, including Ohio Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, who is an ordained minister. Voinovich, the former Republican governor, joined forces with the Ohio Roundtable and Methodist churches to announce a lawsuit they filed Thursday at the Ohio Supreme Court against Strickland's plan to place slots-like video lottery terminals at Ohio racetracks.

SACRAMENTO – A bipartisan measure that authorizes a large group of California Indian tribes to operate up to 2,000 slot machines each sailed out of the state Senate yesterday despite late opposition from San Diego County. The legislation would redefine terms of 61 compacts negotiated in 1999 to grant each of the tribes up to 2,000 slot machines. That includes local tribes such as Rincon, San Pasqual and Jamul, which are itching to expand or build new casinos. “It's a truth-in-advertising measure,” said Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, a Temecula Republican whose district includes the Rincon and San Pasqual reservations. “The tribes...

ANNAPOLIS (AP) — Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that if a referendum on slot-machine gambling fails in November, "it'll be back to the drawing board with a lot of unpopular choices, and I don't think any of us wants to go there." Mr. O'Malley said during an interview on WCBC-AM in Cumberland, Md., that the money Maryland would eventually get from slot machines would constitute about 25 percent of what's needed to balance the state's budget in coming years. The rest of the money to handle Maryland's projected deficit comes from about $1.4 billion in tax increases approved last November...

SACRAMENTO – California's first inspection of slot machines at Indian casinos has found widespread software lapses that could be short-changing tribes, the state and millions of gamblers, the state's gambling commission warns in a new report. State inspectors approved just 60 percent of the slots that were examined last year at seven casinos, which included some of the most successful and sophisticated in the nation. But tribal representatives and commission staff members disagreed sharply about the severity of the software shortcomings flagged in nearly 500 machines examined at the casinos, including those operated by the Pala, Pauma and Viejas tribes...

Special Session Actions Challenged on Constitutional Grounds The Minority Leadership in the House and Senate, along with a computer services business owner from Carroll County, filed suit today challenging the constitutionality of legislation passed by the Maryland General Assembly during the recently-concluded special session. The lawsuit was filed in Carroll County Circuit Court. In a motion filed on behalf of these Maryland taxpayers, attorney Irwin R. Kramer of Kramer & Connolly, requests that the court review irregularities that occurred during the special session, including the six-day adjournment by the Maryland Senate. This adjournment was in direct violation of Article III,...

The timing was exquisite, suspiciously so, coming as it did on the day before Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) warmly embraced the expansion of slot machine gambling in Maryland. It appeared, for all of Maryland to see, as if the oligarchs at Magna Entertainment, a Canadian firm, threw Joseph DeFrancis, a Maryland horseman, under an oncoming bus. Magna exercised its option, rapidly expiring by November, to buy out the remaining 49 percent interest in the Maryland Jockey Club from DeFrancis and his sister, Karin. Deliberate or not, Magna removed a major impediment to winning slots at racetracks and elsewhere in Maryland,...

ANNAPOLIS — Hundreds of anti-tax demonstrators greeted lawmakers on their return yesterday for a special General Assembly session to consider Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to increase taxes and legalize slot machines to cut the state's $1.7 billion budget shortfall. Voters opposed to the plan by Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, began their protest in the early morning by flooding the state Capitol with nearly 1,000 phone calls before noon, then packing Lawyer's Mall in front of the State House to call state Democratic leaders the " 'Taxes' Axis of Evil." In his opening remarks last night, Mr. O'Malley implored lawmakers to...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to close the state's five-year, $6.9 billion budget shortfall would raise $3.6 billion more than necessary, according to an analysis of figures released by the governor's office. About $2.5 billion of the additional money would go to new spending and tax cuts, although it is unclear how the additional $1.1 billion would be used. Mr. O'Malley and his office have not discussed the net effect of their budget plan, but numbers used in The Washington Times analysis are those he has presented in public over the past two weeks. The administration responded by saying...

BALTIMORE - Gov. Martin O’Malley and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine called on Congress Wednesday to pass legislation to control greenhouse gas emissions, arguing the health of the Chesapeake Bay is at stake. “We now know with certainty that human activities — including coastal development, the burning of fossil fuels and increasing greenhouse gas emissions — are contributing to both the causes and consequences of climate change,” O’Malley told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. But his testimony did not go over well with critics of the Intercounty Connector — an 18-mile toll road that would connect Montgomery and...

Mayor Martin O'Malley had a principled position on slots. Legalized gambling might work to buck up Maryland's ailing horse industry, but slots, he said in 2005, are "a pretty morally bankrupt way" to fund education. Now, Gov. Martin O'Malley proposes to open slots palaces across the state to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for, um, education. A change of heart? Not really, the governor tells me: "I just don't see how I can ask the legislators to compromise if I'm not willing to do so myself."