More scrutiny, then more slots for Perryville

By Nicholas Sohr
Daily Record Business Writer

ANNAPOLIS – The purchase of $16 million worth of slot machines for a casino in Cecil County met with more scrutiny from the Board of Public Works on Wednesday as gaming officials sparred with the comptroller over the acquisition of gaming terminals.

The board approved the deal 2-1, rounding out the allotment of 1,500 slot machines destined for Hollywood Casino Perryville. The state will purchase 438 machines from Spielo Manufacturing at an average cost of $23,662, with an additional $12,575 for five years of maintenance.

Comptroller Peter Franchot resumed his critique of the state’s handling of its nascent gaming industry. Two weeks ago, he slammed the Maryland Lottery Agency for paying $46,000 each for the first batch of 1,062 machines destined for Perryville.
“We need to have a little more clarity on how much the state is paying for slot machines,” Franchot said, again defending his $46,000 figure as “not rocket science.”
“All we did was divide the number of machines into the [$49 million] contract,” he said.

Lottery agency Director Stephen Martino called the calculation “inaccurate, an oversimplification of the numbers, confusing and misleading” because it does not account for different types of slot machines purchased and the hefty maintenance costs included in the total price.

Two independent studies of the first state deal released last week found the purchase price fell between $18,000 and $25,000.

Franchot argued the state should leave procurement to the operators of the casinos. Maryland’s gaming law requires the state to own or lease the machines.
“I think you should go back to the Legislature and tell them we’re getting taken to the cleaners on this, that the industry should buy their own machines,” he told Martino.

Martino, when questioned by Gov. Martin O’Malley, answered delicately, saying that as long as the state wants to control the machines, the existing law is adequate in giving his agency latitude to work with vendors.

The Maryland Transit Administration also faced harsh criticism from the board. The MTA has struggled to explain how on Monday night, a MARC train traveling from Washington broke down on its way from Washington to Cecil County and why some 1,000 passengers were left kept inside the closed cars without air conditioning for two hours.

O’Malley called the incident “utterly unacceptable.”

“The fact that it happens in the summer is no excuse to let it happen,” the governor said, his arms crossed as he tersely questioned the transportation officials.
“If people had one of their pets in that condition they would have been arrested for animal abuse,” Franchot added.

MTA Administrator Ralign T. Wells said investigations into the incident have been launched by his agency and by Amtrak, which owns the line and staffs and dispatches the trains. He said MTA will replace electric locomotives on the longest trains with pairs of diesel locomotives to avoid any potential problems with power outages along the Penn Line. Staff members will ride evening trains to deal with any problems that crop up.

On Monday, Train 538, pulled by an electric locomotive, left Union Station at 6 p.m. before breaking down for yet undetermined reasons south of the New Carrollton station. After the train’s crew could not diagnose the problem, a diesel locomotive was sent to pull the train back to Washington. But the crew could not disengage the train’s brakes, leaving it stuck on the tracks.

After that, Wells said the crew left the train to escape the heat, but left the passengers inside with the windows closed and doors shut. A second train arrived two hours after the first stalled on the tracks to take the passengers to Baltimore. Wells said that should have happened much sooner.

“Plan C, they didn’t have down very well,” he said.

Wells spent Tuesday evening at Union Station, speaking with passengers and handing out free tickets. He and Transportation Secretary Beverly K. Swaim-Staley planned to do the same Wednesday night.