An Oct. 13 debate at Charlestown on the issue of legalizing slot machines in Maryland allowed dozens of residents of the local retirement community to hear Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith and Aaron Meisner, of the organization Stop Slots Maryland, offer opposing views on the issue.

The event, organized by the community's Legislative-Political Committee, highlighted a divided view among the residents, though more said they were in opposition than in favor.

According to debate moderator Phyl Lansing, a Charlestown resident, a straw poll taken by committee members during the week prior to the debate found that 53 percent opposed slots, 39 percent approved and 8 percent were undecided of 610 residents who cast ballots.

During the Monday evening debate, many residents questioned the idea that Maryland money is pouring into neighboring states that do have slots, like Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

"Every place around us has some sort of gambling, so why should the money leave the state of Maryland?" said Lloyd Stewart, who moved to Charlestown a year ago after living for 54 years in the area as a psychologist at Spring Grove Hospital Center. "We certainly need money to take care of our senior citizens, who are on the increase, so do they have enough money to take care of us?"

Stewart noted that he can "appreciate the negative side" of slots as well, and said he was undecided on the issue after the debate.

Other residents questioned the need to introduce slots as a constitutional amendment.

Suzanne Levitt, chairwoman of the Legislative-Political Committee, said "making an amendment to the constitution is a little far for me to take."

Smith said a constitutional amendment was the only way to bring what is essentially a budgetary issue to the voting public.

He added that the Maryland constitution "is not that pristine document" people think it is.

It already has 200 amendments to it for issues ranging from the lottery to Baltimore City parking, he said.

Smith said he felt like "the underdog" at the meeting.

Taking the microphone first at the debate, he stressed his belief that introducing slots in Maryland is the only answer for the state's current structural deficit.

It is a stance he said he shares with the Maryland Association of Counties, of which he is president.

"There really is no other avenue for raising the revenues necessary for education," Smith said.

He noted that the proposed constitutional amendment designates $660 million specifically for education.

Meisner disagreed with that assessment.

He called the slots legislation a "boondoggle" that "does not guarantee a single new net dollar for education" because it contains no provision that says the $660 million guaranteed can't be used to replace general education funding.

Eugene Langbehn, a teacher at Scotts Branch and Deer Park elementary schools for more than 20 years before moving to Charlestown 10 years ago with his wife, Charlotte, said he understood the need to fund education but saw the current slot legislation as a bad solution that bails out the "dying industry" of horse racing.

At one point, Langbehn asked for a show of hands from those in the audience who had attended a horse race in the last year. No one raised a hand.

Lansing, the event's moderator, said afterward that gambling has never been something she was interested in, and it shouldn't be the solution to budgetary woes.

"I think we as citizens should pay taxes for essential government services," she said. "They will not get a nickel out of me for gambling."

Lansing then quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes: "I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization."

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