State Says Yes to Monitoring 

The state of Maryland has decided to move forward with a slot machine monitoring system. There was some talk as to whether or not it was a good idea, but the Board of Public Works voted to approve a contract that could be worth as much as $38.9 million. Comptroller Peter Franchot was the only vote against it – and quite frankly they may have wanted to listen to him. 

Franchot argued that you can’t sign a contract with a company to perform a service that hasn’t happened yet. The slot machines are not in the state, and he wonders when and if they are ever going to be able to see some revenue from them. He argued that since the money for the contract was coming from the slot machines, how are you going to pay for it when your revenue source was not there? 

Governor Martin O’Malley and Treasurer Nancy Kopp both voted for it much to the amazement of Franchot and many residents. There are those that agree with Franchot and say that if there isn’t money to pay for it, don’t get it in hopes that it will be there. Didn’t they learn their lesson yet by counting on slot machine money that no one has seen yet? 

There are also those that want to know why they chose the slot machine monitoring company that they did. They said that they should have chosen a company that was located in the state and given the money to them, instead of choosing a company that is located in Rhode Island.