This is the reason why most Americans do not have a problem with the issues facing our country.  Sure people will complain about it at a bar, but while they are doing that they are also consuming a beverage and watching some sporting event on the television.  While they do that they may even check their Facebook on their mobile device.  We are too distracted to care.  I have to wonder if that is a part of the reason why there have been an increase in casinos during this recession.  Sure casinos generate more revenue for a state, but they are also very convenient distractions.

The same politician has learned from the Prohibition era that you cannot take alcohol out of the hands of American people.  Meanwhile there are many people that spend all of their money on booze and beers, but it has been learned from history that making booze illegal has only made the product more dangerous.  I do not even have to talk about vice to find examples of how people are ruining their own lives.  People make terrible health choices in this country, never exercising and attempting to raise their kids on Happy Meals from McDonald’s.  Yet people will attack Mayor Bloomberg for putting a ban on oversized sodas.

There are not nearly as many protests about poker games and paper bingo games as there are about slot machines or even online casinos.  It is as if people forget that gambling is can be an addictive activity to any person with compulsive behavior, regardless of what game they are playing.  However, slot machines are credited with being far more addictive because of all of the sound and flashing lights.  Now that online casinos are on the horizon, parties are even forming to resist their regulation even though we have casinos in almost every state now.  The message is consistent in that people are scared of the devil in the machines.

Now that we are in an area where the question on everyone’s mind is how to implement online gambling, slot machines are not taking the lead at all.  As a matter of fact the whole process is going backwards.  Legislators seem far more comfortable with the idea of introducing card games first.  For some reason card games seem a lot less risky when they are in the digital format.  Yet you will almost never hear of a state starting out their casino offerings with cards.  If they start out with any sort of table games, they are likely introducing slot machines at the same times and starting out the gate with full service casinos.  It’s bizarre.

They will say of slot machines that they are designed to make people continue playing and that is the true evil of them.  They will even say the same about casinos, that they are designed to make people forget what time it is and that is why they are evil.  Meanwhile the lottery will advertise none stop on their local channels.  They will even come up with jingles so that people will remember the product.  They will advertise on massive billboards how much the pot has risen to on a progressive game.  Just because lottery has been allowed to be more mainstream than a casino does not mean it is not the exact same thing.

For some the common argument that even if the state does not provide slot machines people are going to do it some place else does not sell with some people.  But I have to say I feel like those people are completely disconnected from reality.  Slot machines and gambling are a sure fire source of revenue that a government would have to be foolish not to capitalize upon.  It is very clear that if people cannot access gambling in their own state they have no problem traveling across state lines to get their fix.  That is revenue that could be spent in their own state and used to support the education of children in their own schools.

Now, for some reason, after all of these lessons, Maryland is once again waiting to add table games to the mix.  Certainly there are only two venues open at the moment and both of them are tiny.  But the big money making casinos are close to opening their doors and I do not see any problem with them opening up with table games.  Even if the tiny venues in Cecil County and Ocean City never get table games, it seems absurd to me that major venues in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore will go without table games.  Maryland needs to stop sitting on their hands and be proactive for once.  The casino industry is all about gambling.

Now Maryland is sort of in a situation where they will have not choice but to expand with table games if they want their casinos to remain competitive.  Maryland only has two slots venues open at the moment and both of them are very small.  When they finally start opening their big venues in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore it will be very important for them to have slot machines so that people do not just bypass those venues and head straight up to Delaware.  Virginia and Washington, D.C. should be in the palm of Maryland’s hand, but if they fail to offer table games then gamblers that are willing to travel will travel just a little farther to a place where they can get a full service casino.

The inability of companies to develop new casinos was not the only problem facing Maryland.  Now they are in a situation where their gambling industry may be developing at two slow a rate.  While slot machines were all the rage in the region only a few years ago, now the region has moved on to legalizing table games as well.  Slot machines are just not enough anymore to draw people out of their own state.  Now if gamblers want full casino action they can bypass the two measly Maryland casinos and go to a venue in either Delaware of West Virginia. The casino industry is very tough and highly competitive.

Washington, D.C. is home to some of the most powerful men and women in the world.  In addition to that there area also a lot of ambitious, thrill seeking military types in the area.  These are people that are going to want to play card games and table games when they gamble.  Slot machines will certainly get their play and bring in their money, but table games will also make a big revenue splash.  Slot machines are certainly the backbone of most casinos, however table games may be exactly what Maryland needs in order to convince people to cross the boarder from Washington and Virginia.  Maryland has to realize that they are catering to a market full of highly ambitious people and statistically those people are not typically drawn to the safe gambling environment of a slot machine.