The Baltimore Sun reports on lessons from Ohio and Nebraska:

In 2006, Ohio voters rejected a legislature-sponsored referendum to install 31,500 slots at seven horse racing tracks and two other locations. That proposal earmarked about 30 percent of the hundreds of millions in projected annual revenues for state college system scholarships.

"I don't think anything happened directly from the rejection of that particular proposal," said Jean Botomogno, an economist with Ohio's Legislative Service Commission, who emphasized that that was his personal opinion.

Nebraska voters have repeatedly rejected gambling referendums, most recently in 2006. As in Maryland, gambling proponents have argued that casinos in nearby states siphon off tax dollars that could bolster the state treasury and create jobs.

"You'd be hard-pressed to show any impact" such as tax increases or budget cuts, said Ernie P. Goss, an economics professor at Omaha's Creighton University.

No impact for a no vote. But, there will be a big impact on a yes vote - Annapolis will be empowered to continue their reckless habits, there will be an increase in crime and gambling addictions and Marylanders will have to pay high social costs.

Slot machines aren't a short term fix and the long term costs could outweigh any benefit.

Meanwhile, slots opponents such as Comptroller Peter Franchot are urging voters to keep in mind that a "yes" vote on slots is not a short-term solution to the state's fiscal woes and that major spending cuts are coming regardless of the referendum's outcome.

"Even if slots were to pass in November, we will still have a significant budget shortfall," Franchot said, a statement he and slots supporters agree on...

But Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the terms of Maryland's slots plan increase the likelihood that it would generate expensive "social costs" and minimize economic benefits. He said that danger is particularly potent in urban areas such as downtown Baltimore, one of the five prospective slots sites.

In the short term, we'll still have budget woes and in the long term, the state will have to pick up the tab to deal with higher crime and gambling addictions. No matter how you look at it, with slots, Marylanders will always lose.