Maryland Slots

A group of Maryland lawmakers are again pushing to add as many as 2, 500 slot machines to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.

A House committee will hear a bill Tuesday that would ask voters to decide to further expand Maryland's gaming industry to seven locations and include slot parlors at the state's primary airport.

The plan would put another gambling facility between two other Maryland casinos. BWI's slots would be just 10 minutes north of Maryland Live! at the Arundel Mills mall and less than 15 minutes south of the Horseshoe Casino near M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

While voters have appeared willing to expand Maryland's gaming industry — authorizing a sixth casino and table games in 2012 — the legislature has been reluctant to ask to further develop an increasingly saturated market.

The bill to put slots at BWI has been introduced twice before. In 2013, it languished without a vote in committee. In 2014, it died in committee by a 14-3 vote, with several other members absent or abstaining.

Could the prospects be different this year? No one's betting on slots at the airport.

But the new General Assembly has a lot of new dynamics this year that could make the bill's fate less predictable. More than 40 percent of the House of Delegates are new to the job, and Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has promised to curb spending without raising taxes.