Legion approved for pull tab machines

Commissioners OK permit for Chesapeake Beach nonprofit

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Last week the post said it lost a lot of revenue recently when it was told by Calvert County Sheriff’s Office to shut off its 10 pull tab machines, Legionnaire Frank Purdy said during a meeting of the Chesapeake Beach Town Council last Thursday. The American Legion donated $60,000 last year to local and county charities from money earned from the machines, Purdy told the town council last Thursday.

‘‘There’s a lot of angst in the community over these gaming machines,” Purdy said.

Sheriff Mike Evans of the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office said the Legion did not have a permit for the machines at the time.

‘‘I checked at the last gambling permit meeting and learned they never had a permit,” Evans said.

Evans, who is a member of Post 206, said it was time to tell them to turn off the machines.

Evans said the legion did not have an application in for a permit at the time he checked.

Post 206 2nd Vice Commander Billy Linehan, who handles the gaming machines for the post, said two years ago before the Legion purchased the pull tab machines they called the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners and were told they could have up to 15 machines without a permit.

‘‘We would have paid for a permit then, but we were told we didn’t need one,” he said.

Post Commander Jack Gregory said when he inquired about obtaining gaming machines he was told by then Commissioner’ President David Hale (R) that the Legion did not need a permit if they had less than 15 machines.

Chairman of the county’s Gambling Permit Review Committee Dennis Brown said he went to the Legion last December to check the pull tab machines and they looked OK to him.

‘‘At that point in time there was a gray area as to how many they could have, and what they could have,” Brown said.

In January the Legion was told that they had to get a commercial license and pay the $5,000 fee, Gregory said. The 10-page or so application listed exemptions of organizations that did not need to apply for a commercial license, Gregory said. Organizations exempt from needing a license that were mentioned in the application were patriotic organizations, civic organizations and organizations contributing to charities, Gregory said.

‘‘Who can be more patriotic than the American Legion?” he said. And the Legion gives everything earned back to the community in charitable donations, he said.

‘‘I still feel we are exempt from a license, but to keep our doors open we decided to apply for a license,” Gregory said. They seem to flip-flop on this constantly, he added.

Brown said he recommended to the commissioners last December that nonprofits should be on the same equal footing in the Beaches as the commercial businesses, but the commissioners voted his recommendations down. The discussion always gets confusing as to what kind of permit a nonprofit needs and whether they need a separate commercial permit, he said.

‘‘I would give them a permit in a minute if it was up to me,” Brown said of the Legion.

The committee only gives recommendations on permits to the commissioners, it does not vote on them, he explained.

Gregory said when he applied for the license in January it was returned and he was told that it needed to be notarized, and then it was returned because they needed proof of insurance on the building, and it took some time to go through the proper channels and gather the information.

The completed application was accepted about two weeks ago, but the commission would not take the $5,000 check at that time, Gregory said.

Before Tuesday’s approval, Gregory was told that it probably wouldn’t be until April before the Legion heard back from the commissioners.

‘‘We’re losing a lot of money now,” he said. ‘‘Without those machines we will close in a year. The smoking ban has killed us, too. We fought for freedom and we don’t have it in our own place,” Gregory said of the post.

At last week’s Chesapeake Beach Town Council meeting, Mayor Gerald Donovan said in 32 years he has never heard a complaint about the American Legion.

‘‘It’s the fabric of our community,” Donovan said. ‘‘Every VFW and American Legion should be entitled to fundraising efforts ... It baffles me, that it became such an issue.”

County Attorney Emanuel Demedis said the commissioners decided in November 2007 that they were not going to approve any more commercial bingo permits until they adopted specific regulations, and a county law states that the commissioners cannot approve a bingo license (gambling permit) within 30 days, Demedis said. The Legion applied just over a week ago, he said, and the law stated that the application could not be approved for 30 days.

The commissioners were proposing their own regulations for gambling permits, then the Senate bill came up, he said, which if passed this session will make the decision by the commission mute. The Senate bill referred to is the emergency legislation passed by the Senate last week banning gambling machines.

‘‘If the law is signed by the governor and takes effect, all the machines will be illegal,” Demedis said, even in the Twin Beaches and despite the county’s permit.

Currently, businesses and non-profit pull tab machines are legal in the Twin Beaches area under the 2001 appeal, and Evans said they checked all the businesses with machines and they all have county permits and are legal.

A 2001 appeal in a federal court case, Chesapeake Amusement Inc. v. Riddle, established that electronic bingo machines were legal if the machines did not dispense tickets randomly and there was ‘‘no element of chance.”

Linehan said he loads tickets in the pull tab machines and a ticket is printed out each time.

‘‘Our machines are exactly the same as Rod ‘N’ Reel machines,” Linehan said, and they are legal.

Both Traders Seafood Steak and Ale and Abner’s Seaside Crab House also have pull tab machines and they are both legal by having county permits, Evans said.

Recently in St. Mary’s County the type of gaming machines have been in question as to whether they are the old style with loaded cards and paper cartridges, or computerized newer style machines that dispense winning tickets by chance, making them illegal.

Nonprofits running their machines out of for profit businesses, which take a large cut of the proceeds, have also been under fire in St. Mary’s County.

The Legion puts 100 percent of the money earned from the pull tab machines back into the community, Linehan said. The Legion donates to local Boy Scout troops, senior groups and veterans, he said.

The Legion filed a request to the Calvert County Board of Commissioners for a bingo license and said he felt he couldn’t get the commissioner’s office to listen, Purdy said.

The Legion would like to be able to keep the machines until the state decides what gambling in Calvert County will look like, he said.

Purdy asked the town council and mayor to talk to the commissioners and support the Legion.

Purdy said he is hopeful that the House of Delegates will see the Senate’s error and won’t make the gaming machines illegal, referring to last week’s Senate bill passing 45 to 2 to ban gambling machines for both nonprofits and commercial businesses.

Purdy then referred to the November referendum, which, if passed, will make gambling legal in five locations, including Pimlico, and illegal in other areas of the state.

As it stands now, gambling will be illegal in Chesapeake Beach and legal in Pimlico, he said.

‘‘What the state is doing doesn’t make sense,” Purdy said.

Donovan agreed with Purdy saying, ‘‘I testified from 1948 to 1960” and helped gaming machines become legal in four Southern Maryland counties. They were never legal on the Eastern Shore, and today they are legal in eight counties, he said. The American Legion here won’t be able to gamble, ‘‘but [under the November referendum] you can cross the bridge and gamble,” Donovan said.

‘‘It’s just not fair to me, there’s such hypocrisy,” he said.

The state is addicted to gambling revenue, Donovan said.

‘‘How can you be against gambling when you’re in the gambling business?” he said.

Hopefully the state legislature will say that ‘‘We’re one Maryland, and every county should be entitled.

‘‘The veterans who served our country should be allowed to raise money, it makes no sense to me,” Donovan said.

Town council members said they didn’t think the town should approach the commissioners as a town, but all agreed that they supported the Legion on the issue of keeping their gaming machines.

charvat@somdnews.com