Stakes high for Cambridge Slots: As new business dawns in this Eastern Shore town, the prospect of gambling has lost some of its luster -- although some still believe it could prove a boon. By Sarah Koenig Sun Staff  A Nevada company, Harveys Casino Resorts, wanted to build a 300-room riverfront hotel and casino. Dorchester County commissioners pushed hard for a local vote on gambling, and the city formed a casino task force. Officials were treated to cross-country casino tours and a local attorney went to work for Harveys. Now that the General Assembly is taking up legislation that could legalize video slot machines, Cambridge is barely batting an eye. In part, that is because since 1996, Gov. Parris N. Glendening has been staunch in his opposition to expanded gambling in Maryland. But a change has also come from within Cambridge. As a few white-tablecloth restaurants have taken root downtown and the community college is offering courses in "resort development" and "principles of tourism," there is a sense that Cambridge, less desperate, has moved on to embrace more wholesome methods of attracting development. Perhaps the greatest symbols of the city's fledgling hopes are the construction cranes hovering above the shell of what will be an enormous Hyatt resort hotel with 450-slip marina and 18-hole golf course along a quarter-mile of the Choptank River. When Harveys wanted to come in, City Commissioner Edward Watkins welcomed the idea. He's not sure he would invite gambling again. "We were so depressed at that time, I thought this would give us a boost," he said. "But now we've got the Hyatt coming in, and I hope that'll put up some small businesses here. That's what we need, because we've got low income and high unemployment. We're eating each other up because we're so depressed." Not that gambling doesn't still lurk in the back of many people's minds. It's hard not to associate golden-domed casinos and dancing girls in feather headdresses with a recent rumored visit from Donald Trump, said by one local real estate broker to have visited waterfront property. For years, murmurs have surfaced in town, and even at the Hyatt construction site, that the company is covertly wiring the 50,000-square-foot hotel conference center and ballroom to accommodate slots -- a notion construction manager Daniel Strotman denies with a simple, "No." Hyatt's local counsel, William W. McAllister Jr. -- who once worked for Harveys -- said, "The Hyatt, from its inception, has never contemplated gambling in any form as a component of the resort." The Hyatt does run other casino-style resorts and is not restricted from doing so in Cambridge, should slot machines become legal. While gossip meanders around town, the county's anti-gambling crusaders are bracing for a fight that has long been dormant. Mindful that Glendening's successor could support slots, they are updating their mailing lists and preparing to testify against the gambling bill in Annapolis. Even so, visions of casinos were remote in Cambridge last week. When asked about the new gambling bill backed by House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., many local officials said they didn't know about it. "It hasn't been discussed, either privately or publicly," said Al Atkinson, president of the Cambridge City Commission. "Me, I'm kind of neutral about the thing." Harveys, too, is lying low. A few years ago, once it became clear that the legislature wasn't about to approve expanded gambling, the company gave up an option to buy land for its proposed casino, said Jim Rafferty, marketing vice president for Harveys. The latest plan for the 3-acre site, now occupied by a boat repair yard, is to build a maritime museum. Lobbyists have told Rafferty of the new bill, but he is skeptical. "We're going to monitor the situation and let this play out," he said. "The fact of the matter is, the governor is still against it, and Harveys doesn't want to be anywhere there isn't citizen and government support for casino entertainment." Gambling at four sites The new gambling legislation calls for slot machines at four sites: two racetracks and two "tourist destinations" that could include hotels and golf resorts, most likely in Western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore, legislators say. Because the bill proposes a constitutional amendment, Glendening could not veto the measure. If approved by the legislature, the amendment would go before Maryland voters next year. Residents of Allegany County, where Taylor lives, would likely welcome some form of legalized slots, said Cumberland Mayor Lee Fiedler. "I don't think it would end all our problems, but it could be a piece of the Western Maryland puzzle," he said. But in Cambridge, sentiment is split. While some people point out the social ills associated with gambling -- addiction, prostitution, crime -- others are frustrated watching Dorchester residents board buses to casinos in Delaware and New Jersey. They say slots would bring jobs and tourists and development. Besides, they argue, slot machines are already allowed on the Eastern Shore in clubs such as the American Legion; in Cambridge and elsewhere, one or two machines are in pool halls and diners and coin-operated laundries. Players in those venues aren't supposed to get cash in exchange for their winning tickets, but they sometimes do. "As long as [gambling] brings revenue into Cambridge, and as long as we don't have a 'Sopranos'-type thing going on, I think it's OK," said DuEwa Batson, 22, who owns the town record store. Like other business owners downtown, Batson has seen sales pick up in the past two years. That improvement has led some to conclude that Cambridge can succeed without gambling. "People thought it might bring economic relief. I don't think that it would inevitably help this community," said Chuck Kelly, whose family has run a pharmacy in town for generations. "I am very upbeat about what's happening down here. I think we could return to the times when there were cars all up and down Race Street," the city's main drag. Local competition No one disputes Cambridge has a long way to go before it can compete with tourist towns such as Easton and St. Michaels, only a short drive north across the Choptank but endowed with seemingly unreachable economic health. Cambridge's envy of these towns is palpable. At a recent city commissioners' meeting, residents argued hotly over a last-minute hitch in applying for the state's "Main Street Program" to revitalize struggling downtowns. Commissioner Lawrence J. Bohlen lost his temper. Cupping his hand to his ear, he shouted, "Do you ladies and gentlemen hear that? It's the sound of laughter! I hear laughter from Easton, St. Michaels and Chestertown! We're sitting here shooting ourselves in the foot again!" About 10,800 people live in Cambridge. Most are employed by a circuit board manufacturer and by the public school system. In 1999 the median income was $23,500 and the unemployment rate was 7.3 percent, more than twice the state average. Dorchester is one of six counties that qualify for state aid and business tax credits under the "One Maryland" program. Storefront churches are numerous, as are vacant buildings -- 27 of which dot the downtown business district. And a few blocks away on Pine Street, the main street in a poor black neighborhood, life looks even bleaker. "Dorchester County doesn't have anything now," said Saadia Wongus, a taxi dispatcher, as she arranged a pickup at the local jail. "We need jobs. The last thing we need is gambling." Although problems persist, optimism is stirring for the first time in ages. In the shadow of the rising Hyatt, which plans to serve at least 85,000 guests a year -- almost three times the county population -- some merchants are making long-term investments, and commercial real estate is picking up. Suddenly, it doesn't seem preposterous to mention Trump and Cambridge in the same sentence, even without slots. "It will put us on the map. Once they hear that the Hyatt's here, other businesses will say, 'Now's the time. Let's go there,' " said Ricky Travers, co-owner of Simmons Center Market, an old-fashioned grocery store his family has run since 1937. Having seen other big projects fail in Cambridge, however, Travers remains cautious. "Gambling is not the savior. The Hyatt is not the savior. What we need is continued, steady growth." Copyright (c) 2001, The Baltimore Sun |
