At the offices of the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency in Baltimore, they’re hiring additional staff to help create regulations and a system to monitor gaming expansion.
“It requires a lot of planning, but I think at the end of the day it’s going to be completely transparent to the player,” Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency Director Stephen Martino said.
Rules created by the attorneys and staff will be presented to a seven-member commission for approval in a few weeks.
First they’ll lay out the rules for table games.
“A very granular level rules of the game for players if they wanted to go and know that a royal flush beats a pair or how the payouts are,” Martino said. “That will be contained in the rules.”
Then there’s the cash to consider. With slot machines, a computer chip counts the money with 100 percent accuracy. Now rules have to be created to monitor the cash exchanged at table games.
“What we’re talking about is putting in place the standards by which casino employees have to operate so they know what the regulatory standard is for handling of money, counting of money,” Martino said.
It also means new rules for security plans, surveillance and internal controls. By mid-January the rules for table games should be in place. About that time the focus will shift to the bidding process for who will operate a new casino in Prince George’s County. That will be handled by the commission that approves casino licenses, and they’ll most likely borrow from the standards used to approve a new casino for downtown Baltimore.
“I think that they are going to be able to move expeditiously, get that RFP out and allow whoever is out there to step forward and put their best proposal forward for Prince George’s County,” Martino said.
