Borrowing money for tracks may be a bad bet

The X factor in the plan to keep the Preakness in Baltimore is the impact of the 2018 Supreme Court decision allowing states to legalize all types of sports gambling including online gambling (“Maryland legislative leaders exploring fast-track plan to legalize sports betting without asking voters,” Jan. 17). It is a sea change in the commercial gambling industry, described by some as an existential threat to horse racing because of the potential loss of gambling revenue.

The deal with The Stronach Group shifts the financial risks of a decline in horse racing revenues from Stronach to the state (“Anne Arundel County executive announces town hall to discuss Laurel Park racetrack proposal,” Oct. 9). That is good for Stronach.

Is it wise for the state? States, including Maryland’s neighbors, have moved rapidly to legalize sports gambling. The Maryland General Assembly is poised to consider a bill that would place legalization of sports gambling on the 2020 ballot. The threat to horse racing is real. With an aging fan base, it has been declining in popularity for decades.

Will younger gamblers go to racetracks when they can stay home and place bets on football and basketball games and other sports online? Will sports wagering at casinos make it harder for racetracks to compete with casinos for gambling dollars?

Already heavily subsidized by the state, horse racing would need even greater subsidies from the state just to survive the competition and that does not include the money needed to pay off the $348 million in bonds issued by the state to rebuild Pimlico and upgrade Laurel.

Under the deal, the state will own Pimlico and be on the hook for repaying the bonds over 30 years. It will be the state, not Stronach, that bears the risk of Pimlico becoming an expensive white elephant if horse racing revenues drop significantly.

I am not saying the deal is a bad one because of that risk. I am saying that the risk bears more discussion than it has gotten so far.

Biden’s plan genuinely threatens gun industry

In a recent editorial criticizing President Trump for (among other things) not supporting elements of Joe Biden’s gun control plan (“Alternative Fact of the Week: Joe Biden ‘triggers’ Donald Trump,” Oct. 3), The Baltimore Sun Editorial Board makes an error in judgment.

With respect to concerns that former Vice President Biden’s plan will significantly damage the firearms industry, the board asks, “With what, his voluntary gun buy back?”

No, the threat to the firearms industry comes from Mr. Biden’s proposed repeal of the Protection in Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. Without that law in place, it would become possible to sue firearm manufacturers in response to the criminal misuse of their legal, properly-functioning products.

The cost of mounting a legal defense against thousands of such lawsuits would itself be sufficient to bankrupt the industry. Some view this as a feature, not a bug.

Do US companies, pols have guts to stand up to China?

Time was we were the most powerful and admired nation on earth. We now cower and abandon the most crucial of the core values that make us the greatest to many of the regimes and oligarchies throughout the world, China the most prevalent (“With China rift ongoing after Rockets GM’s Hong Kong tweet, NBA says free speech remains vital,” Oct. 8).

Delta, Marriott, The Gap, Apple and the NBA are just some of the companies that have bent over and sniveled away any vestige of national integrity in the name of greed and self-interest.

Much worse are our politicians who in the same way allow the basic freedoms and rights that are our prime mantra beyond our borders to be massively abused.

Instead of presenting a united front to the outside world and their abuses, they bicker and feud over their individual or party agendas.

How obvious is it that China and others have no reason to change or comply with any of what should be universal values of fairness, respect and freedom if Delta, Marriott, The Gap, the NBA, Apple and U.S. politicians do not have the guts, integrity or common sense to uphold the same?