Town may amend ordinance ahead of sports betting
Measure would expand admission and amusement tax in Chesapeake Beach
A public hearing prior to the start of the January meeting of the Chesapeake Beach Town Council was scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 20, to introduce an ordinance to include four sports betting license categories within the municipality’s levy of an admission and amusement tax.
“While the town council voiced town citizens’ overwhelming disapproval of expanding gaming activities in town, the state of Maryland has pre-empted the town, authorizing sports betting within Chesapeake Beach,” said Mayor Patrick “Irish” Mahoney in a press release earlier this month announcing the hearing. “Although not approved by the town, the town is burdened by the expanded gaming activity and therefore should receive tax revenue to offset the burden these activities place on our residential community.”
Mahoney noted two ballot questions during the town’s November 2020 elections indicated overwhelming opposition to any expanded gaming within the town limits, where three businesses — the Rod N Reel, Abner’s and Trader’s — already have pull-tab machines. Those legal devices mimic slot machines. The two questions specifically dealt with sports betting and casino gaming.
Last year, town officials codified the ballot question votes, prohibiting full casino and sports betting licenses.
The drafted ordinance specifically states the tax shall apply to the use, admission and amusement of sports betting.
PlayMD.com lists the Rod ‘N’ Reel as one of over a dozen venues categorized as “automatic sports betting license-holders.” Other venues include Pimlico, Camden Yards, FedEx Field, the Maryland Fairgrounds, M & T Bank Stadium and Ocean Downs. Also on the list is Riverboat on the Potomac, which is physically located in Colonial Beach, Va., right across the river from Charles County.
Eric Blitz, the Rod ‘N’ Reel’s attorney, told Southern Maryland News that the town’s ordinance isn’t what it seems.
“The town is proposing to increase a tax on hospitality,” said Blitz. “It’s poor timing. It isn’t as if the town is hurting for money.”
The attorney added that town officials promoting the ordinance are claiming sports betting would “cannibalize” the pull tabs. Blitz said if anything, having the addition of sports betting at the Rod ‘N’ Reel “will increase revenues for machines.”
Blitz noted that with the launch of sports betting in Maryland last year, December was “the second-best month for gaming revenues.”
Franklin Parsons, who writes a sports-betting blog, noted the rift within Chesapeake Beach and the planned ordinance hearing in a Jan. 14 column.
“Maryland residents and tourists cannot be happy with this news,” wrote Parsons on his site, My Top Sports Books. “The majority of them embrace sports betting whether it be for the inevitability or are active bettors themselves.”
The Jan. 20 public hearing is accessible on Zoom via the town’s website. The vote on the ordinance occurred after this story went to print.