You mean O'Malley lied to us?

Yeah, I know that O'Malley fibbing would be inconceivable. But remember how O'Malley and his slots supporters said that by adopting the slots amendment we could turn Maryland into the land of milk, honey, and free money? Well....

As they prepare to open bids for slots licenses today, Maryland officials are casting a wary eye on Kansas, hoping that recent history will not be repeated.

In Kansas, two gambling development companies won the rights to build "destination casinos" near Kansas City and in the southeastern part of the state - projects that the state was relying on for an economic boost. But in the face of the recession, the companies have withdrawn their bids, leaving Kansas officials hanging, and delaying the flow of gambling dollars.....

....As in Maryland, Kansas saw the legalization of casinos as a way to stem the flow of gambling dollars out of state and to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.

"There was a feeling that there was a lot of money leaving Kansas that we would like to keep here," said Stephen Martino, executive director of the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission, which recently announced layoffs because of the stalled casino initiative. Kansans now gamble aboard Missouri riverboats and in Oklahoma tribal casinos, as well as in Iowa and Colorado.

In 2007, the Kansas Legislature passed a measure authorizing slots parlors at greyhound and horse tracks, and full-scale casinos at four "gaming zones" across the state. The winning proposals, selected by a commission, were grandly conceived....

....As of last month, all three projects had been withdrawn, casualties of the economy. Of the four winning proposals, only the smallest - an $88 million casino in Dodge City - is moving forward. No slots parlors at racetracks have materialized.

Now, this legislation in Kansas passed long before the people of Maryland were given the opportunity to vote on the slots amendment. And long before the people of Maryland voted on this proposal, Kansas' gaming enterprise was heading towards its inevitable doom due to a deflating economy and competition from surrounding states.

Gee, I don't know of anywhere else such a paradigm might exist. Or even find a worse predicament due to the expansion of gaming opportunities.

But, be that as it may, slots supporters (and the mainstream media, of course) found it completely unnecessary and inconvenient to talk about the fact that Kansas did not find their financial panacea through the slots industry. And all of that would not bother me (being pro-gambling and what not) had it not been for the fact that O'Malley sold his reckless spending and fiscal shenanigans to the populace under the false pretext that slots revenues were going to save the day. Here, we have a populace sold a bill of O'Malleynomic nonsense when the Governor and his cronies willingly and knowingly oversold the potential economic impact of slots licenses.

But hey, it's not like we've ever been able to trust O'Malley anyway.....