$92M spent on Maryland gambling campaigns

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Campaign committees that threw money at the state’s referendum on expanded gambling combined to spend almost $92 million, according to final post-election filings with the state.

Penn National Gaming Inc., which backed the committee Get the Facts – Vote No on 7, spent $41.9 million opposing the expansion of gambling to include a new casino in Prince George’s County and table games such as blackjack at every slots parlor in the state.

Maryland Jobs and Schools Inc. spent $45.9 million. The ballot issue committee was backed by prospective Prince George’s County casino developer MGM Resorts International Inc. in addition to Caesars Entertainment Corp.-led CBAC Gaming LLC and the Peterson Cos.

Smaller committees, including one spearheaded by former Prince George’s County Executive Wayne K. Curry, spent the remainder of the $92 million, a total that almost tripled the previous campaign spending record set in the 2010 gubernatorial battle between Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Committees that spent money during the campaign were required to file a final report by midnight Tuesday. In that final filing, which covered spending in the final two weeks before Election Day, casino expansion proponents outspent Penn National, the lone opponent, by almost $9 million during the stretch-run.

Fifty-two percent of voters approved of expanding gambling even though polls by a number of organizations suggested the plan, approved by the General Assembly in an August special session, was destined for failure.

Casino companies and local developers including Peterson, the Bozzuto Group and Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. President and CEO Willard Hackerman, combined to pump almost $95 million into campaign accounts, and some accounts still have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars still in them, state filings show.

Almost $2.2 million of Penn National’s money is still sitting in its campaign account. Karen Bailey, a spokeswoman for the Wyomissing, Pa.-based company, said the money would be used to “cover costs of outstanding expected costs … as well as any professional costs we’ll have for filings we’ll need to make next year until the committee is dissolved.”