Gaming a possibility at National Harbor, Prince George's County?

Takoma Park residents in the Fourth of July Parade, 2008, spoofing plans for casino gaming in the State of Maryland. The second banner suggests a casino for the Sherman Avenue neighborhood. Flickr photo by JLWinder.

At the Takoma Park Fourth of July parade in 2008, residents in the parade carried a banner jokingly promoting the placement of a casino in Takoma Park. I thought that was interesting, from the standpoint of Maryland aiming to place casinos in a manner to capture tourist traffic from DC.

Maryland didn't do that. Instead, they focused attention on tourist areas elsewhere in the state.

But agitation for slots/gaming at Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George's County ("Slots site in Prince George's faces tough road to passage" from the Post), ostensibly to provide revenues to help revive that facility, which has declined precipitously over the years, having been in bankruptcy, could lead instead to the license being captured by the National Harbor development, not unlike how a slots casino is going to be located at Anne Arundel Mall instead of the Laurel Park Raceway ("No Slots At The Mall: Cordish, anti-mall group wage battle over slots referendum" from the Baltimore Sun).

This point was suggested by Post columnist Robert McCartney in his New Year's Day column, "Make picks in these '12 predictions."