Thousands of slot machines could be coming to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) if a bill proposed by two Republican Maryland lawmakers is passed.
Lead sponsor, Baltimore County Delegate Ric Metzgar, R-District 6, has filed House Bill 733 in the hope of bringing around 3,000 slot machines to the airport. Metzgar says the slot machines would help raise much-needed revenue for the state through the airport’s captive audience.
“Delayed flights, people are still at the airport hanging out, nothing to do, this is a captive audience and it’s an opportunity for us to get outside money,” Metzgar told a local news station.
At present, only two airports in the United States are known to have slots machines in the terminal buildings – Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport and Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
Las Vegas has around 1,400 in-airport slot machines, while Reno only has around 250 machines. Combined the two airports make more than $40 million in profits from the machines each year.
Metzgar says the money made from the machines would go to the Education Trust Fund and to the local community around the airport.
The airport authority believes overcrowding would limit the number of slot machines that could be placed in the airport. It believes there is room for around 1,000 machines.
This isn’t the first time lawmakers have tried to get slot machines into BWI. Several attempts have failed in the past decade alone.
