[img_assist|nid=3946|title=|desc=State Sen. Janet Greenip|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=250]GRASONVILLE -- Question 2, the ballot referendum which would allow slot machines along Maryland's I-95 corridor, took center stage at the Queen Anne's County NAACP forum on Saturday.

State Sen. Janet Greenip (R-Crofton) argued against slot machines, saying they will cause addiction and won't generate nearly as much money as people expect. Carroll Hyson took the opposite position, saying the referendum will generate roughly $660 million in new education funding each year and that addiction won't be an issue.

If passed, the referendum would allow up to 15,000 slot machine installations at five different locations across the state.

"It goes without saying that slots is a good thing," Hyson said, before pointing to a $700 million hole in the state budget.

"If this budget problem is not fixed, the state will be forced to cut education, health care, transportation, law enforcement and the state will be forced - and here's a very bad word - to raise taxes," Hyson said. "This will be devastating to a lot of us."

Greenip called the projected revenue from slots advocates a "very wishful number" and said slot machines would hit the poor a lot harder than the rich.

"Talking about being addictive is very real," Greenip said. "Slots are the most addictive form of gambling that we could possibly bring into the state."

Hyson said the fears about gambling addiction are being blown way out of proportion.

"The average video slots player is a male somewhere around 50 years old, makes $40,000 a year," Hyson said. "The pathological indicates that pathological gambling is probably about 1 percent."

Hyson said the key was that slot machines would recapture millions of dollars Marylanders are already spending in neighboring states.

Greenip countered with an argument that had nothing to do with gambling. The senator said putting amending the state constitution to allow the slot machines is "a whole new thing."

She said it would be the first time a term such as "within 1 mile of highway 95" would appear in Maryland's constitution.

"Think about that," Greenip said. "The locations of the slot machines are actually written into the constitution."

Question 2 has become one of the most heated issues in the state. Proponents argue the slots will provide necessary funding for the state's education infrastructure and will help close the budget deficit. Opponents believe the revenue projections are overly optimistic, the ballot's language is misleading and that the problems associated with gambling far outweigh the benefits.