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00:00Maryland, a similar situation where last year we went through a period of time in the legislation
00:05where, you know, online was potentially set to happen. What's the latest update here for 2025
00:11on Maryland? Are they very similar in the same boat as Mississippi? Kind of almost the exact
00:15same boat as Mississippi, just given this is online casino versus online sports betting.
00:21Last year it passed the House, fell on deaf ears in the Senate, even despite Senator Ron Watson
00:28really trying to push it through in the Senate. This year it's starting back up in the Senate.
00:32I mean, there's bills on both sides, but Watson is now rolling out the same bill as Vanessa
00:36Atterbury on the House side, which again, did pass. And so he's, they're just saying,
00:41hey, let's just both do the same piece of legislation. Let's get it through.
00:45There should be a hearing on Atterbury's bill in the House. And I would expect it kind of again,
00:49to move similarly through the House as it did last year, just like in Mississippi.
00:53But last week there was a six hour hearing in the Senate and it was all the same, you know,
00:58it was replay the hits. Basically, you know, the, the Cordish companies came out in opposition.
01:04They don't want online casinos. They're worried about cannibalization. You had local labor unions
01:08coming up saying, we don't want to lose the jobs that might lose because, you know, they're,
01:14you're cannibalizing revenue. You know, Watson came out and said, hey, we're going to try to
01:20put things in here that can make sure that the casinos don't fire people. You know, we're,
01:26we're seeing the revenue go up. And if these companies are losing jobs or eliminating jobs,
01:33it's out of pure greed. Even if it's, you know, despite you might lose some brick and mortar
01:38revenue, the overall revenue from these casino companies are going up. So why would you have
01:42to cut those jobs? Basically is what some of the proponents are saying. So we'll see what kind of
01:47bridges can be made to the local labor unions. I think some of the casino companies are,
01:52are going to similarly dig their feet in. Penn Entertainment was in opposition last week,
01:57but it wasn't because of necessarily going online. They just thought the language could be written a
02:01little bit better for them. So there's, you know, certainly a lot of things that kind of need to be
02:06tweaked here in Maryland. Again, they've got a giant budget shortfall coming and we know there's
02:13a bill in the overall state budget to increase the sports betting tax rate. And that could be a
02:22pretty big boon, not necessarily big enough to really make a dent in that state deficit. But
02:28when you see that kind of happening, you know, you might see the politicians also say, Hey,
02:33this is a good revenue gain along with all the, let's bring it into the regulated market and,
02:38and in the fresh light. So we'll see again, what happens. I would again, expect it kind of to take
02:43a similar path and get through the house like it did last year. And the six hour hearing, you know,
02:49there was again, a six hour hearing or thereabouts last year, same sort of arguments. So we'll see
02:55what kind of, you know, compromises we can get from the lawmakers here and if any can get done.
03:01So again, Maryland's going to be just like Mississippi. It's following a very similar
03:06path. What can these states do to make it a different end result than last year?