The giant Cordish Companies of Baltimore, armed with an Anne Arundel County grading permit, will break ground Thursday for its huge Maryland Live! casino and entertainment complex between Baltimore and Washington, but isn’t talking about it

.

Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who says he would have preferred that all of the five state casino locations had been at racetracks, will be on hand for Thursday’s groundbreaking of this one, which will be the state’s biggest, with 4,750 slots.

Maryland’s House Speaker, Michael Busch, meanwhile, told 500 people gathered at the Greater Baltimore Committee’s General Assembly Legislative Forum that he thinks he has enough votes to put a constitutional amendment into play next year which will allow Maryland to have table games.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, however, told the group he does not think the matter belongs in the constitution, and he and other legislators prefer a legislative vote on the issue.

Discussion and debate are assured because, as previously reported by Harness Tracks of America, state senator Katherine Klausmeier has introduced a table games bill in the senate.

(HTA)