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discussing the matter of the lottery provi-
sion I made the statement, I reiterated it,
answered it, and reanswered it, and I said
that under the Constitution of Maryland
that lottery did not, "n-o-t", include bingo.
I phrased it another way and said that
bingo in the State of Maryland was not
prohibited by lottery as lottery was pro-
hibited in the Maryland Constitution. I
told you of the decision of Judge Sache and
Judge Evans in the Circuit Court of Anne-
Arundel County, and I told you there was
a case pending.
I simply would like to tell you that the
Court of .Appeals today has affirmed the
lower court, has handed down its decision
in this situation, in an opinion by Chief
Judge Hammond. The Court of Appeals has
stated that bingo is not forbidden by our
present lottery statutes. The Court said
that bingo is not prohibited by the consti-
tutional provision:
"The legislature has always considered
the forms of gambling it permitted to be
made legal in Anne Arundel County to be
gambling games or in the nature of a
gaming table, within the purview of the
proscriptions of the Code grouped under
the subtitle of article 27 entitled 'Gaming,'
and has never considered those forms of
gambling to be schemes in the nature of a
lottery prohibited by or within the purview
of the provisions of the Code grouped un-
der the subtitle of article 27 entitled
'Lotteries.' "
If you will bear with me just one more
minute, the Court of Appeals said in its
opinion today: "Bingo, another name for
the game called lotto in England (and
sometimes keno in this country) is a game
of fairly recent popularity." It goes on and
tells us that the legislature has authorized
bingo games in 14 more counties besides
Baltimore City and Allegany County.
"Nothing in this subtitle shall be construed
to make it unlawful to operate
a game of bingo. " All lottery is a
form of gambling but all gambling need
not be legislatively considered to be or
actually is lottery, and although some, per-
haps many, gambling games, including ma-
chines and bingo, have elements of lottery,
they have not been considered as coming
or held to come within the purview of the
lottery statutes. We think likewise that the
legalization of the gambling games here
involved was not forbidden by the command
of Article III, section 36 of the Constitu-
tion of Maryland, that: 'No lottery grant
shall ever hereafter be authorized by the
General Assembly.' "
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That is another way of saying what I
told you when I said that the Constitution
in its prohibition against lottery did not
include bingo in that prohibition, and it
only took two days for the Court of Ap-
peals to decide that I was right.
I can tell you of other instances when
they did not agree, and they took a longer
time to say it.
DELEGATE DUKES: If we of the
mournful had recognized that the judge
had the Court of Appeals in his hip pocket,
we would not have taken up your time.
(Laughter.)
THE CHAIRMAN: For what purpose
does Delegate Ulrich rise?
DELEGATE ULRICH: For personal
privilege.
THE CHAIRMAN: State the privilege.
DELEGATE ULRICH: If the magic
number of the Convention is 72, we in the
back row say "072".
(Laughter.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The matter now be-
fore the Committee is a consideration of
Committee Recommendation S&E-2, under
Debate Schedule No. 9.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Ross,
Chairman of the Committee, and requests
that she come forward to the reading desk.
Let the Chair announce now while Dele-
gate Ross is coming forward that after the
preliminary presentation by the Committee
Chairman and after the presentation of
Minority Report S&E-2(B) dealing with
the voting age, which will be the first mat-
ter considered, before starting the debate
on that question the Chair will indicate the
manner in which amendments with respect
to the voting age may be submitted and
considered, so that there will be no doubt
about it.
Everyone, therefore, please make it a
point to be in the chamber at that time.
DELEGATE ROSS: Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Ross.
DELEGATE ROSS: Mr. Chairman and
fellow delegates, before I start, I want to
make it clear, and I assume this is the
understanding of the Chair, that in present-
ing the Committee Report, the presentation
at this point will be limited to section 1,
and preceding the consideration of each
section, the Committee Memorandum will
be presented.
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