Does Maryland really want to be a pioneer on Internet gambling?

[Commentary] Before July 31 no one in Maryland had seriously considered allowing online gambling in a state that is having a hard enough time establishing the five casinos that were authorized by voters four years ago and is at odds over whether to permit a sixth. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, one of the existing slots casino owners — Cordish Cos., proprietor of Maryland Live! — said it would tolerate new competition only if Maryland lawmakers granted it a lavish menu of tax breaks, budget giveaways, special considerations (like permitting casinos to operate 24 hours a day) and — why not? — the right to offer round-the-clock Internet gambling at the hardly-worth-mentioning tax rate of 10 percent.

We don’t know why Cordish officials didn’t also ask for multi-million dollar annual cash transfers from taxpayers while they were at it; one can only speculate. Nonetheless, the firm’s brazen ask immediately seemed to pay off: No less a personage than Michael E. Busch, Democratic Speaker of the House of Delegates, took up the Internet gambling idea and suggested it was worth serious consideration. It isn’t.