* CORRECTION * – Electronic gaming devices have never been located at Fitzie’s Marina and Pub, in Leonardtown, and three other locations that were reported here and elsewhere last week.

 Fitzie’s was included in the list of gaming device locations released by the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office on March 13.(see below)

 On Wednesday, Sheriff Tim Cameron said Fitzie’s was included on the listed based on information received, but it turned out to be inaccurate.

 St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer, Dep. Cindy Allen, said Fitzie’s was closed for the first visit by police, and officers spotted through the window a table-top machine that appeared to be a gaming device.

 When officers visited Fitizie’s for a second time while open, they confirmed the Pub had no such machines.

 “We knew that would be a quick way to make money, but we chose not to go that route because we are a family-orientated business,” Fitzie’s owner Danny Fitzgerald told The Bay Net on Wednesday.

 Allen said officers also discovered that three other establishments also had no machines present when police visited last week. They were: International Beverage, Lexington Park, Hills Store, Mechanicsville, and VFW in California. The Dew Drop Inn, of Hollywood, was reported to have their machines removed as of March 13.

 Armed with a fresh opinion from the Maryland Attorney General, St. Mary’s Sheriff Tim Cameron sent out teams of investigators to start cracking down on “electronic gaming devices” that have began appearing by the truckload in Southern Maryland.

 The number of electronic gaming devices (EGDs) in the county has been reported to be near 1,000, but on Tuesday morning Sheriff Cameron said an actual tally by officials found 334 machines at 23 locations.

 The first of two main issues creating confusion about the machines’ legality is whether the machines are considered a true game of chance, “slots”; or a predetermined winning ticket dispenser, nicknamed “electronic bingo.”

 “Bona fide” charitable organizations are permitted to use “gaming devices” to raise funds, according to an opinion issued Monday by Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler.

 
Brass Rail owner ‘Dickie’ Gatton is interviewed by
police, while a TV camera looks on.
The Bay Net photos by Sean Rice

 The second major issue facing local establishments hosting “gaming devices” is the stringent management procedures required by the charitable organizations that own the machines.

 Among the regulations: Each charity can operate only five machines, and a given location can host only five machines; the management of the machine must be conducted by the charitable organization; and no proceeds from the device can go to the host location.

 “It’s quite clear there are a number of illegal devices here in the county,” Sheriff Cameron told reporters Tuesday morning before teams of investigators set off to investigate all the known machines in the county.

&nb