You know, I was willing to give casinos a chance here in Massachusetts. Other things being equal (yes, yes, I know), more jobs are better; there’s little doubt that at least some gambling dollars that are currently going to Connecticut and Rhode Island would instead stay in Massachusetts if we had casinos; maybe there would be some more tourism money; the revenue would be nice for schools and transportation; etc. Plus, our casino law is the bestest casino law ever written, and we set up the awesomest regulatory agency in the history of casinos whose operations will without question be entirely above board. What could go wrong?
Plenty, as it turns out. Look at what has happened in just the last couple of weeks. East Boston said they didn’t want a casino, which prompted Suffolk Downs to ask for what they would never consider giving any of their customers: a second chance. And not just a second shot at the same game, but an entirely different game, with new rules. And they got it, for no particularly good reason beyond, what, the Commission feeling sorry for Suffolk Downs? So now there will be another vote in Revere for a Revere-only casino, with incoming Boston Mayor Marty Walsh thinking hard about suing to stop it.
Then, as we all know, the ethics of the Gaming Commission tanked when it turned out that one of Chairman Steve Crosby’s old business buddies stood to make a killing if Steve Wynn gets his casino in Everett. Apparently it didn’t occur to Crosby when he accepted the job that this might turn out to be a problem. To which one can only say, WTF. The utterly predictable lawsuits have already begun, and one has to imagine that the entire process for the eastern license is in danger of falling apart because of Crosby.
Steve and Bill
Then the Gaming Commission decides that Steve Wynn is “suitable” – as long as he’s not engaged in corrupt business practices in Macau. I don’t even know what to say about that beyond, again, WTF (ryepower12 has more). The best part of this one is that Bill Weld is representing Wynn before the Commission, and the photo of Wynn and Weld is priceless.
And now, speaking of Steve Wynn, check out this bombshell in today’s Herald:
Vegas casino titan Steve Wynn, who passed a big hurdle yesterday before the state Gaming Commission, has been meeting with legislators and said the Bay State’s casino law needs changes before he’ll consider the business climate here palatable.
“In our conversations with the state, we’re attempting to get issues resolved that will comfort us,” Wynn said during a break at yesterday’s hearing, at which the commission’s investigators recommended Wynn be deemed suitable to pursue a license.
“We’re expected to make unequivocal commitments — both in the way we do our business, financially, and everything else — to the state of Massachusetts. And we want to make sure that we have the same thing in return,” Wynn said.
Wynn declined to detail what changes he wants in the casino law, telling a Herald reporter, “Not with you. This is not the place.”
But in later remarks, Wynn referred to his concerns about the “arithmetic of gaming establishments” and having enough revenue to keep job-creation promises.
Holy sh!t. Sure looks like Wynn is going to try to get the legislature to cut the tax rate that casinos are required to remit to the Commonwealth (and the Herald reports that two weeks ago Wynn met with Brian Dempsey, the chair of the House Ways & Means Committee). That tax rate, of course, is the basis of all the budget projections (which are already absurdly optimistic) that are at the heart of the case for why we should have the bloody things here in the first place. Maybe he’ll try to get a break from the no-smoking law as well.
And if he doesn’t get his rate cut, then what? Thanks but no thanks? I never thought I’d say this, but read the comments on the Herald article. Some of them are spot-on.
So, f^ck it. This casino law was an interesting experiment, and it seems pretty clear that the experiment has failed. Repeal it, either in the legislature or at the ballot, and let’s have a real conversation about how to generate needed revenue without wallowing any further in this muck.
Now what? Will you vociferously oppose new casinos, and/or support repeal of of the deal?
Did I not say “repeal it”?
I want to know what else you’re going to do.
Are you going to harness the awesome power of Blue Mass Group against casinos?
Best way to send a message to Beacon Hill that we don’t want this predatory industry in our state. And as to Steve Wynn, glad he thinks the business climate is so bad in Massachusetts- if Macau is his definition of good I’d rather be bad.
were based on a UMASS Dartmouth and casino industry-backed professor’s annual trip to count license plates, which happened during one of the busiest vacation weekends in the year (5 days during President’s Day weekend was his annual ‘study’) and declaring that representative of all gaming revenue for the year.
Because the 5 days during President’s Day weekend is perfectly representative of Mohegan Sun’s yearly take… /sarcasm off
Any of those figures floated about in the papers and by supporters of the original legislation were and are highly dubious.
Furthermore, none of the projections ever took into account what would be cannibalized from the state lottery system, which has a much higher ‘tax rate’ than there’d be for casinos… before Wynn & Co. ever gets it lowered. Even a small dip in the state lottery would wipe out huge amounts of potential new revenue from casinos.
In the grand scheme of things, this was never going to make any money for the state, but all the worries about corruption and abuses of the process in favor of the industry have come true in ways that are even shocking to me.
This idea should be dumped and the longer this goes on, the likelier it will become IMO. The fat lady’s still singing and her tune is starting to sound a lot better to a whole lot of people across our Commonwealth.
Some of us sat in Gardner Auditorium as State Senator Marc ‘I Love Slot Machines’ Pacheco intoned his name in reverential tones, ignoring that he was a PAID Casino Shill, never questioning his conspicuously flawed conclusions.
The irratonal numbers paraded before Bobble Heads and mindlessly repeated are easily disproven simply from the figures on the AGA [American Gaming Association] web site.
A gazillion jobs? Billions in revenue to pave the streets with Fools’ Gold?
PEW did a study about the flawed projections in other states and how grossly overestimated they are. Many of those projections were completed by Spectrum Gaming…..same folks who projected the Massachusetts’ fantasy for $189,000…and there’s no penalty for getting it totally wrong.
Click on the link for full report:
http://middlebororemembers.blogspot.com/2012/10/overstated-projections.html
Well you don’t say. Precisely what I imagined would happen after we let a gigantic and exploitative special interest’s nose into the tent. Now, I never thought that Steve Wynn would have the stones to try to alter the deal *before* he ever got it — only that once they were up and running there would be constant whinging and lobbying and carping and arm-twisting and (legal) bribing that somehow they were getting a raw deal from the Commonwealth, and needed tax “screens”, as Wynn calls them.
I wouldn’t touch Steve Wynn and his scummy business with a ten-foot pole.
long before they were up and running.
Toward the end of a 2009 legislative hearing I later wrote about, a man by the name of John Grogan, Managing Director of Corporate Finance Advisors spoke about how the state and the gambling industry would need to work together to do what it took to increase revenue, because the state would be a ‘stakeholder’ in the industry.
One of the ways, he suggested, would be to keep the tax rate as low as possible, and adjusting it when necessary. He provided a series of graphics to demonstrate how dire even a tiny dip in casino revenue could be for both state and casino, which I recreated here:
Try as I might, I had been unable to dig up any info about Grogan prior to the hearing. He had what seemed to be a hastily assembled and often disappearing web site, which touted that his comapany had “a broad range of experience in corporate finance and an extensive network of contacts in the capital markets”.
At the time I questioned the lineup of speakers at the hearing, “why does it seem practically everyone has some connection to Suffolk Downs?? Maybe this Grogan guy is actually Bob DeLeo’s accountant or dry cleaner or something…”
So imagine my surprise when Grogan appeared at a 2010 legislative hearing sitting next to Gary Piontkowski, CEO of Plainridge racetrack. And my dismay upon learning that, after Mr. Piontkowski was ousted from his own company for stealing from the cash room, that this same Grogan had become the CEO of Plainridge – and deemed suitable by the MGC.
The horse racing industry was framing this discussion years before the bill, written by lobbyists passed.
But you know, nothing sleazy going on here.
Good call on the video
that this fine, upstanding industry would (1) try to rig the game in its favor; (2) be in business with shady folks; (3) expect to win concessions from politicians. Nobody could have seen any of this coming.
New idea inspired by David: If Suffolk Downs gets a “second chance” and a casino opens there, everyone gets a second chance at every game, forever. I’d bet (already getting gambling fever) they’d still make a profit.
I am assuming the reader has been a BMG member long enough to remember when we could actually rate comments 1-6. I frankly don’t remember all the categories (sigh) except that 6 was the best.
Look at Twin Rivers in RI, or really, at any gaming industry interaction with government. They’re the gaming industry; of course they’re going to try and game the system! People were predicting it here and lots of other places from the beginning.
We are looking for the trifecta, baby!
http://www.repealthecasinodeal.org
Both can be recreational I suppose, but both also destroy many, many lives, and in both cases the purveyors know full well how things often end up – they just value cash-in-pocket more than they value their fellow man.
I’d be curious to see how many lives are ruined by one vs. the other. And would never trust anyone in either industry.
than Government promoted heroin addiction.
Look at the sad souls who stood in line for lottery tickets this week.
to read this. I’ve always been proud to be a part of BMG, but seeing so many people take a strong stand against casinos (which are really a non-partisan issue) has made me appreciate it here even more. I think it speaks to the community-first values that a lot of activists share.
A literature drop was conducted at the State House in which Each and Every Democratic official was provided with “Massachusetts Democratic Party Resolution Opposing Predatory Gambling.”
Can we say that each Democrat that supported this Folly ignored the Democratic faithful in favor of the Casino Vultures?
http://middlebororemembers.blogspot.com/2010/02/massachusetts-democratic-party.html
There are some mighty disenchanted Democrats out there who worked hard to elect Governor ‘Slot Barns’ and were betrayed.
This issue goes to the heart and soul of who and what you are personally, as an individual, an elected official.
What do you stand for? What level of corruption are you willing to support and endorse?
The Gambling Industry’s DIRTY LITTLE SECRET is that Gambling Addicts commit SUICIDE at higher rates than the rest of the population, in addition to the increased CRIME. How is this acceptable fiscal policy?
REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL is the only sensible choice.
I wouldn’t bash Deval too much on this, though it’s definitely his worst blunder.
This was a deliberate Plan.
I remember all the unworkable campaign promises about local aid, how HE was going to cut property taxes that were up to cities and towns, and other fiscally mysterious miracles. So after you worked so hard to elect him, you looked up expectantly, and heard…(drum roll)…CASINOS! Gambling would solve ALL our problems!
I remember there were many jaws on BMG that hit the floor. But there was a lot of go along to get along too – maybe it would work out.
I was against casinos from day one, as were many other here. But what sticks in my mind was how deep the disillusion was when the slick magic man made his big reveal, and how so many tried so hard to convert.
It’s over, there will be no casinos, and the COMMONwealth will be a better place for it.
I think the go-along-get-along attitude was from folks of a less paternalistic mindset than mine, who wanted to keep Foxwoods’ $ in state and don’t have a problem with casinos generally. It was more of a libertarian “eh, why not” than being swayed by the golden-tongued Patrick.
I think casinos are inherently exploitative, especially as a tool for state revenue. (Don’t even get me started on the literally-Orwellian lottery, which is even worse but we’re all used to it.) You’re literally selling false hope. We could sell all kinds of things in MA and we choose that to legislate into existence?? Add that to the traditional endemic sleaze of the industry, and I don’t see casinos as good neighbors moving into the neighborhood.
I have always been concerned that once the state becomes dependent upon that revenue stream, the casinos will have us by the … er, where they want us, and will lobby for a sweeter and sweeter deal because hey, it’s better than letting all that $$$ go to CT, isn’t it?? — even if it’s a steadily diminishing slice of the pie. Wynn certainly seems like a guy who thinks he’s dictating the terms of the bargain, doesn’t he?
You want revenue to get something done? Don’t BS people. Raise taxes — fairly, then build the roads and bridges and train tracks and take credit with your smiling mug at a big ribbon-cutting ceremony. “YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK.”
They were worn down by relentless lobbying, the governor’s embrace of this horrid idea, and declining revenues.
Now, though, they should have had time to bounce back.
2 Gambling Lobbyists walk past and one legislator explain that his/her constituents are raising quite a fuss about his/her casino support.
The Gambling Lobbyists pull out their checkbooks and write a $200 check to each of the legislators.
One of the legislators was actually dumb enough to repeat the story to others.