Buried in the middle of the A-section of today’s Sunday Globe is a clear demonstration of the rest of the story about casino gambling and labor. The glimpse into the future proponents would have us create is equally compelling.
First, the facts (emphasis mine):
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Atlantic City’s crumbling casino market disintegrated even further Saturday as the owners of the Trump Plaza casino said they expect to shut down in mid-September.
Trump Entertainment Resorts said no final decision has been made on the Boardwalk casino. But the company said it expects the casino to close its doors Sept. 16.
Notices warning employees of the expected closing will go out to the casino’s 1,000-plus employees Monday.
If Trump Plaza closes, Atlantic City could lose a third of its casinos and a quarter of its casino workforce in less than nine months. The Atlantic Club closed in January, the Showboat is closing next month, and Revel might do likewise if a buyer can’t be found in bankruptcy court.
Some of us have argued here that casinos = jobs, and a significant number of Massachusetts residents seem receptive. I therefore offer the following dose of hard-nosed current reality, this time from Atlantic City today (emphasis mine):
The head of Atlantic City’s main casino workers’ union demanded state lawmakers help head off what he called a “pending catastrophe” that will affect the state’s tourism industry and tax collections.
…
The company did not indicate what might become of the building after it is closed.Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union, said 7,000 casino workers — or about one in four — have been warned their jobs could disappear within 60 days.
“While this is a personal tragedy for every family involved, it is also a crisis for the state,” he said. “We expect Trenton to react with more than just sympathetic sound bites; we demand action equal to the magnitude of this pending catastrophe.“
In short:
1. The casino industry is collapsing, especially in Atlantic City
2. When the collapse happens, it happens at catastrophic speed
3. The true equation for labor in Atlantic City today is “Casinos = Unemployed” — to the tune of SEVEN THOUSAND union workers.
4. The very first step of organized labor as the predicted collapse unfolds is to demand “help” from the state.
In my view, this is the real story of casino gambling today. Massachusetts should just say “YES” to repeal casino gambling in our state.
Why not extend the high tech corridor from Boston to Waltham and onto Springfield – or any other economically depressed areas where casinos are being proposed? UMass Amherst could be used as a stepping stone to turn the entire commonwealth into a modern, forward thinking, progressive land. We need to build on our strengths, not moral weakness. We have a wealth of resources in Massachusetts to build upon. Let us not lose sight of the fact that only one candidate for governor has the guts to come out against casinos, even before it became a ballot initiative. Vote yes to repeal the casinos in November and equally important on this issue, vote for Don Berwick in the September primary.
The state has many resources to help people feeling angry, alienated, and unhappy.
Let me tell YOU something “pal” — take it somewhere else.
None if that is solved by your precious casinos. Maybe extending the high tech corridor to Springfield can also extend our transit and road systems employing the trades, maybe the money we save from avoiding a future bailout can be spent on education, healthcare, and more jobs programs. Most of us support a living wage including for tipped employees. Take your working class hero bullshit and shove it up billionaire union crusher Steve Wynn-not me!
by banning a single capitalist entity either except destroying more people in the racing industry and potential jobs. That’s what makes your crusade so laughable and hypocritical. You’re arguing religion and trying to make it into an economic and political solution. And I will keep my “working class hero bullshit” firmly intact thank you very much.
… So maybe you should find another shtick to adhere to…?
Both sets of my grandparents were solidly ‘blue collar’ and every penny they saved and scrimped went to, on one side, sending my father to college and, on the other, sending my mother to college. The goal of these two, solidly ‘blue collar’ families was to see that their children had more choices.
Now my brother, scion of two well educated people, is a carpenter. He also does welding. Myself, I’m an engineer whose spent some time as a ‘cube rat’. My father loved the two of us equally right up until his death and was fond of saying that he was proud both of the choices we made and proud that he was able to provide for us to make these decisions. My mother, still alive, similarly makes no distinctions. One of my best friends, likewise, is a carpenter. Another really good friend is a lawyer. I have friends to cut down trees for a living and others who are university professors. One sister in law is a married ‘homemaker’ and mother of two and the other is executive at a very large corporation.
And for all the bickering and disagreeing that SomvervilleTom and I do back and forth, I get the sense that he’s far more “blue collar’ than you…
…All of this is just to invite you to take your false distinctions, rancid misunderstanding of the word ‘solidarity’ and altogether smug love of divisiveness and stick it where the sun don’t shine.
and turning any casino repeal discussing into an attempted endorsement of a particular candidate, most especially on a diary’s first post.
I’m very happy Berwick’s against casinos, but save it for the posts about Berwick, not casinos.
A number of candidates for races in the past have tried to link their campaigns up with the repeal movement, including the Boston Mayoral where the city is against casinos, and it’s backfired tremendously thus far. It’s not a winning issue for Berwick.
Far more importantly, it’s not a winning strategy for the repeal movement.
There are a lot of Coakley, Grossman and Charlie Baker supporters who are against casinos — even if their preferred candidates don’t favor repeal. If any of them read these posts, they may be more likely to vote against casinos thinking it’s a “Berwick issue.”
For the repeal effort to win, we need a very sizeable chunk of Coakley, Grossman and Baker supporters. That’s the *only* path for victory.
That’s why it is a tremendous mistake to attempt to inject partisan politics into this very, very nonpartisan issue — particularly a partisan candidate who isn’t even north of 15% in the polls.
As someone who’s fought against casinos in Massachusetts for years and years — and cares a great deal about this issue — please stop. Pretty please.
I meant to say:
My point in making this point was to emphasize the impact of the collapse happening in Atlantic City, and to highlight the stark contrast between the reality of that impact and the claims being made about “jobs” and “revenue”.
EMC laying off another 1000. Sony, Volvo, Pharmaceuticals, the Airlines, ect… and yes massive consolidation in Bio-Tech and many others. Think of that and examine how you can possibly make the case against a single industry like you’re trying to do. What is gained, I have no idea.
This is a political blog so some of us are being political. Don Berwick is a legitimate and superb candidate for governor, but suffers from name recognition. What other issue floats your boat? Single payer health care? Treatment of drug addiction and lowering our prison population? Development of zones for improving business where it is needed? Energy conservation and environmental concerns? Getting our whole population properly educated? We should know what every candidate thinks about these things. The end product of any political discussion is who fits your view and therefore gets your vote. If you don’t know it, you’ll flub your chance to make the right choice. Don Berwick has thoroughly studied the casino issue and has done so with input from Republicans as well as Independents. That is what a governor is suppose to do, and, yes, every chance I get to say so, if a candidate shows his grasp and an actionable plan to deal with it, I will let others know.
I suspect that ryepower12 was primarily hoping to keep this discussion focused on the sad facts about the casinos, jobs, and tax revenue.
I’ve never known him to be shy about engaging in political discussion. 🙂
Whether or not he supports the same candidate as you or me (Don Berwick), I attribute his comment to a matter of emphasis rather than any substantive disagreement.
The first is the campaign to repeal the Casino Deal, the second is the campaign for Governor. I think Rye was wise to point out that we need to focus on the specific economic implications of the casino deal, and use those implications to win a solid majority to repeal the deal. Networks of independents, Republicans, libertarians, religious voters, as well as progressives should be activated to defeat this terrible policy.
I respect people who oppose casinos but don’t view it as a litmus test since they have gone back a long way with either Grossman or Coakley as their candidate, I feel the same way about Warren Tolman whom I support. I disagree with them on their choice for governor-I strongly believe Berwick is our most electable and capable potential Governor. But I also recognize and agree with Rye. that the pool of support we need to defeat casinos can’t be partisan or associated with a particular candidate or campaign.
If an issue is a basic linchpin how we view economic development in this state, and can send the wrong message how we prosper(or not), and none of the other candidates think so or hedge their bets, then naming a candidate becomes important. It also gives a perspective how candidates might approach other items that need attention. I did not present it as a litmus test nor as denigrating other opinions, but we have not heard solid reasons why the others who would be overseeing this process have come to their conclusions, other than it is the law for now. Is what was said above considered a distraction or detraction from the discussion?
Can’t get to 50%+1 from Don Berwick voters. It has always been an issue that needs a wide tent to win – wider than even the democratic party in this state. If the casino issue is made to look like a Berwick issue, then we lose a lot of voters and volunteers on it – and that is no offense intended to Berwick. I’d say the same of Grossman if he opposed casinos.
People should think long and hard about how much they want to conflate this uniquely non partisan issue with a partisan brand. If this were just about any other issue that could be on the ballot and enjoy popular support at BMG – where we could fight and win on partisan lines, I’d say go for it. (paid sick leave, the minimum wage, the bottle bill, single payer, clean elections and so on and so forth.)
But the casino issue depends heavily on putting together a very tenuous group of people together who can very, very easily be driven apart by politics. I’ve been involved in the repeal effort for years – I know the groups involved. How likely will the ultra conservative religious types be to come out and knock on doors if they think it’s secretly for Berwick? Think admit that and then remember they are some of the most likely to get out on the doors on this issue or donate desperately needed $$.
I also certainly think Berwick should use this as a campaign issue – there isn’t a danger of him bringing it up. But I think there’s a real danger in bringing him up when the topic is casinos and not the governor’s race. So IMO interject casinos into the governor’s race, but don’t interject the governor’s race into casinos repeal effort.
Not “admit that.” Darn swype.
That edit goes in the beginning of the last sentence in the second to last paragraph.
I generally agree with you.
Still, the casino repeal effort has to peel off a fair number of Martha Coakley voters to pass. When it comes to those “ultra conservative religious types”, reminding them of Martha Coakley’s role in promoting casino gambling is worth a mention. It seems to me that it’s hard to avoid mentioning Don Berwick’s stance in that exchange.
The fact remains that we need to defeat casino gambling, whether we end up with “Governor Baker”, “Governor Berwick”, “Governor Coakley”, or “Governor Grossman”. It seems to me that the current popularity of the pro-casino candidates adds to the urgency of passing the repeal.
I have no idea where most of this spew is coming from, but it doesn’t appear to actually be related to what was said. I haven’t seen anyone suggesting that blue collar workers aren’t a valuable part of our economy and society.
By all means lets make sure there are plenty of work for construction workers building stuff we actually need. Casinos not so much.
AC’s entire economy is based on casinos, whereas I don’t see that happening here. Your caveat is well taken, but is also true whenever a region relies so heavily on one company or one industry to keep it’s economy going. If that company or industry goes bust so to does the whole economy. The trick is always to have a diversity of industry for true economic sustainablity. However, if the point is to show that the casino industry is already sliding then that is certainly something to be considered.
Two major claims of casino proponents are increased jobs and increased tax revenue. The reality unfolding in AC (as well as CT, by the way) is that neither of these is likely to pan out in the optimistic way asserted by proponents.
I think it’s also important to remind ourselves that if we proceed down the casino rathole, we expose ourselves to demands that the state act to help the thousands of workers made jobless by the inevitable collapses.
Whose Mayor and Chamber President both said in last weeks Times that they wanted an economy that was recession proof built around educational institutions, high tech, bio tech, and healthcare-you know kinda like the one we already have. “Casinos aren’t coming back, we have to diversify”. Looks like we are already twelve steps ahead of them-why open the bottle now?
maybe Rhode Island as well
local businesses go out. The result is that as time goes by, areas that add casinos become more and more dependent on them.
So I’m not sure how much of a caveat that is. Atlantic City wasn’t always dependent on casinos, either. It once had a thriving boardwalk and tourist industry outside of casinos — that was destroyed by the casinos.
Tourism is the third largest industry in Massachusetts — and it’s largely a small business industry. Bringing casinos to Massachusetts will turn something that is largely comprised of small businesses into something that’s dominated by a few massive companies with the scale and business model to sell food, entertainment and liquor at a loss — and enforce contracts that force performance acts to stage at the casino instead of local stages or clubs. It is not difficult to understand why casinos run local businesses to the ground and create communities where only casinos and pawn shops can thrive.
In twenty years from now, I could very well imagine a number of cities that have thriving local economies today facing the very same desperation as small businesses do in Atlantic City at present.
So, unfortunately, I disagree with the thrust of your post. A lot of areas in Massachusetts could absolutely be hit just as hard as AC is today.
“Atlantic City wasn’t always dependent on casinos, either. It once had a thriving boardwalk and tourist industry outside of casinos — that was destroyed by the casinos.”
Certainly Atlantic City once had a thriving boardwalk and tourist industry but that ended LONG BEFORE CASINOS ENTERED THE PICTURE. As usual, even a cursory search for those who don’t pay attention to such things would prove this statement – like so many made by casino opponents – to be entirely untrue and a twisting of the real narrative. Wikipedia for lack of a better resource is easy for clarity of such false claims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_City,_New_Jersey
Snip– ” Like many older east coast cities after World War II, Atlantic City became plagued with poverty, crime, corruption, and general economic decline in the mid-to-late 20th century. The neighborhood known as the “Inlet” became particularly impoverished. The reasons for the resort’s decline were multi-layered. First of all, the automobile became more readily available to many Americans after the war. Atlantic City had initially relied upon visitors coming by train and staying for a couple of weeks. The car allowed them to come and go as they pleased, and many people would spend only a few days, rather than weeks. Also, the advent of suburbia played a huge role. With many families moving to their own private houses, luxuries such as home air conditioning and swimming pools diminished their interest in flocking to the luxury beach resorts during the hot summer. But perhaps the biggest factor in the decline in Atlantic City’s popularity came from cheap, fast jet service to other premier resorts, such as Miami Beach and the Bahamas.
DFTT
And I could leave it there, except that it seems like a good time to remind folks of one argument NPA has made that is now immediately testable. From back on June 9:
As we now know, the SJC disagreed, 7-zip (as did lawyers who’d read the briefing or listened to the oral argument). It’s not clear, and never was, why NPA thought his assessment was better than that of the actual lawyers who’d read the briefs, but his confidence that he did in fact know better seemed undiminished by his lack of any relevant expertise. Readers who haven’t encountered his arguments before might want to bear his track record in mind when considering any further arguments he makes, or conflating his confidence with any degree of actual knowledge or expertise in whatever is under discussion.
That’s quite incredible. Many people agreed that it shouldn’t have been on the ballot including Coakley and other lawyers. I read the briefs and thought the arguments were strong against it going on the ballot. Obviously not a lawyer and fully admitted that when making that post. That’s the way it goes.
The troll will try very hard to flood discussion about the reality unfolding in Atlantic City with a deluge of trollbait and insults.
Please do not feed the troll.
I think that nopartyaffiliation has now show his true colors. It is clear that he is not capable of behaving civilly when people disagree with him and since that includes most everyone he should be shown the door.
your idea of civil is people agreeing with you and speaking as if they just stepped out of a Henry James novel.
Could someone please tell Kevin that Blue Mass Group is geared towards human beings living in the year 2014 of our Lord and having spent their entire lives on the planet earth?
No Party’s been more hyperbolic than you are on a bad day — and, unlike your complaints, extremely insulting to anyone and *everyone* with an opposing view, including those who have made very tame and polite posts.
An opposing viewpoint is not what has made No a troll who should be banned. The trollish, insulting behavior is what should have him sent on a BMG vacation.
I also second JConway’s suggestion that David, Bob and Charley look into his IP address. I think it could be very enlightening.
I think anyone is capable of interacting here without resorting to insults as a primary rhetorical method. If the editors want to encourage people to behave like a-holes, they are welcome to do so, but then that is probably the only kind of person who would end up coming here.
When you first came to BMG I was appreciative that someone was bringing us the other side since I’ve always found the casino discussion a bit one-sided here. I also thought some were too quick to call you a troll or a shill. I am not an expert nor am I as gungho about casinos as you are, but was glad to have some additional information. In fact I’m likely at this point to vote for repeal because the process has stunk and there are too many questions. I simply haven’t joined what I sometimes see as the kneejerk opposition to people gambling. However, lately you have taken to insulting some long time BMGers and otherwise frankly not helping your cause, either in terms of being persuasive on the merits or getting people to take you seriously.
and that’s working class solidarity and organization of ALL workers. Don’t let this casino issue fool you. I’m no more enamored of casino owners than any other corporate enterprise. However, the priority is always the workers, jobs, the unions under any capitalist circumstance.
Don’t blame leftist and blue-collar working class ideology for the failure of “progressive liberalism” to excite anyone outside of its upscale cocoon. What’s really amazing, is the “cause” of gentrified professional class upscale liberals and progressives shilling for selective capitalism while wrapping themselves in the flag of caring for those “less fortunate and uneducated.” They have NO PLAN whatsoever for more jobs for blue-collar workers.
What’s even worse is the willingness of progressives and liberals to jump in with the worst kind of organizations and zealotry to advance this pathetic and ridiculous crusade. “The Institute Of American Values”, James Dobson and Focus On Family, “The Massachusetts Family Institute.” Whats next, anti-casino casino studies from the Westboro Baptist Church passing as “facts” ?
The “cause” of stopping casinos from coming to Massachusetts is MEANINGLESS in the overall picture. It will do NOTHING but make things worse for many. And, for the record, when people attack someone right out of the box as a shill and a troll, they shouldn’t expect cookies and warm milk in return.
n/m
The use of the word “leftist” in these sort of arguments tends to make the credibility of the argument being made to crash to zero for me. The word “corporatist” has the same result, but generally from the other direction.
I was, in the beginning, inclined to support these things for libertarian reasons– simply, why should the government have any say on how I spent my entertainment or recreation dollars? But over time, my position has shifted as it has become clear that these things are quite likely to cost A LOT of taxpayer money in the long term, in return for not much.
Tom linked to a great story in his OP-mainly-if these businesses fail we all pay the bill , if they succeed we pay the bill in less tangible was, but we will lose money. It swayed CMD and will sway many others-far more than the “please think of the children” moral arguments-as valid as they are.
I did enjoy finding the story deep inside the Sunday A-section.
I’m guessing the Globe is not thrilled with the growing sentiment against casinos in MA.
Do they or their parent company have ownership stake in a casino?
They have a long-standing affinity for and relationship with Martha Coakley, Deval Patrick, and Bob DeLeo. The Globe has long been sympathetic towards using casinos to “improve” the Wonderland/Suffolk Downs area (though the paper strives to create an impression of at least superficial objectivity).
I’m not suggesting a venal motivation, I’m instead saying that the Globe has long-standing alliances with the political forces that currently promote casino gambling.
How NPA posts have gone up while DFW posts have gone? This guy is messing with us-let’s do an IP check.
DFW is actually very much against casinos, remember. If NPA’s real concern is labor he might want to let striker57 take this one. The latter is much better at the argument and I don’t believe has alienated anyone in the process.
and politics ain’t about the personal or “being the change you wish to see.” It’s about power and who controls it. It’s very simple and it doesn’t have a thing to do with casinos. Leftists are not interested in lifestyle politics, nor are Leftists interested in the pity, the charity, or the good works of “benevolent progressive capitalists” or a welfare state operating under the guise of “aiding those less fortunate.”
Leftists are interested in working class power, economic power, and political power along with abolishing the need for a welfare state to exist at all – so there won’t be any “less fortunate” and no privileged and parasitic ruling class will ever need to pity or insult the poor and the struggling people again, because there won’t be either.
What the Libertarians say is that — ” Free market capitalism is the best system and creates the most wealth and gives everyone an opportunity to get rich and even if that isn’t true, you’re not gonna change anything anyway. You might as well take your chances with pure unadulterated Capitalism because the Liberals and Progressives won’t change anything and in the process, they will raise your taxes, close off the every opportunist chances that the blue-collar people have, ban everything in sight, and generally screw up everything else to boot.”
As much as the Libertarian mantra is based on a foundation of straw …within a system of Capitalist empire, they’re not wrong at all.
See ya around.
Among the many kinds of trolling there is out there are trolls who make multiple accounts, some of whom will use those accounts to make arguments in opposition of one another.
I’m not sure if DFW is that savvy, but I still second jconway’s recommendation on checking the ip address to see if there are any obvious shenanigans. I think it’s very likely this particular troll has sizable conflicts of interest they haven’t revealed.
Other than coming on here and goading us into pointless discussions to annoy us, he is very inconsistent, wanting to back Berwick and Brownsberger on the one hand and Huckabee or Rand Paul on the other, and insisting that Ed King was a great Democrat while consistently the very “unions and hacks” that got King elected. Also against charters and NAFTA, but a big fan of Ed Silber who favored free trade and school privatization. Against casinos here, but NPA is parroting many of the same anti-elitist, right wing populist working class hero tropes, and even phrases “walter mitty” that DFW would use.
His use of solidarity is interesting and frequent, and something we haven’t heard from DFW, though I might add NPA and DFW treated each other quite respectfully during their ‘disagreement’ on the initial thread that introduced NPA, and we have seen DFW almost disappear from the forums as NPA posts are increasing.
As a fan of classic mid 1990s professional wrestling, we are seeing a heel move the likes of which we haven’t seen since Hulk Hogan turned into Hollywood Hogan and defected to the NWO. I think that’s what happened here.
Making judgments about what Wal-Dan “believes” is pretty pointless. AFAICT, what he believes is that anything that agitates BMGers is fun, and therefore good. It would not surprise me at all if he created a new identity for the purpose of arguing things that are inconsistent with what his old identity has advocated. I don’t have any idea whether NoPar is such a sockpuppet.
by parroting their most extreme anti-government, anti-Democratic arguments in every discussion; thereby apparently trying to make Republicans sound absurd. Which isn’t hard to do these days. Reading one of NPA’s rants about “leftists,” liberals, and unions above, I’m thinking he or she is up to the same thing. So, I tend to agree — possibly the same person.
Don’t worry about that stuff. We are well aware of it, and we have the tools to deal with it.
The History is always more complex than superficial stats reveal….Atlantic City is the poster child for all that’s wrong with Predatory Gambling and the Phony Promises!
[If you ever want to dig into the crime, corruption, misuse of power, David Cay Johnston wrote a stellar book that explains, among other things how the Gambling Commission granted licenses to insolvent casinos, how Michael Milken made Steve Wynn rich, allowed underage to gamble….impressive stuff!]
This is a Federal Reserve Report – higher poverty, higher unemployment….:
http://middlebororemembers.blogspot.com/2012/04/poverty-in-atlantic-city.html
The more you learn about Predatory Gambling, the more you OPPOSE! Let’s not think we’re DIFFERENT because we’re not. The Gambling Market is Saturated!