It took the feds indicting the guys who own the land where Steve Wynn wants to build a casino, but the Globe has finally realized that maybe, just maybe, casinos tend to attract characters who are not always exactly on the up and up.
A question for [voters] to ponder — and for casino proponents to answer in these final weeks of the campaign — is whether a certain amount of seedy intrigue is an inexorable part of bringing the gambling industry to town, and if so whether the economic impact of casinos nevertheless outweighs it….
[T]he fact that a Mafia associate [Charles Lightbody] was involved in a land sale raises the possibility that no matter how hard regulators try, corruption still finds a way to ooze into the process.
[T]he indictments are likely to broaden a casino debate that’s been cast primarily in economic terms. Are casinos too corrupting? Advocates on either side of Question 3 have less than a month to make their case, and voters have less than a month to decide.
On the one hand, it’s great that the Globe has finally woken up to the fact that any time casinos come to town, corruption tends to tag along. On the other, it’s a tad concerning if the Globe thinks the “certain amount of seedy intrigue” that it concedes might be “an inexorable part” of the gambling industry could nonetheless be justified by the dubious economic benefit of having casinos here. And all of this, on the heels of two alleged mafiosi being indicted for – what else – “extorting tens of thousands of dollars in protection payments from a video poker machine company.”
EB3’s advice has been right all along, and recent news makes it even stronger: arguing that “gambling is bad” isn’t enough to win on election day. There just aren’t enough MA voters who think that way. But if the Yes On 3 crowd can make a convincing case that, whatever you think of gambling in the abstract, the reality is that when casinos come to town, a bunch of unpleasantness tags along, then things will start to look better. Get to work.
sabutai says
The Globe doesn’t thoroughly cover the casino industry with integrity the same way it doesn’t do so with charter/private schools — it doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds it. Corruption, poverty, whatever: these new casinos will make it much easier to sell ad space in the broadsheet.
John Tehan says
…at a ballot question forum tonight in Framingham. I’ll certainly be including the corruption angle in my remarks!