Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

A Letter from Somerville To My Friends Throughout the Commonwealth – from Bob Massie

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I have not been a member of a union, so I can’t call myself a brother or a sister, but I have worked on virtually every issue that unions have cared about: equal pay, health care, worker protections.   I cheered when Bob Haynes, another friend, says that unions are there for those who can least protect themselves.   And I grieve when I listen to the electricians and carpenters and others who talk about the astronomically high unemployment rates in their ranks.

But here is how they have chosen to do handle the problem: they have – not for the first time in labor history – been bamboozled by the wealthy.   They have bought the false numbers and false arguments that have been advanced by industry consultants and lobbyists who are using them.    They have ignored the bankruptcies around the country and the huge amount of evidence that has been piled up by economists from outside the state.   I won’t go through it here – much of it is available at the website of [United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts – http:www.uss-mass.org]   Please read up, then sign up.  

One point, proven over and over again, but conveniently forgotten: every slot machine kills one permanent job in an economy.  Why?  Very simple.  A slot machine requires no labor.  It is simply a reverse ATM that sucks money from your account into the casino or racetracks account – money that you could have spent somewhere else.

Labor, sadly, has denied, blocked, or avoided any serious discussion with gambling opponents.   The political committee meeting was a love fest with casino owners.   Their “Jobs With Justice” dinner committee refused to run an ad from a long-time member, Tom Larkin, paid for with his own money, simply asking for a serious debate.   They have held “informational meetings” at Suffolks Downs.   They have used long discredited numbers produced by casino-company reports with flawed or deceptive methodologies.    

And every time I have mentioned this to Bobby Haynes, he says, “I know, I don’t like slot machines, but we need the jobs.”   The jobs are fake Bobby.  It’s not worth selling the birthright of the labor movement for this mess of pottage.

And it is not just the construction trades.  The SEIU, which should be trembling at the thought of tens of thousands more gambling addicts sweeping down on our overburdened system, has been silent.   The people concerned about domestic violence or co-addiction or criminal justice have taken a little stroll.   The nurses are on break.  The Mass Teacher’s Association, to their lasting discredit, has endorsed a system of “job creation” created by a predatory industry that is targeting our video-game loving children for the next wave of  gambling traps.

The social service advocates and good government advocates are also embarrassingly silent.   Common Cause, of which my grandmother was a founding board member, has decided that they care about corruption, but only at a limited scale – the wholesale distortion of the an entire process in the legislature by gambling interests – not only here but around the country – is something they wish to ignore.  Please, Pam. do a little more reading about what is happening around the country.  

I could list a large number of groups that have intensified the pressure on the governor and on Beacon Hill not to pursue cuts, but who seem so out of touch with politics that they don’t realize that this sets up the perfect hole-in-the-pocket shot by Big Gambling.   ,

And then there are the churches.   The Mass Council of Churches has been an opponentbut the individual denominations and congregations are too busy worrying about problems in other countries or other decades to pay any real attention to what it is about to happen in their midst.   The evangelical communities like Park Street Church and Gordon Conwell seminary – proud heirs to many social movements – have wandered off into the wilderness on this.   The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization – an organization I love and of which my church is a member – is proud of the 400 of their financial literacy program that has moved people out of debt.   How many people will people will be cast into debt through thousands and thousands of neurologically addictive slot machines.   Even though their leaders know – in their bones – that we will reap the whirlwind, they do not speak out.  Rev. Hamilton, you are my hero in many ways, please speak the truth here as powerfully as you have throughout your life.

And what about my friends in politics?  Some have stood up to fight this – such as those who passed a resolution at the Democratic Issues Convention making it the policy of the party to oppose predatory gambling.   There have been powerful leaders against predatory gambling such as Susan Tucker in the Senate, and Dan Bosley in the House – they will eventually be proven to have been not only courageous but right.

The U.S. Senate candidates have, with one exception, been an embarrassment.   Michael Capuano, someone I have known for 20 years in Somerville, usually deserves his reputation as a straight-up shooter, who will tell you what he thinks.   But he is ducking the question, saying that gambling is not a national issue.  

Tell that the people in Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Iowa,and other places who have been fleeced by national and international companies working their way state by state across the country like locusts.   Tell that to Congress, which passed the perverse Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which has allowed international cartels and billionaires to use Indian tribes as fronts for their investments.    Or to the Supreme Court which squashed “reservation shopping” for casino lands, something that can only be reversed by an act of Congress.   At the very least, it is a regional issue, where a strong social justice Senator could bring together all the parties to slow, stop, and reverse the race to the bottom.  Come on, Mike, step up to the plate.

Martha Coakley said that as chief law enforcement official she is working with the legislature to craft the laws that casinos will be necessary if legislation is passed.    Martha, if you are elected you will no longer be in this job – in a few weeks.  What will you do as a Senator?  You used to be opposed to gambling – is your current silence due to your union support and to Senate President Teresa Murray’s enthusiasm for your candidacy?   Martha, we want to see some spark, some fire in the belly for what’s right, not a recitation of your current job description.

Steve Pagliuca says that he hasn’t really been able to evaluate whether would be good or bad.   That’s amazing.  The man has spent his career assessing companies, but suddenly his skills disappear when he hits controversy.   Steve, step up to a real challenge, something a little more robust than telling Democrats you are for health care reform.

Only Alan Khazei has said – today – that he believes casinos and slot machines are predatory.   He deserves praise for his courage.     When something is predatory, it means that a practice takes advantage of people who aren’t aware of the dangers, which are deliberately concealed.   Democrats have opposed predatory pricing, predatory marketing, predatory lending, and now they should oppose predatory gambling.  Again, that is the official position of the State Democratic Party.

But do the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, or the Governor of the Commonwealth care?   Apparently not.   What about the House and Senate?   We will see.

And why is this?  In part because our legislators are desperate for revenue.   But the darker side is that many former campaign managers, ope
ratives, field organizers, pollsters, and even former candidates and public officials themselves – have gone on the lobbying payroll of different casino or slot companies.   I won’t embarrass them further by listing them here, but I think that Blue Mass Group should publish a list of every consultant and every lawyer whose firm is now working on the inside, spending some of the $1 million of lobbying funds that have already been spent to our legislature.

All these forces are going to come to a head in the next few months.   The House and Senate are holding joint hearings on gambling this Thursday that will be packed with union members who have been bussed into to support something that won’t help them and will harm their communities and their families.  The churches will twiddle their thumbs, holding meetings on other topics in other places.   The social service groups advocates will demand more money – we don’t care how you get it.    The lobbyists will smile and adjust the cuffs of their expensive suits and admire the shine of their expensive shoes.   The governor will forget that people elected him not for his managerial skills alone but also for his moral courage.  

The decision is still in the hand of legislators, many of whom have staked their entire careers on their progressive records.   They don’t realize that they may be about to cast the vote for which they will most be remembered, wiping out the good work they did through years – even decades – in the legislature.

None of us can escape the simple truth that how we raise money to pay for public services says as much about our values as how we spend it.

If a vote comes in the new year to bring in a set of destructive forces because ALL OF US refused to raise our heads for a few minutes from the distractions offered to us by those who are in this for private gain, unless we look with wisdom and compassion to the hills of the future, then we will have sacrificed the principles of the progressive movement, the Democratic party, and the Commonwealth at one stroke.  

This is what will happen.  Unless there are enough of my friends – and others inside and outside the legislature – who have the courage to stand up and say:

No.

Bob Massie

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Comments

  2. It takes courage to reject political expediency and short-term gimmicks. So far, Alan Khazeiseems to be the one in the US Senate race with courage.  Lots of courage and for all the right reasons.  The long-term negative impacts and financial drain of the slots/casino industry are irrefutable.

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    p>How many families have to lose their financial security through gambling to support state sponsored slots?  How many families have to endure permanent misery for temporary construction jobs?

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    p>I am very pleased to see one candidate in the see of ambitious pols with courage.  Could this be a game changer?

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    p>Your writing is on par with the spirit and content of the writers and thinkers who were the founders.  Thank you.

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  3. silenced in Middleboro and prevented from having a public discussion about predatory gambling, some of us went on to read the reports, studies, books and extensive research that are voluminous and publicly available.

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    p>The more one reads about the consequences of slots as tax policy, the more distressing the spector becomes.

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    p>Thanks for being there, Bob!

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    p>FYI – I forwarded the following to our Middleboro delegation and members of the hearing committee —

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    Granite State Coalition
    Against Expanded Gambling
    NoSlots.com

    Warning: wonky. If short on time, read only the Summary Conclusion.

    Summary Conclusion:

    By the mid-1990s, casinos and slot machines had become pervasive in Australia. The Australian government has collected and evaluated good quality data about the impacts.  Gambling – particularly video slot machines – cost Australian society more than the benefits derived. Seeing the impacts on their own communities, 80 percent of Australians have concluded that current gambling is harmful to their communities and want slot machines removed or reduced in numbers.

    New Hampshire policymakers must soberly and dispassionately consider whether these same slot machines would somehow have different impacts here. The Australian impact would translate to a cost of $210 million dollars per year in New Hampshire.

    Background:

    Gambling, and specifically “pokies” or video slot machines became pervasive across almost the entire Australian nation by 1995. In both 1999 and again in 2008, the Australian government charged its Productivity Commission with assessing benefits and harms of gambling. On October 21, the Commission released its 630 page draft report.

    This report is by far the most comprehensive I’ve yet seen.

    “The Productivity Commission is the Australian Government’s independent research and advisory body on a range of economic, social and environmental issues affecting the welfare of Australians. Its role, expressed most simply, is to help governments make better policies, in the long term interest of the Australian community.”

    Community backlash against slot machines caused Switzerland to ban slot machines outside of casinos in 2005. Widespread concerns about gamblers loosing their life savings and becoming destitute caused Russia to ban all gambling in 2009, other than in four highly remote regions. Due to increased problem gambling, Norway banned all video slot machines in 2007 and Internet gambling in 2009. The Norwegian gambling authority is implementing “less aggressive” (i.e., slow play, low maximum loss rate) gambling machines in smaller numbers than the banned slots.

    Specific Harm Findings:

    The Productivity Commission found gambling to cost Australian society about $4.5 billion dollars per year, with over 75 percent of these costs deriving from video slot machines. These costs exceed benefits when abused dollars (or “excess” losses) by problem gamblers are included (page 3.22). Cost per year per adult translates to US$225 for all adults in the population.

    Video slot machines, rather than other forms of gambling such as lottery or table games, “account for around 75-80 per cent of ‘problem gamblers’ and are found to pose significant problems for ordinary consumers.” (xxiii)

    42 to 75 percent of total machine losses are paid by moderate and high risk problem gamblers. (4.1)

    About 2.5 percent of Australian adults are now problem gamblers. (4.23)

    “[M]any people who do not fit the strict criteria for problem gambling are found to experience significant harms. For example, of those people who said that gambling had affected their job performance, some 60 per cent were not categorised as ‘problem gamblers.'” (xxiv)

    Slot machines are between 6 and 18 times more risky than lotteries (4.31).

    “[A]round 50 per cent of gaming machine gamblers have false beliefs about how gaming machines work, which pose risks to them” (4.1). “Faulty cognition” about slot machine design is strongly associated with problem gambling. 33 percent of high-risk problem gamblers, 20 percent of moderate risk, and 5 percent of recreational gamblers believe that a gambler is more likely to win on a slot machine after loosing many times in a row (4.11).  Some groups of consumers – such as people with intellectual or mental health disabilities, poor English skills, and those who are emotionally fragile (say due to grief) – may be particularly vulnerable to problems when gambling (3.9). Slot machine profits and tax proceeds therefrom are predatory on weak and vulnerable members of the population.

    Thirty-nine percent of high risk problem gamblers suffered adverse effects on workplace performance, an often ignored or unquantified externality. (4.21)

    “Beyond the powerful example provided by the early liberalisation experiences of Australia, there is a broad range of evidence suggesting a link between accessibility [proximity] and harm.” (10.3)

    Australian gamblers are estimated to lose A$790 million per year (about 4 percent of the size of legal gambling) from illegal online gambling and Internet casinos. (12.1)  

    The effect of widespread gambling machine availability on the economy can be seen in Australia, where gambling losses are now 3.1 percent of household consumption, 6.3 percent in Northern Australia (page 2.3).

    “The potential for significant harm from some types of gambling is what distinguishes gambling from most other enjoyable recreational activities – and underlines the communities’ ambivalence towards it” (xx). “While many Australians gamble, they remain sceptical about the overall community benefits (figure 3.2). For instance, one survey estimated that around 80 per cent of Victorian adults considered that gambling had done more harm than good (with little difference between the views of gamblers and non-gamblers)” (3.8). Looking at all Australian surveys, roughly 80 percent of the public wants to see video slot machines removed or their numbers reduced (10.9).

    Treatment:

    Eight to 15 percent of Australian problem gamblers seek treatment. “Internationally, around 6-15 per cent of people experiencing problems with gambling are reported to seek help from problem gambling services” (5.3). “People experiencing problems with their gambling often do not seek professional help until a ‘crisis’ occurs – financial ruin, relationship break down, court charges or attempted suicide – or when they hit ‘rock bottom’. (5.4)

    “Help services for problem gamblers [using them] have worked well overall, but they relate to people who have already developed major problems and are thus not a substitute for preventative measures.” (xv)

    Harm Reduction:

    60 percent of Australian teens gamble on video slot machines by the time they are 18 years of age. Over 60 percent of Aussie teens have gambled in some form before they reached 18 years. (6.23)

    “[I]ncreased knowledge of gambling in children may have the unintended consequence of intensifying harmful behaviour, a risk that should be considered in the design (or even in considering the introduction) of school-based programs. Nevertheless, several insights emerge from the drug, alcohol and driver education literature that may increase the effectiveness of any school-based gambling education programs and potentially reduce the risks of adverse behavioural responses: a school-based education program may be more effective if accompanied by a corresponding change in societal attitudes and a media campaign. For instance, … the relatively greater success of school-based tobacco programs (compared with alcohol) [is attributed] to the fact that these were accompanied by ‘consistent anti-smoking messages in the general media and to the emergence of a strong anti-smoking social movement.'” (6.20)

    If New Hampshire were to legalize slot machine gambling – even with a school-based anti-gambling education campaign – but without a strong anti-gambling social movement and media campaign (completely unlikely if the state were to operate or license casinos, and unlikely if the state were to become
    significantly dependent upon casino revenues), New Hampshire could experience Australian levels of teen gambling. Teen gambling in the U.S. is associated with sharply increased teen criminal activity and illegal drug use.

    “Had there been full knowledge at the time about the harmful effects of substantially increasing accessibility to gaming machines in the 1990s, a different model of liberalisation, with less widespread accessibility, may well have been seen as appropriate. (Western Australia did not follow the approach of other jurisdictions and appears to have far fewer gambling problems.) However, it would obviously be difficult and impractical for any government now to significantly reverse longstanding arrangements.” (xxxii)

    Given that the Productivity Commission deems it impossible to put the slots genie back in the bottle, its recommendations focus on harm reduction, for example, mandating machine designs that reduce gambler losses per hour to 1/10th those of present slot machines and implementing a $1 per button push bet limit.

    New Hampshire’s policy options are now far more favorable than Australia’s: whether to let the slots genie out of the bottle, i.e., harm reduction through the far more effective route of prevention.

    Better a fence at the top of the cliff than the world’s best ambulance at the bottom.  

    Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling | PO Box 3931 | Concord | NH | 03302

  4. Predatory is exactly the right term for the affects of gambling, slot machines and casinos, because that’s precisely their effect;  praying on people who’re broke and desperate, with no jobs, or whatever.  Casinos and the likes are the absolutely last thing we need here in the Bay State, especially right now.  We don’t want or need another Atlantic City or Mohegan Sun, nor do we need/want a Las Vegas East.  Plus there’d be much more prostitution, etc, if there were casinos and slot machines around.

  5. in Massachusetts isn’t going to hurt anything. It will bring back the money and the consumers now driving to Connecticut for a night or weekend out.  

    • through the local area. Yes, it may “bring back” some of the income in Connecticut, but we’ve yet to have a fair and well researched analysis of how much we “lose” to them, anyway, given the fact that it’s Clyde Barrow who those numbers come from.

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      p>Aside from that, though, taking that small sliver back at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars being sucked from our local communities, families and businesses, creating the prosperity that can drive a community, those hundreds of millions will be shat out in Nevada and wherever else the Supreme Overlords of the Massachusets casinos reside. Casinos are just one, big, giant sucking noise — and it’s not just me saying it, even the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says that up to 75% of whatever a casino brings in is merely a redistribution of money that was already going into the economy. What are our small businesses and communities going to do when that 75% goes away? Just like in Detroit, Atlantic City and anywhere else that’s legalized casinos… disappear.

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      p>Bob, thank you for your well-thought out, impassioned letter. It clearly lays out the case against casinos — and it’s a strong one. This should be everyone’s new, favorite quote — because it’s true:

      None of us can escape the simple truth that how we raise money to pay for public services says as much about our values as how we spend it.

  6. I am at a loss as to how anyone can come to the conclusion that gambling is anything but destructive. The “house” wins 100% of the time and everyone else loses. What’s not to understand?

  7. Whatever compelled the Governor to dive headlong into the arms of casino proponents is beyond me.  Very, very disheartening.  Wonderful post Mr. Massie.

  8. to counter the fuzzy logic and lack of interest among progressives in this state. Your assertion that each slot machine costs one job is particularly compelling. That coupled with the fact that this is money that in many cases is taken from the pockets of families whose budgets don’t have any to spare.
    Thanks, Bob, for your appeal to progressives to return to our senses and to our moral underpinnings.

  9. I don’t understand why this piece seems to focus on the Senate race (whose participants have no vote on the issue) and not the Gubernatorial race — where the incumbent is leading the charge for increased predatory gambling.

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    p>I would much rather see pressure on Deval Patrick to block expanded gambling revenues than on any of the Senate candidates.

      • If folks feel casinos are the critical economic issue facing the state that all the impassioned responses to the issue raise, you’ve got to let Deval Patrick know that you won’t be there for him if he continues to support casinos.  

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        p>There are three people who matter in this – the anti casino folks on BMG don’t strike me as particularly influential on Therese Murray or Bob DeLeo, so that leaves you with Patrick.  If you back Patrick, you’re backing casinos, it’s as simple as that.  

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        p>I’m opposed to casinos, but not enough to oppose the best candidate for governor, which means I’m a vote for casinos!  If this is a “which side are you on?” issue, it starts and ends with Deval Patrick – there are plenty of volunteers who will make a real difference in the campaign who oppose casinos – if Patrick doesn’t hear from you that you won’t be there, there’s no reason for him to listen to you.  

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        p>If you’re going to support Patrick, no matter what, it’s time to stop opposing casinos and start making them less harmful – that means ensuring workers will be union, that means making sure the state gets a ton of money, that means making sure they’re resort style with high limits that deter poor and working class residents from gambling.  

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        p>All that being said, I respect and admire the folks who will take Patrick to task on this, but I think your opposition to him needs to be louder.  Clyde Barrow isn’t your enemy, the governor is.  

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        p>  

        • at the statehouse for the hearing on predatory gambling.  9am sign-ups to testify.  10am hearing begins.

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