And it’s certainly what comes to mind when I recall all the behind-closed-doors meetings, and this whole rush job of a process including the strange emergence of Stan the “guru”, a guy with a somewhat unique sense of what constitutes an “independent” and “balanced” study, and who somehow became the Senate’s resident expert on casinos by, you guessed it, going to a lot of casinos.
At the Senate’s hearing on this bill yesterday, Stan justified creating three casinos in Massachusetts because Mass gamblers are already bringing their problems home, and we don’t have enough money to treat them.
Jeez, Stan – it’s Casinos 101 – proximity creates more addiction. In Iowa, 1.7% of the population were problem gamblers. Three and a half years later, that figure had more than tripled to 5.4%. In Louisiana it’s now 7%. Before Hollywood Slots came to Maine, calls to the National gamblers hotline were zero – last year they totaled 1,263 – and remember these are just the people that seek help. Those are NEW problems gamblers, and their problems don’t stop at the mirror – they effect their family and friends and co-workers.
Stan insists this whole process has been open and transparent. But, unless you’ve been sitting in on those numerous legislative closed door sessions – this process has been murky and secretive, and inexplicably comes with a lot of back patting and self congratulation. He prides himself on going all over creation to study casinos and gather information – he looks – but he only sees what he wants to see.
And that’s the power of Kool-Aid, baby!
I’m not sure where a comment like Stan’s, seemingly disparaging USS-Mass for not doing it’s own study comes from, but it doesn’t exactly make me feel any more comfortable about his ability to understand both sides of this issue. I mean, it’s not us with the giant electronic billboards or orange T-shirts. It’s not us writing checks with the taxpayer’s checkbook. It’s not us at the wheel of this steamrolled legislation.
USS-Mass is an all volunteer organization comprised of working-class citizens. Some of us have been in the trenches for over three years. We work endless hours, hunt down the facts, do the math and provide all our time, energy, and resources for free – just to be gaveled after slogging through a seven hour hearing or for the last quote on the second page of a news article. And, unlike Stan we don’t have access to an endless tap root of funds to create reports to tell us what we want to hear.
Funny thing is, Stan used to be solidly against casinos, that is, until Senate President Therese Murray personally hand selected him to be her point man on the issue. Wink wink. Nudge nudge.
Speaking of whom, whatever happened to that “clean slate” T. Murray promised? Whatever happened to “doing it right”? Right for who? The gambling industry?
But then, maybe it’s all too much to ask of our leadership. Maybe that fact that the casino lobby sprinkled $20 M in influence on their cereal last year, or the knowledge that they can write a check on the taxpayer dime to an out-of-state company for a worthless study and still get away with it, makes them think they’re… well… different.
Or maybe it’s our Governor, who hobnobs with gambling industry big-wigs, blurring perhaps the truth that while gambling expansion has never helped any state out of a financial deficit, it will irreparably hurt the hundreds of thousands of Mass. citizens he represents.
According to this week’s cover story in Time Magazine, Massachusetts’ deficit as a percentage of total budget is just 8.5 % – the fifth smallest deficit in the country. Tied for 4th smallest is Virginia, another no-casino state. The two largest deficits in the country are in Nevada (56.6 %), and New Jersey (37.4 %), followed closely by Connecticut at 29.2 %.
Massachusetts continues to sees strong job growth every month. A full 17% of the nation’s new private sector jobs were created here in the Commonwealth. Last month, 15,800 jobs were created statewide. Compare that to the 12,000 projected permanent jobs for three resort casinos that will come at the expense of local business and individuals and require a new bureaucracy to regulate.
We’ve tried to tell him all this, but how can a mom from Monson or a Fall River small business owner compete with a private conversation between millionaires on the the 14th green? Let’s be fair.
Speaking of being fair, I’ve had a couple of people criticize me recently for insisting that Martha Coakley didn’t go far enough the other day, after this news making event:
In an unusual break with ally Senate President Therese Murray, Attorney General Martha Coakley on Monday told senators that leadership’s casino bill would “significantly limit law enforcement’s ability to protect the public” and urged them to strengthen the measure with House-backed language she had proposed last year. The bill headed to the floor Wednesday is too narrow, Coakley said, because language restricting prosecution to activities directly affecting gaming creates a loophole “that would allow many significant criminal players … to avoid prosecution and continue to threaten public safety.” In a letter delivered to senators Monday and obtained by the News Service, Coakley used the example of a prostitution ring in a town neighboring a casino. She said the ring’s leader could escape prosecution because the activity could be considered not directly affecting gaming. “The Senate gaming proposal limits the tools that law enforcement needs to get these bad actors off the streets so that legitimate business opportunities can flourish,” Coakley wrote. She asked senators to adopt the “enterprise crime amendment” filed by Sen. Steven Baddour.
–State House News
The fact is, it took a former AG to embarrass our current AG into finally, and even then only marginally, into doing her job. And yet, I was told me that I should be actually be happy about this – that this was a “big deal for Martha?” Their exact words.
So ok. When exactly did the bar slip so low in this State that we should all be referring to a sitting AG as if she’s a 4 year old who finally made boom-boom in the potty after 2 years of constant pleading and encouragement.
Martha Coakley should be against casino-related crime, dammit. Because it creates casino-related crime-victims, that’s why. We elected her to prevent crime victims, not to be another bureaucrat with a law degree.
But no. Instead, our AG “asked senators to adopt the ‘enterprise crime amendment’ filed by Sen. Steven Baddour” – which is hack speak for “I’m afraid that this is a bare-minimum requirement for me to save face over my otherwise ill-handling of this issue due to my close personal relationship with Therese Murray. I wish I didn’t have to inconvenience you with this, but as you can see, I’m getting a lot of heat, and frankly the whole things sort of reminds me of being forced to go shake hands with voters over at Fenway when I’d much rather be in my La-Z-Boy watching a movie on Lifetime.”
Not to be out done, Cedric Cromwell, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanag Tribe has also been inconvenienced. When he discovered that the Senate’s bill left out a provision for a Tribal casino, he railed,
“The poor Indian tribe is getting it stuck to us again.”
Yeah that blows. Now, instead
of being sovereign casino bazillionaires, Cromwell’s 1,500 member middle-class Cape Cod tribe will have to subsist on the paltry multi-million dollar scraps of tax-free federal aid the government throws their way every year.
But Cromwell won’t have long to suffer. If slots are legalized in MA, the tribe will go to congress (by the way, this would happen even if they won a commercial casino license) and say, “we are the tribe that met the Pilgrims and we can’t even get a casino! This is an outrage. We are a sovereign nation! We have our rights. If slots are legal in a state then tribes can have them on their land. Give us land so we can compete with fair economic advantage! Did we mention we’re the tribe the met the Pilgrims?!”
At some point there will be a Congress that will give them land, and the state will undoubtedly sign a compact, having sold it’s backbone for 3 destination resort casinos.
Alternatively, Congress will not give them the land. And so, this notoriously litigious Tribe will once again go to court – where they will win – because there is already ample precedent for victory for federally recognized tribes in states with casinos. Only Texas has kept tribes from establishing casinos – because it simply has not legalized slots and it refuses to be forced to sign a compact with it’s federally recognized tribe. Slot machines have actually been removed from tribal lands in Texas.
Having gone down this road, the Tribe won’t have to follow typical federal regulations involving land in trust or existing environmental guidelines, and their casino could potentially go anywhere – no doubt somewhere with excellent highway access and existing infrastructure – and preferably in Northhampton, next door to Stan Rosenberg so he can stare in rapture at it while sucking on his Kool-Aid hookah pipe.
The Aquinnah, not to be outdone will follow, using the Mashpee as a precedent. This process could go quickly, or it could take 20 years, but it will happen unless major changes in Federal Indian Law are made. The one sure thing you can count on is that Mass. Taxpayers will fund this and future litigation for decades to the tune of millions.
And it’s all because Bob DeLeo’s dad was a maitre d’ a Suffolk Downs restaurant. A proud dad – but apparently one who, unlike his son, doesn’t underestimate the dangers of gambling or overestimate it’s rewards.
Even though Al DeLeo loved the track, he recognized its dangers, to the point that he forbade his son from gambling. Robert DeLeo remembers one occasion when he bet on a horse, won, and bragged to his father.
“I was as proud as a peacock,” he said in a recent interview. “I said, ‘Hey, Dad, I won a race.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘You’re going to lose too many. I don’t want to hear it. Don’t even go there, pal.'”
As D day spins closer we’ll no doubt have to hear more from the loquacious Senator Pacheco (D – Raynham Dogtrack), who’ll try to convince us that the Track is the economic engine of the South Shore – which never fails to remind me how, even back in it’s heyday, twenty years ago, I couldn’t convince my co-workers to go there after work – and it was literally right around the corner. At the hearing it became obvious Sen. Pacheco was oblivious to the fact that UMass. Prof. Clyde Barrow had been exposed as an industry insider, putting his work on a pedestal again and again as better informed members of the audience rolled their eyes and twittered their amazement . For three years casino and slot opponents have barraged Sen. Pacheco with calls and letters, only to be swatted away like flies at a picnic.
And from what I understand, Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstien, former horse track employee, and my personal favorite source of unintentional comedy, has been slated to be on the conference committee which will hash the nitty gritty of any proposed legislation. Which is only natural, since her bold championship of the Fluffernutter as the State’s official sandwich, and recent comparison of gambling addiction to a Yankee Candles compulsion make her the obvious choice for a voice on legislation which will eventually hurt families, cost some people their lives and pave the way for new sovereign nations.
Did legislators really think 60 Minutes showed up at the public hearing to record their brilliance for posterity?
Therese Murray, the puppet master who’s orchestrated this play for the past three years, has refused to meet with casino opposition at all. Content to stroll the marble floors of the State House with her inner circle, she remains blissfully oblivious and hauntingly silent to their concerns. Ironically, I was living in Plymouth in 1992 when she first ran for Senate. Figuring a woman would better represent women and families in the legislature and I gave her my vote. How was I to predict that nearly 2 decades later, Murray would become a great champion of an industry that spawns bankruptcy, divorce, foreclosure, domestic abuse and child abuse and neglect wherever it goes. Ka-Ching!
And then there’s Deval. Yesterday, the Sun King demanded “a good, fair comprehensive and thoughtful gaming bill and I want it by the end of the sesssion” – no doubt so that he can jet off on vacation – probably to whack golf balls off the roof of the Dubai Hilton, or soak up some of the French Riviera. Or maybe off once again to his book publishers – like he did in 2008, leaving the rest of us to endure a 15 hour hearing on the very issue that he ignited.
To be sure, Deval will get his gambling bill in time, but the train for fair, comprehensive and thoughtful has already left the station.
Having been both a witness and a part of this circus for the past 3 years, I already know that it’s outcome is sure to be stranger than fiction, and have little to do with what’s good policy. My guess is that Deval will sign off on gambling legislation if, for no other reason, than he is doggedly determined, finally, to win this one – oddly oblivious to the fact that gambling industry earns it’s keep by making losers feel like winners.
At the moment, the legislature is writing yet another chapter in a black comedy that, when read at some later date, will leave people shaking their heads in disbelief with every turn of the page. What was the rush? Why didn’t they just commission an independent review… What were they afraid of… How did they get away with it? Why did so many just go along … Couldn’t they see how flawed the process was? And why did they keep congratulating themselves? How could they be so …out of touch?
The truest tragedies of history don’t get their start on the pages of a book, they happen in voting booths and under golden domes, at the hands of people who were convinced they were doing the right thing.
The people need jobs? Well then, “Let them eat slots!”
The House approved two casinos and up to 750 slots (by a 120 to 37 margin), the Senate wants three, and the Governor seems keen to sign what ever appears on his desk.
<
p>I heard from Charlie Baker’s mouth this morning that he supports a single resort casino and giving towns the authority to vote on whether they want it or not. I don’t want ANY casinos, but if this is the best I’m going to get PLEASE talk me out of voting for Charlie Baker. After all the early gaffs and policy disagreements, I’m seriously considering pulling the lever for the man if simply to stop the conveyor belt through the state house.
<
p>This is a shame and if I can’t punish the GC leadership, it may just be the governor then.
Gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein is not only anti-predatory gambling, she actually showed up the sole public hearing, sat in the rows with the rest of peasants, testified herself, and thanked people for their testimony as they left.
<
p>After three years of watching egos and agendas come before facts in this debate, I was astounded to discover there might be an actual person, not a member of the out-of-touch Beacon Hill aristocracy running for governor.
<
p>And as far as giving towns the authority to vote, having lived through the Middleboro debacle, let me tell ya’, that’s a good one. Lobbyists will descend on those towns and spend enough money to make sure the vote goes their way.
<
p>Gambling interests in Ohio spend so much money trying to buy a ballot initiative there that they couldn’t have rebuilt Haiti. And even then, they only won by 3 points.
AFTER I testified at that ridiculous hour!
<
p>For those who missed it –
<
p>The Senate Ways and Means Committee allowed Casino Proponents to speak endlessly – without time limits.
<
p>Come the casino opponents?
<
p>Three minutes or you get gaveled!
<
p>W&M actually allowed one group of proponents to speak for more than 20 minutes while the Committee peppered them with questions and exposed their ignorance. They allowed the casino developer to conduct his own PR, promote his company. blah, blah, blah.
<
p>Ways and Means carefully scripted the event so the Casino Shills appeared on Prime Time!
<
p>We have some Senators who are truly impressive, think independently, conduct their own research, continue to question and are willing the speak truth to the mob that is embracing this FOLLY based on the promise of Committee Chairmenships.
Where did you get that from? My recollection from when the House passed its bill was that the Governor was vocally non-plussed about standalone slots parlors or slots at the racetracks, and the possibility of a veto did not seem off the table.
The comment was certainly emotionally driven and went a little too far. However, if the best consolation is the governor’s opposition to race slots, I’m not sure that’s good enough.
The conduct of the Democratic power brokers in state government on the issue of casino gaming has left such a bad taste for me that I am disgusted and discouraged and disheartened to be a member of the party. I am a “bread and butter” Democrat and the party could count on me for a vote (at every election) even if I didn’t know the person. I see now that the ideals of my Democratic party, the ones I believe in and care about – like not taking advantage of the weakest and most vulnerable to pay the bills of the rich – are not the ideals of the elected Democratic leadership.
<
p>For all the pride I felt when gay marriage was legalized, now I feel shame. The futures of entire regions of the Commonwealth will be sold to the highest bidder. And the most vulnerable among us will pay the highest costs by footing that bill. The state will not recoup riches, but will have created huge new bureaucracies and an entire new division of state police, and the gas tax will still need to be raised to repair our failing infrastructure. The average guy will wonder WTF happened to that casino money anyway?
<
p>Shame.
<
p>
The last 3 years have been an epiphany into the Democratic party, and even the political process, for me. There was a time (a long time) when they could count on my vote too. Now I pay attention.
<
p>I’ve been intimately involved in this issue for 3 years. I feel like that guy who tried for 9 years to the tell the SEC that Bernie Madoff was cheating people out of billions. If they’d listened to him it would only have cost those people a total $10 B. Ignoring him, it ended up costing those people $65 B. Where’s their bailout?
<
p>But this legislature thinks it’s infallible. It’s not. Examples across this country abound, experts from our own fine colleges and universities have warned repeatedly of the dangers, there is an enormous dearth of understanding among anyone about Federal Indian law, and the grassroots and concerned local have been marginalized for a reason.
<
p>Gird your loins.
You keep following the path of those moonbats like Senators Eldridge, Chang-Diaz, Jehlen, Fargo, O’Leary, Creem, and Tucker and we’ll be having a Republican governor and veto-proof Republican Legislature in 2011.
<
p>I thought it was obvious enough that irrationals like Conley-Norbut and “Gladys Kravitz” that their inane prattle would eventually run its course on BMG, but this must be one of the last lonely outposts where there are still a few crazies who listen to their rants.
<
p>
“Proudlib” calling other people irrational and crazy…
<
p>That’s a keeper.
the late afternoon, it smells like….
<
p>conservatism.
Here’s a sample from proudlib’s 5 posts since the beginning of 2008….which are all on…..(do tell!)…….casinos! Two of the three are ad hominen attacks at Rep. Bosley and the rest are bona fide rants.
<
p>
<
p>Got a few, nope, make that several thousand, nope make that tens of thousands of errors there Mr. Kool Aid.
Your syntax is familiar. Your attack rhetoric surely identifiable from the comments posted in response to on-line articles.
<
p>20,000 – 30,000 jobs? Dontcha luv it?
<
p>Sands Bethlehem promised 2,000 jobs. Provided 780 and they’re laying off.
<
p>Guess why? No one’s going to casinos because they’re not working!
<
p>Sands Bethlehem is building a 300 room motel. The construction will employ 350 workers, not thousands.
<
p>If Republicans in Congress had approved the unemployment extension, unemployed workers would have $$$ to spend at casinos. Pity!
But the Senate bill requires applicants for a casino license to make binding promises about the number of jobs they’ll create, and about what they’ll do to mitigate social costs.
<
p>If that provision passes, and we don’t have the jobs promised, blame will rest solely on the regulatory agencies for their incompetence, not on the legislature.
Beacon Hill’s refusal to support and conduct a Cost/Benefit Analysis defines their role.
<
p>This is a net loser that will cost taxpayer more than it nets because Beacon Hill has been drinking too much KoolAid.
<
p>The job creation and revenues have been consistently overstated.
<
p>The public hearings were a sham.
as Gladys correctly points out, for more than 3 years.
<
p>Don’t pass along the responsibility to others and don’t allow the legislature and the Governor to escape from their failure to conduct their due diligence.
<
p>What are those regulatory agencies going to cost us? Beacon Hill can’t even tell you.
<
p>When DeLeo’s office was asked, the best they could do was toss out $5 million. Guess again!
<
p>The Racing Commission costs almost that and they’re not regulating a 24/7/365 operation.
<
p>From watching what has happened elsewhere, prime example – Sands Bethlehem – owned by Sheldon Adelson, hometown sweetheart, beyond the promises of slot parlors, they’ll return for a bailout because the revenues aren’t there.
<
p>Too bad so many on Beacon Hill just enjoy having their egoes stroked and ignore the experience of other locations.
<
p>They’re incapable of critical thinking and pretty tone deaf to the public.
There’s a distinct hint of anti-Native American racism in your post. You’re basically calling the Mashpee Wampanoags welfare bums with Karl Rove-like political skills.
<
p>You may have simply failed to recognize the racist undertones there in your quest to make ad hominem attacks against everyone involved in the process. I think some sanity is called for before you post on this issue.
<
p>And as far as independent studies go, fberman, an opponent of casinos, posted some numbers recently that debunk casino opponents’ own claims. When even your side’s numbers support proponents, that’s a loser.
<
p>There are legitimate arguments to be made against casinos. It’s too bad you’re too busy with the BS ones.
Sorry, you’re 3 years too late.
<
p>Back in 2007, that’s what Glenn Marshall and his supporters called anyone in the Middleboro region who was opposed to a casino. It had the desired effect that many people were afraid to oppose said casino. I decided to look closer.
<
p>For three years I’ve tried to find the truth behind all the hype about the so-called inevitable tribal casino in Middleboro. I found out that most of it was just that – hype. I’ve blogged exclusively on casinos, slots and tribal gaming for three years, and have made every effort to understand all aspects of it.
<
p>Middleboro town leadership refused to look closely at Marshall, their new business partner, even after a tribal elder attempted to warn them, and a month after signing an multi-million dollar intergovernmental agreement with the tribe, Marshall was accused, and later convicted, of fraud. It does not make you a racist or a Karl Rove wannabe to question or criticize the motives of governmental leadership – whether that leadership resides in Mashpee or works on Beacon Hill.
<
p>And for the record, the Mashpee and other Federally recognized Indian tribes do receive millions upon millions in tax free Federal aid every year. Some tribes need it. Some have been confined for decades to stretches of land incompatible with agriculture and other means to become self-sufficient. That is where the out-growth of gambling as alternative economic development came from.
<
p>The Mashpee are not such a tribe. Furthermore, in 2009 the Supreme Court, in Carcieri v. Salazar ruled that the Indian Reorganization Act, and hence the Indian Gaming Act does not apply tribes recognized after 1934. Several sequential supreme court acts confirmed this.
<
p>An upheaval in the late 80’s (I would recommend reading “Without Reservation” by Jeff Benedict) transformed Indian gaming. It became a relative free-for all in which tribes could claim and annex land, private and commercial properties, even property hundreds of miles from their reservation, and game on it. These properties become Federal land and exempt from state and local taxes, and regulation – including state environmental regulations.
<
p>Tribal gaming triggered a domino effect with states trying their own hand at casino gambling. Sound familiar? Since that time, there has been a growing national protest – of which most people in MA are unaware – simply because they haven’t been fortunate (insert sarcasm) to have their community targeted for a casino. I suspect most of them were called racist at one point as well. But as a result, recently enacted regulations have made the phenomenon of reservation shopping more difficult.
<
p>The subjects of Indian sovereignty, the federal recognition process and tribal gaming are incredibly complex and beyond the scope of this post.
<
p>You may have simply failed to recognize the ignorant undertones apparent in your desire to label people you don’t know as racist. Perhaps some education is called for before you use such hot-button terminology in your comments again.
<
p>And as far as independent studies go, proponents frequently post numbers that contradict their own numbers, but that doesn’t keep them from wishful thinking.
<
p>And yes, you’re correct, there are legitimate arguments to be made against casinos and we’ve made all of them here.
I never said your opposition to casinos made you racist. Your comments about the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe are what’s racist.
<
p>I’m aware of what went on in Middleboro and the Selectmen involved were idiots. I don’t dispute that.
<
p>But you’re turning this into an us vs. them thing instead of sticking to the issues. You’re losing me fast. I emailed my State Rep in opposition to the House casino bill. But I think I’m going to ask my Senator to support the Senate bill, because the slimy tactics your side is using has taken away the credibility you previously had that the casino supporters didn’t. And because you’ve completely failed to address my comment to MiddleboroReview above, which really goes to the heart of the issue. The Senate bill makes casino owners accountable for their promises.
believe?
<
p>What are the consequences for failure to fulfill those promises? Pull their license? Penalties and fines?
<
p>They’re simply not there.
<
p>I’ve gone through the House version, the original Senate version and the Amendments. I’ve sat through the clearly one-sided Senate ‘debates’ that intended to cater to the Industry. I’ve listened to lobbyists in the Halls loudly approve which amendments get passed.
<
p>If I have missed the provisions you indicate, please provide the numbers and the text because I haven’t found them.
<
p>Casino investors, licensees, will simply do as they have done around the country when jobs and revenues fail to materialize.
<
p>They’ll whine. They’ll blame it on the economy. They’ll demand more slots. They’ll blame it on the Smoking Ban.
<
p>But they know NOW that those jobs and the revenues promised will NOT materialize because there are glaring flaws in the studies that were paid for with tax dollars, but conducted by Gambling Industry companies.
<
p>They’ll do just as Sands Bethlehem has done — NOTHING.
<
p>http://middlebororemembers.blo…
<
p>And when Beacon Hill prepares a budget based on those flawed figures, they’ll have to increase the number of venues to cover the shortfall, in a never-ending downward spiral.
<
p>One need only consider the experience of other states to see the future.
<
p>I am a firm believer that Atlantic City is the poster child for all that’s wrong with casino gambling by any name – high crime, poor schools, increased poverty, high unemployment and so on.
<
p>http://middlebororemembers.blo…
<
p>If your opposition to Slots and Slot Parlors is dissuaded by posts from a simple voter such as myself, then your opposition wasn’t based on facts and evidence and must have been pretty superficial.
<
p>If you are willing to support an Enterprise that puts at risk 308,580 Massachusetts Adults and Families because of an offense, is that justified? (Based on the Gambling Industry’s estimate that ONLY 6% become problem gamblers.)
<
p>Some unknown portion of that 308,580 Adults and Families will commit suicide because Gambling Addicts have been shown to have a high incidence of suicide.
<
p>Toyota recalled 8 MILLION vehicles because 89 people were killed. How can you do otherwise than to oppose an Industry based on Addiction?
I’m not against the Mashpee Wampanoags. I’m against actions and non-actions taken by their tribal leadership. There’s a big difference. I’m not against every pro-casino person in Massachusetts just because I am opposed to the actions of certain pro-casino leaders.
<
p>In fact, there is a great deal of antipathy toward the leadership even within the tribe – among those who both support and oppose casinos.
<
p>
<
p>So, how do you know what went on in Middleboro? Are you from or around there? Because if not, the media didn’t do it justice.
<
p>BTW I’m sorry about not responding to your comment to MiddleboroReview, but I was hosting a birthday party for one of my children and didn’t get to the computer for the rest of the day. Seems like MR has done it herself since then.
<
p>As for slimy tactics on my side – spare me.
<
p>I’ve received a death threat over this issue from an ex-con in a nearby town who thinks casinos will make all his dreams come true. Myself and several others were targeted by a then-sitting pro-casino selectman who started a letter writing campaign to discredit our businesses, and by a pro-casino committee chairman who wrote that he was planning on taking liens against our homes. My face was photoshopped into a number of sexual photographs which were posted on the web. A pro-casino person took out a web site in my real name and used it to post nefarious things about me. This person called me a liar in front of a gym full of people at the Middleboro hearing of the Bureau of Indian Affairs because I had reprinted published and widely-quoted casino-related crime statistics on my blog. We’ve been called racists, and were, for over a year, constantly flamed on forums and comment sections of on-line newspapers. They’ve used our children’s names on several occasions in these forums. I could easily have flamed or photoshopped these people back, but I didn’t. My “slimy tactics” involved focusing only on policy makers and major players – including those in the Mashpee.
<
p>If you wrote to your senator in opposition, thank you. You did the right thing. If you are thinking of changing your mind because of what I’ve written – consider this – the Mashpee are a federally recognized sovereign nation, and their leadership is subject to scrutiny and criticism like any other. To do otherwise would be paternalistic, and against the autonomy and respect they have tried to achieve through recognition.
The first public meeting in Middleboro, conducted at the Nicols Middle School that allowed public comments included Glenn Marshall ‘answering questions.’
<
p>The first set of casino investors paid handsomely to have ‘handlers’ coach Marshal in ways to avoid answering those questions, as well as create the illusion of great patriotism and service to his country that he ’embellished.’
<
p>It is my recollection that a local mental health counselor rose and asked him about “Gambling Addiction.”
<
p>In response to that question, Glenn Marshall launched into a carefully scripted attack rant accusing this woman of racism.
<
p>The rant was so successful and horrifying that few remember the question – casino money well spent!
<
p>And now you’re thinking that I’m making an unfair and unjustified accusation about the convicted felon, right?
<
p>At a friend’s invitation, I attended a Chamber of Commerce breakfast that was intended to be a Love Fest of local business leaders, my friend being one of them.
<
p>This time, the presentation had become more sophisticated and included a poorly prepared video presentation.
<
p>An attractive young woman, rather tiny in stature, rose after the presentation to ask the question of the impacts of a casino on her fledgling business.
<
p>Now I was prepared because I had heard the venomous rant that was VERBATIM what Glenn Marshall had flamed previously.
<
p>Neither questioner was hostile, but simply asking a question.
<
p>On another occasion, a PAID OUT OF TOWN CASINO SHILL walked into a Town Hall public meeting where the overflow had collected in the Hall.
<
p>He called the casino proponents “INDIAN LOVERS” and provoked the desired response – Middleboro casino proponents blamed the local opposition and it flamed in the local newspaper.
<
p>How do I know the man was an out of towner?
<
p>The dope stood in the Town Hall parking lot and asked if the building was the Town Hall because he was too dumb to look it up on line.
<
p>No one recognized the man and he has never been seen in town since.
<
p>Poor Cedric lacks the well paid “handlers” which explains why he is so poorly scripted and his PR is lacking.
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p>Another out of town casino shill engaged me in conversation, pretending to be a local opponent. When I asked where he lived, he offered “at the corner of such and such” – two streets that don’t intersect!
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p>The Rotary was flooded nightly with PAID out of town sign wavers who appeared on the 6 O’clock news, creating the impression of widespread support.
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p>The town was flooded with PAID out of towners collecting signatures at the supermarkets and post office. I know. I asked them.
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p>I attended one public meeting, held in the High School and watched tour buses disgorge passengers in identical casino tshirts, creating the illusion of massive local support.
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p>Local union members were informed that if they opposed the casino, they would never work for the union again.
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p>There is far, far more of what transpired in Middleboro than either Gladys or myself have presented. You simply can’t imagine!
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p>This isn’t about Native Americans.
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p>This is about wealthy casino investors who use IGRA to avoid taxes and local costs and impacts to further enrich themselves, just as the Malaysian investors are supporting a casino in Fall River.
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p>
in Great Barrington.
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p>As such, you are aware of the impacts of the state lottery on funding cities and towns.
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p>Massachusetts has the most successful lottery in the country, with extremely high per capita purchases.
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p>The Spectrum Gaming Report, prepared for Governor Patrick determined that the lottery would lose $144 MILLION in revenue and that the lottery should be held harmless by casino investors. (That’s not my figure!)
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p>Doing some quick math, Innovation recently projected that of the $1 billion everyone is concerned is flooding across the state border, only about 50% would be re-captured.
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p>Here’s the simple arithmetic that I posted elsewhere —
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p>SIMPLE MATH is not so simple on Beacon Hill!
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p>God Bless Senator Tucker for offering a simple math lesson today!
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p>Casino Shills, after counting Massachusetts license plates, have determined that CT Casinos get
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p>$1 BILLION FROM MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS
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p>Of that, at 25% tax, Massachusetts MIGHT collect
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p>$250 MILLION
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p>if Massachusetts ‘re-captured’ 100% of that expenditure.
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p>BUT – Innovation projects that Massachusetts will only ‘re-capture’ about
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p>50%
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p>or
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p>$125 MILLION
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p>Spectrum Gaming projected that the Massahcusetts Lottery would lose
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p>$144 MILLION
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p>with legalized casino gambling.
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p>Then there’s that Pesky MASSIVE STATE REGULATORY BUREAUCRACY that Senator Rosenberg doesn’t want to put a number on – Is it $20 MILLION? $50 MILLION?
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p>Sounds like a loser however you add and subtract.
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p>Senator Tucker, A special thanks for doing the complicated math the rest of your colleagues can’t do!
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p>http://middlebororemembers.blo…
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p>This legislation is being crammed through so you won’t have time to consider how severely this will impact ALL communities in the Commonwealth that have to pick up the tab for wealthy investors who depend on Gambling Addiction for their existence.
…when the feds are bailing out one in Connecticut? Why do we think our elected have no interest in We The People?
week, surrounded by expensive SUITS that cost more than my entire wardrobe, who loudly grant their permission to certain amendments in the Halls, you would have no doubts.
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p>That this Great Commonwealth would even seriously consider this flawed legislation defines how corrupt the process has become.
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p>Senator Rosenberg was quoted as saying the first license wouldn’t be granted for 18-19 months. Why rush?
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p>There are so many flaws in the legislation – House version, Senate version and Senate amendments, someone should have the sense to apply the brakes and insist that the process be given more time, instead of this slap-dash rush.
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p>Those flaws are being wisely pointed out by casino opponents in the Senate who have the facts, figures and research that prove the legalization of slots is a loser. And by former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger:
http://www.tauntongazette.com/…
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p>Not one single person can tell you what that REGULATORY BUREAUCRACY will cost – but rest assured, Beacon Hill will make this an expensive disaster!
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p>And the Republicans? Grandstanding to use the money for tax reduction? What a HOAX! If they had any political sense, they’d join those of us who have been calling for a COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS – with special emphasis on the COST part of the equation. If you don’t see BIG GOVERNMENT and political hacks writ large, you haven’t read the proposals.
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p>If you want to know where Democracy went in the Commonwealth, maybe you should ask Senate President “Cha Ching” Murray and House Speaker “Racino” DeLeo because it excluded the people.
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p>This includes the Foxwoods bailout:
http://www.stoppredatorygambli…
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p>Watching this process convinces me that we have lost our Democracy when Beacon Hill won’t listen.