Deval's plan is thus far my favorite way to go if we allow casinos. I especially like that it gives the tracks no special treatment and opens up competitive bidding.
But I'm against it. And I like to gamble.
Deval thought this through academically. He used empirical evidence and sought advice and information from highly educated aides and experts.
He however, has never spent any significant time at Suffolk Downs, Wonderland Dog Track, state lottery lines in middle class and poorer neighborhoods, Foxwoods, Las Vegas, Bingos, barrooms and social clubs where gambling, (including some with video machines) is a major form of entertainment. He does not see over and over again the obvious negative side-effects on people and neighborhoods that are already hurting the most.
Sal Di Masi, I bet, has done and seen each of these a bazillion times. I bet Deval has never experienced most on the list more than once. This is why Sal is Right. And what Frost was thinking when he advised JFK to, “Be more Boston than Harvard”. In Deval's case more Chicago or Cabrini Housing.
Unfortunately, I don't think Deval had the opportunities Sal had. Perhaps the eastern elite educational whirlwind ending with a degree from an Ivy League law school got in the way of his education. Maybe Deval did not take advantage of the opportunities he had?
Sal's education and experience tells him this is a net loss for the state. Deval's education and experience tells him it's a net gain.
I trust Sal on this one. And I don't see him changing his mind. Especially now, when the issue is set-up for Deval to receive all the credit.
I say it is dead and Deval does not bring it back until after Sal is no longer speaker.
(Did John Rogers and What's His Name Mariano's ears just perk up?)
I'm not a fan of gambling (apart from the random lottery ticket). I've been to lots of places with casinos and they don't appeal to me at all. I also have no plans to patronize any casino in Mass. I do agree with EBIII that Deval's plan is a good one, to the extent that we have to have casinos. And the reliance on revenues from the Lottery gives Mass. politicians little moral high ground to stand on in opposing further gambling in the state.
I'm hearing that the arrival of casinos is inevitable, given the plans of the Mashpee Wampanoags under federal law. If that's the case, and I don't know that it is, then it makes a lot of sense for the state to get ahead of the oncoming avalanche, to create the best plan possible for all of us here. Deval's plan serves the economic development needs of Western Mass (hopefully someone near Springfield or Holyoke will bid), and is a stick in the eye (but a really valuable one) to Suffolk Downs, who will now need to put together a bid to have a chance of survival in a market with a casino. It brings some immediate revenue to the state, and creates a transparent process for awarding the rights. So, assuming we have to deal with casinos at all, and I fear we do, Deval's plan makes a lot of sense and is consistent with his larger philosophy of governing. I also think it's no coincidence that the casino proposal comes on the same weekend as the transportation tax proposals. We do need to maintain roads and bridges and the money needs to come from somewhere.
The question I keep coming up against (apart from the gambling issue) is the market saturation issue. If you look at casinos as just a business, at what point does the market become saturated? I keep thinking we must be there, but I've been wrong so far. I can't believe we can just keeping building these things and that people keep coming. Yikes.
Oddly, this reminds me a little of the problem of cell phone towers. By federal law, we have to have them. The lattitude is where to put them and who should profit from them. Some towns gave preference to siting on public property to the extent possible, making sure that if we all had to look at those ugly suckers, we all got the benefit of the revenue. Maybe the casino problem is just another application of this principle.
No ambleing at all. Including Indians. Unless legislature gives ok. It is not a question of when.
while hard to imagine him at, say, wonderland….i read during the campaign that deval likes the slots, been to foxwoods a number of times with the missus.
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question on sal is — how does he play the pats this weekend? take the points?
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it was with his mom, not his wife, that he went to Foxwoods. She enjoyed the slots is how I remember the story, and Deval went along sometimes.
is going to prove himself to be a larger mistake to Mass as Bush was to the world.
When I picked 'not-so-nice girls', I thought I'd be aone – and it's the top vote getter! Seems a lot of people remember Sal in his Salad Days – STRICTLY before he was married, of course!