No time to write up a full post this morning, so here are some links to get you started on the topic of the day. In case you missed it, Speaker DeLeo proposed two resort casinos and four racinos or slot parlors in his Chamber of Commerce speech yesterday.
More:
DeLeo is all in.
McGrory is worried.
Jonas is cautious.
Leading casino opponent Senator Susan Tucker is not seeking reelection.
Please share widely!
And see how that goes. It’s better than sending all of our tax revenue and jobs at Connecticut, as is the present case. If it is a wipeout, then it will just be one wipeout. If it is a big success, we can consider a second one.
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p>I can’t see any value at all in racinos or slot parlors: marginal revenues, few jobs, and failing business model in other nearby states.
Don’t believe me? Check out all the bailouts and pleas for the gambling facilities we have now. Every time we turn around the dog and horse tracks want longer hours, slots, bingo, bailouts, or some other revision to hang on.
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p>If the casino is a financial failure, we’ll get stuck bailing it out or have to deal with a giant crater of suck in some community, complete with sprawl, vacancies, huge tracts of pavement, unemployment, and the like. If the casino treads water but posits significant detrimental externalities on the local community or the state as a whole, now we’re really stuck because we’re subsidizing a business with a net negative impact on society.
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p>P.S. This idea that the money stays in the state is a half truth. Where do you think the profits go? Hint: they’re distributed to shareholders the world over. Unlike some ice cream shops, movie theaters, bowling alleys, performance theaters and concert halls, restaurants, and the like, there are no Mom & Pop casinos.
The old bowling alley in Ball Square in Somerville seems like a good candidate. Add a few slot machines, a couple poker tables, get them a liquor license and you’ll be set!
are sold by states for tens of millions of dollars every ten years, because they get to be state-sanctioned, state-mandated monopolies… though I’m pretty sure Speaker DeLeo just wants to give them away for free, because that’s what giving 3-4 automatically to the tracks (who would have no competition to bid for them) would effectively mean, and no casino is going to pay top dollar for a licensing fee when we simultaneously allow 4 slot parlors for them to compete with. So, ah, yeah…. understanding policy is not DeLeo’s strong suit… his strong-suit is clearly helping his district’s well-oiled interests. If ever there was a case of a Speaker of the entire state pushing his own district bill… this is it.
because they’re crappy policy. Can you at least sign on to the idea of having a comprehensive, independent cost/benefit analysis of this before we get into this big, irreversible ‘experiment’ you want to try out to “see how that goes.” We’ve yet to have anything truly comprehensive done for Massachusetts, and we haven’t had anything done that reflects this new economy and the increasing saturation of the market (especially given the fact that RI & NH will follow suit if we build them).
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p>Connecticut’s core business model does not come from players in Massachusetts. 2/3rds of the profits from even the giant casinos (like the ones in Connecticut) come from a small group of slot players within 50 miles. Some of the dingier, crappier casinos and slot parlors, like the ones we’re likely to get in Massachusetts in this economy, make upwards of 90% of their profits off the back of 10% of the players (really addicts at that point).
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p>Yeah, a few people skip the border and play the slots casually from Massachusetts at Foxwoods and Mohegun Sun, but compared to their total income, it’s small fry — and little of it stays in Connecticut anyway, the bulk going to national and international investors and, in the case of these two tribal casinos, the few in their tribe. Putting the casino in Massachusetts would be putting a casino that’s targeting slot players from 50 mile radius’s of our casinos — and make no mistake, the 2 casinos and 4 slot parlors would encompass the entire state. So, it’s not stealing back the Connecticut money so much as it’s grabbing the cash now going to local small businesses in Massachusetts, and creating all the problems that go with it.
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p>And so you can understand why casinos can make extremely successful business models off the backs of about 5% of their players, the vast majority of which come from within 50 miles, please take a look at this 2 minute video from Dr. Hans Brieter of Harvard. Here’s another 3-minute bonus video I hope you’ll also check out, from Natasha Schull of MIT. The former talks about how slots can impact the brain, while the latter talks about how these ‘innocent’ forms of gambling are actually geared toward making people playing longer, faster and with more money in each hand, playing “to extinction” (the industry’s term). When you take these people out of the economy, there’s a huge impact on every other facet of the local economy, especially when most small, local businesses have a modest profit margin of a few, often singular, percentage points. If a restaurant in Salem or Marblehead clears their expenses by 3-5% after the end of the year, which probably accounts for dozens in those two towns alone (doubly so in this economy), that business is going out of business if the casino comes to town in Revere.
My understanding from a while back was that once a single casino is opened, it’s fair game for any (or all) of the native American tribes to then do the same thing, regardless of what the state wants. Could someone who knows better spell out the details?
Carcieri v Salazar and the Hawaii decision prevent the BIA from taking land into trust.
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p>Should Congress amend the Carcieri decision, there is a potential for Tribal Casinos in Massachusetts, if the Commonwealth legalizes slots.
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p>Massachusetts currently has 2 recognized Tribes: the Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoags; and 6 others that have applied for recognition. That could potentially mean 8 Tribal Casinos if slots are legalized.
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p>Same as casinos, Bob. Adding more casinos in Massachusetts only spreads the money thinner in an industry that is already flailing.
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p>The only way to save the casinos is to encourage people to quit spending their money on homes, cars, education, and new business and instead funnel it into casinos.
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p>How can this possibly help our economy?
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p>Why test it here in Massachusetts, when we see it failing in other states?
or to the economic health of the state. I think two resort casinos would be OK, but if they wanted to start with one that would be OK too. I would happily take my once every five years casino trip to the one in Massachusetts instead of traveling to CT.
If there’s any casinos, DeLeo will make sure there’s slots at his race tracks. Slot parlors are even worse than casinos.
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p>At the very, very least, we need the cost/benefit analysis first, especially in this economy, and especially with a proposal for 6 major locations for the most addictive form of gambling and the one with the worst impact on entire regions, slots.
Grace Ross understands slots and casinos are just another regressive tax on Massachusetts citizens, that will hurt our communities and delay economic recovery. Grace has been a long time opponent of slots and supports an independent fiscal analysis before a vote is taken.
For a while he was the point-person on the anti-casino side of Beacon Hill, but he has lost his influence and his chairmanship due to the Speaker-go-round. Also, the scuttle-butt as to why he walked away from Gov. Patrick’s offer to become the Head of MA’s Economic Development dept is that he clashed with the unions who support casinos.
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p>Casinos, like the lottery, are nothing more than a hidden tax on the people who can least afford it.
The above comment does have merit. You may not like it but that does not make it worthless.
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p>Tell us why unions are endorsing expanded addiction, negative impacts on municipal budgets (union workers), negative impacts on judiciary and law enforcement (mostly union)….when there isn’t enough revenue to mitigate the impacts? Tell us why unions are the biggest cheerleaders for these proposals to license corporate monopolies that suck the life out of local economies and small businesses?
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p>Two years of construction jobs…then what? What will unions do when there is a further contracted economy and the political power as well as the wealth is concentrated with the corporations?
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p>What happened to the principles of the labor movement which is what wed unions and democrats? Union leadership has lost it’s vision and mission. If you’re just about jobs and wages then it is time to form your own party.
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p>The gambling industry is not your friend. Unions and blue-collar workers are being played with Bob DeLeo dealing for the House.
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p>Bad public policy, bad fiscal policy.
Okay, so I know the “Recluse” is apoplectic over people having a different opinion than his when it comes to casinos, racinos, whatever…
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p>But I’m surprised there are other clueless dolts on this thread making sweeping statements that don’t present any empirical evidence other than their own personal religious, moral and ethical beliefs.
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p>Sorry folks, but if that’s how you view public policy, perhaps you’d be better off in Iran where that theocracy sounds perilously similar to most of your inane rants.
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p>I still wonder who among you has any tangible public policy initiative that will be emraced by the Legislature and the governor this session, one that will be enacted and create thousands of construction and permanent jobs, hundreds of millions in new tax revenues, and increase our tourism and hospitality sector growth?
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p>No, don’t give me the “we ought to invest in …,” blather; that means absolutely nothing. Because that’s all I ever see on this website when it comes to casinos and racinos — mindless rhetoric that isn’t based on reality. Yeah, we ought to create thousands of high tech and clean jobs, and we ought to do this, and that, and the other thing. But I don’t see any of these “anti-gambling zealots” in the Legislature doing anything along those lines.
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p>So we’ll continue with this endless rhetoric from the “know-nothings,” and the governor will continue to play to a politically-correct “base,” and eventually that strategy will drive more and more moderate Dems and Indpendents to either Baker or Cahill in November.
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p>Boy, do you pople drink the kool-aid or what? You’re just like Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson’s supporters: we know what we know, don;t confuse us with the facts, and if we have to destroy our party to “rescue” it, so be it.
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p>You’re doing a heck of a job!!!
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are the claims of jobs and increased state revenue by the casino developers. How does any thinking person buy the unsupported claims of the self interested, who are opposing an independent financial analysis.
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p>Just look around at other states that have allowed slots and casinos. What happened to all the promises of jobs and revenue?
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p>And by the way Deval won the election in a landslide by campaigning from a far left base.
Deval’s approval rating fell to the basement when he decided to govern from the corporate right.
loudlib, you’re not going to convince any thinking person that you’re correct by insulting those you disagree with. If all you see here is “mindless rhetoric that isn’t based on reality,” you aren’t seeing very much of what is here.
The Loud Lib, who has posted nothing other than pro-predatory gambling rants attacks!
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p>Wow! I’m stifling the laughter as I write! 🙂
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p>Too, too much!
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p>Those dastardly opponents have restricted themselves to those godawful reports and statistics that enlighten about the effects of predatory gambling.
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p>They just keep reporting the experiences of communities that already endure: increased crime, increased bankruptcies, increased child abuse and abandonment, increased domesstic violence, increased embezzlement, increased public safety costs, increased costs for investigation, prosecution, court costs, increased incarceration costs….OMG! The list of costs is endless!
The community degradation something no one wants, the school performance is pathetic.
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p>Loud Lib, please find a community, any community, that has prospered as a consequence of predatory gambling. I’ve been looking for 3 years and haven’t found one.
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p>If casinos paved the streets with gold, what happened to Atlantic City? What happened to Las Vegas that has the highest rate of uninsured children, low reading scores, the lowest rate of college grads per capita, the highesst dropout rate…and then some? What happened to Niagara, NY?
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p>What I see is that billionaires become gazillionaires from my tax dollars. Communities are destroyed.
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p>Russia outlawed casino gambling because of crime and community degradation. Guyana and Singapore impose heavy fines on casinos for allowing “natives” to participate.
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p>Do we have less sense? This isn’t sensible public policy.
didn’t work before and won’t work now.
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p>Let’s move on and work to support sustainable job development that creates jobs with a future, that provide for advancement, jobs we can be proud of.
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p>Maybe it’s time to address the underlying causes.
I was attending a gymnastics meet at Twin River Casino, which is actually a huge slot parlor, very fancy. The Providence Journal had this article the same day, which makes it look like the place is not doing well.