Let’s bring Governor Patrick’s, Speaker DeLeo’s and Senate President Murray’s predatory gambling bill out from behind the closed-doors of the “power brokers” on Beacon Hill, where a horrific precedent has been staged, out into the light of day. Let’s strip the bill down like a Cosmo centerfold and see what we find, shall we?
Let’s start with……so many choices……ah, what to reveal…..how about just ripping off the top layer and go with, fraud!
1. Fraud:
- legislative refusal to conduct independent analysis or cost-benefit analysis
- legislators and their relatives are not prohibited from entering the revolving door of Beacon Hill, lobbyists, gambling industry payroll and gaming commission bureaucracy with pensions for life
2. Methodology:
- the gambling bill assumes that in addition to recapturing $600 million from out-of-state casino gambling, Massachusetts residents (and a few neighbors to the north) will wager, waste and lose 1 BILLION dollars or more per year in new losses
- false and inflated revenue projections (aka fraudulent) means false promises for law enforcement, municipal impacts, infrastructure, social problem mitigation
- inaccurate and intentionally ignored costs will be subsidized by taxpayers
- mitigation of costs and impacts to region including hits to existing businesses, restaurants, community entertainment venues are to be analyzed by…..you are so smart, yes!
THE LICENSEES (lucky page 38 of 155)!
3. Special Interests
- Suffolks Downs is tattooed into the legislation with a provision for only a ward vote in cities with populations over 125,000, thereby eliminating competition and opposition to the Speaker’s comrades and financial supporters.
- Governor Patrick gets a $5million dollar advance to create a “compact” with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, eliminating competition for the second casino, while opening the door to future tribal casinos beyond the scripted, “big 3”
(BTW, I am pretty confident that anyone of us here at BMG could do a little research, copy & paste a “compact” and send a couple of kids through college, retire and return $4million to the general fund)
- horse racing industry gets special provisions for “Horse Racing Development Fund”, section 60
- slot barn, aka racino, gets privileged “interim licensing”
4. Cluster Factor
- multiple government agencies involved with unclear delineation of separation of powers and no budget numbers to support their (dys)functions
5. Miscellaneous
- complimentary alcoholic beverages
- open 23:59hours/day, 7 days per week
- undercuts all existing regional entertainment venues through statutory monopoly
- econ. development and emerging technology committee passed this piece of shit legislation without discussion today
Peter Porcupine says
Do you know what it was?
(Only you and I seem to care)
Christopher says
There are plenty of people on BMG who care about casino legislation.
HeartlandDem says
Of the Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee that has been the committee to vet gambling bills, stated upon abstaining to vote for/against the bill, that she would be considering submitting amendments to provide protections for host regions that are currently lacking in the legislation.
It is likely that many amendments will be offered as there are winners and losers with the way that this special interest gambling carve-out is crafted for Suffolk Downs, Wampanoags and the horse racing industry….leaving other would be “players” in the lurch with the taxpayers and increased problem gamblers.
hesterprynne says
of the new bill agreed upon by the Big Three for the dozen or so gambling bills originally referred to the Committee.
cooks213 says
hey what does this mean in misc:
undercuts all existing regional entertainment venues through statutory monopoly
what kind of entertainment venues, like could the house of blues in boston be threatened to losing artists or would it affect bigger venues or am i completely not understanding at all what this means?
Ryan says
http://www.ryanstake.net/2010/03/what-casinos-do-to-local-businesses.html
I would add that any restaurant, bar, pub or local place of entertainment stands to lose if a casino comes. Those within 50 miles may face layoffs, those within 25 miles may face closure. Atlantic City went from having over 220 restaurants, bars, pubs, etc. before casinos, to having less than 60 today. Detroit, before the recession hit, lost 20% of their local businesses after casinos came in (they’ve got three). Casinos do a number to local businesses and establishments, this is and always will be true.
SomervilleTom says
I am appalled by this action.
This has all the appearances of a payback. The entire thing, top to bottom, reeks of the worst kind of old-school Massachusetts Machine politics. The result is TERRIBLE public policy. I’m sure it’s all perfectly legal, and nevertheless emits the stench of payoffs, cronyism, and back-scratching — all at the expense of the rest of us.
It makes me ashamed to be a Democrat.
stoppredatorygambling says
State lotteries and casinos are both part of government’s failed policy of predatory gambling. Here are just a few of the facts why today’s state lotteries join casinos in using the most predatory business practices in America:
1) Lotteries collect 80 percent of its profits from the financial losses of 10 percent of its users
2) State governments pay millions to probe the thoughts and habits of potential lottery players, analyzing what they buy at convenience stores, whether they rent videos, go to theme parks, even how they feel about owning things and belonging to a group. The results show the lottery relies on the poorest and least educated.
3) The games are designed to override people’s common sense, especially people who don’t believe they have control over their lives. According to Anthony Miyazaki of Florida International University in Miami who has spent more than a decade researching lottery players: “If you feel control is on the outside, then you’re more likely to trust your life to fate or something else.”
4) Lotteries seek to “reach people who have never played,” by proposing to sell tickets in more places, including online, in restaurants and in Walmart, and offering more intense games.
5) Lotteries are exempt from truth-in-advertising laws.
Why doesn’t the government get out of the predatory gambling business of casinos and lotteries? Because it’s easier to get the poor to fork over money for declining services than to involve the affluent in creating great services for their tax dollars.
Les Bernal
Christopher says
…because slots have the addictive/adreniline rush quality that simply can’t be matched with ticket sales. Of course, I never liked the term anyway because it implies at least to me that people are being forced to gamble. I’ve said all along that we need to educate and regulate rather than ban. Plus I like that the lottery at least goes to cities and towns rather than a private business like casino revenues would. Your points two and four basically sound like you object to the state doing market research like any entity seeking to make money would do. Somehow I react to point three differently. Unfortunately my experience suggests that I don’t have control over my own fate the way I think I should, but that means that about the last thing I’ll do is blow money on what overwhelming odds suggest is quite a fantasy.
Bob Neer says
For your explanation. As a follow-up: what do you think provides the strongest basis in your experience for people opposed to legalized gambling: personal experience with the destructive aspects of gambling, social policy goals, religious teachings, or some other consideration, or a combination of the above. And, on the flip side, what do you think most strongly motivates members of the general public who support gambling.
liveandletlive says
is that we need the draw to this area. We need people to come here to work and play, buy homes, open stores and spend their money here. This area is dying a terrible death. I could care less about the gambling aspect of it. I want the hotel, stores, restaurants and events center. I want Amtrak to stop at the old train station to pick up and drop off passengers. I want to see a booming downtown. I know many anti-casino people argue that a casino would suck the remaining consumer spending out of downtown but I just don’t believe that. People aren’t going to go to the casino to get a pair of socks or a gallon of milk, and most will still go to the local restaurants to eat. Except now there will be more people who need to buy sock and more people who will love Vinnie’s Pizza as much as I do. I just can’t wait to take the train from Palmer to Boston. See! A casino is not going to stop me from traveling to Boston! Because Boston is Boston and you just can’t get Boston at a casino. And you can’t get Vinnie’s Pizza from a casino either, or a pair of socks, at least I don’t think they will sell socks. If they do sell socks, it’s not likely I will go to all the trouble of entering a huge complex, probably have to pay to park, and then walk miles just to get a pair of socks. I’ll go to K-mart or Walmart (ruh roh) and get them like I always do. See how simple life is down on the street.
kirth says
I didn’t know that Palmer’s economy was so dependent on socks. Perhaps a mall containing numerous sock stores would prove a big enough draw to save the local economy.
sue-kennedy says
to have he same experience as other cities and towns that have invited casinos, crumbling schools and downtown, high unemployment.
What is Vinnie’s profit margin? How many customers can they afford to lose before they go out of business, 5%, 10%?
liveandletlive says
How will Palmer have high unemployment when there will be so many jobs created by the casino and all that will be built with it? I just can’t fall in line behind that one, sorry.
sue-kennedy says
The longer the casinos are there the worse the problems.
Current unemployment numbers:
Las Vegas 13.7 %
Anlantic City 12.9%
Palmer 4.1%
Christian Science Monitor – August 2010
liveandletlive says
you provided. Because from Mass.gov the figures are as follows:
Palmer 8.1
Ware 9.2
Springfield 12.5
Hampden County 9.8
http://lmi2.detma.org/lmi/lmi_lur_a.asp
I would prefer only two casinos in Massachusetts. I think three is a huge mistake. Still, you can’t compare 3 casinos in Massachusetts to the multitude of casinos in New Jersey. http://www.yellowpages.com/atlantic-city-nh/casino?g=atlantic+city+nh
They got carried away and will pay the price for it. You’re right that the recession has something to do with it, which just goes to show you that when money gets tight, people will spend their money on necessities and not gambling, sort of contradicting the fearful tales of people spending their household budgets at the casino. Looks like people (most people) can be trusted afterall to put their basic needs first.
sue-kennedy says
at least about the unemployment rate.
The site has some interesting information, if not accurate.
AmberPaw says
Or how about a new community college emphacizing web design, the latest generation of programming languages, and community-supported manufacturing and crafts?
I come from Detroit. The three casinos there decreated overall economic activity by over 20%. The sucking sound you hear is the culture and life and Vinnies Pizza getting flushed down the toilet to the sound of ka-ching!
liveandletlive says
A community college in town would definitely boost the economy. When can we get one? There are also plenty of empty factory building around that would be perfect for new manufacturing projects. I am all for that.
sue-kennedy says
that it is not being offered as a choice?
AmberPaw says
Palmer having a community college would revitalize the downtown. It would draw business as honey draws flies; one of our biggest problems here in Massachusetts is that 80,000 (yes you read that right) jobs are unfilled for lack of community college graduates. It is the states that are supporting public higher education, especially community colleges, that are drawing the manufacturing and other enterprises that need workers who can – for example – do CAD/CAM or precision work. Here is a North Carolina site: http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/cte/
But why should Palmer seek a casino in desperation when, if now-abandoned mills and manufacturing complexes were used to create a local community college the revitalization of Palmer would be exponential and positive!
SAD, really. Maybe someone, reading this, could “steer the barge of government” in a positive direction rather than over a cliff and into the whirlpool of compulsive ggambling…ok, sorry, mixed metaphor. But still.
stoppredatorygambling says
Citizens oppose the government policy of predatory gambling for a broad variety of different reasons, many of which you mention in your comment – there is not a more politically diverse effort in the country.
In the end, what unites such different people to oppose this policy has very little to do with gambling itself. It is not about whether you and I have a kitchen table poker game on a Friday night but it has everything to do about what you believe the role of government to be. The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Civil Rights Movement Taylor Branch makes the case against government’s gambling program better than I ever will in this Baltimore Sun op-ed. A government that acts as the ‘house’ is a government that has a vested interest against its own people.
As Branch points out, casinos and lotteries, through their advertising, represent the daily voice of government to most citizens. Government incentives play a critical role in shaping the national character. How does government stop the shrinking of the middle class, how do we promote the concept of “big citizenship” in civic life, how do we develop a nation based on real prosperity instead of the phony prosperity of the past decade when the daily voice of government to most citizens is the complete opposite of all these things?
Those who attempt to talk about the issue in terms of “personal freedom” are off-base. John Stuart Mill, the father of the libertarian vision, famously wrote that each individual has the right to act as he wants so long as these actions do not harm others. Today, no business in America is doing more to harm others than predatory gambling operators.
In political parlance, the support for government-promoted gambling has always been soft as Wonder Bread. It’s why predatory gambling interests across the country have to spend so much on lobbying, pubic affairs and public relations to drag a predatory gambling bill across the finish line. The proposal always has to be shrouded in deceptive PR strategies like “people are going out of state” (ever count the license plates at RI’s TF Green, CT’s Bradley and NH’s Manchester-Boston airports?) rather than the merit of the policy itself.
The polling question no casino-funded poll will ever ask is “do you think government should promote gambling?”
After forty years, the evidence is overwhelming that predatory gambling is a failed public policy and it is time to get government out of it.
Thanks for the question.
Les Bernal
JHM says
For the more considered monthly / quarterly / annual / millenial Voice of America, please consult the various publications of Standard & Poors and Dow-Jones.
Captain Ludd here recognizes that “Government incentives play a critical role in shaping the national character.” She even phrases her recognition in a manner that only liberals and democrats and Democrats are likely to let pass, for selfservatives, as everybooby knows, rejoice to reminisce about how they created themselves out of nothing, “national character” an’ all.
Wherever it substantially came from, the NC is here, and here to stay. One may putter around the edges of the existing magic mushroom a little, tinkering here and there, but any idea of radical replacement with a pine tree, say, or a Public Television Pole, is silly. We live, have always lived, and will all but certainly perish eventually in a holy Homeland™ where “the bond market” — I speak loosely and popularly and in the words of Comrade Carville on the Clinton Administration — is king.
King and Lords and Commons, even.
Even more popularly, “Specuvestment ‘R’ US.”
Happy days.
Ryan says
The lottery may be predatory in nature, but because of the rapidity with which people can use today’s electronic slot machines, it’s much more addictive. The lottery also pays out all its money to cities and towns, raking in far more than it pays out.
Casinos will only ‘pay out’ 25% to the state, until they bargain it down to less than that, and the money that is paid out will go to state coffers — meaning cities, towns, state agencies and people who require state services will all be fighting over the kitchen table scraps.
Casinos will also require massive regulatory oversight and increased personnel in state services — these things will cost our state tens of millions of dollars. New Jersey, for example, has 500 people in its AG’s office in a ‘gaming division’ alone. Those 500 people no doubt cost upwards of $50 million a year or more, and that’s just one state agency. The state lottery, meanwhile, is a relatively light agency, ensuring the maximum amount of money goes out to communities.
No doubt, there are problems and issues with the state lottery, but if people are going to gamble, better that it be with the state lottery, where we can track it and ensure that the money goes back to people. Any problems with the state lottery should be dealt with on a separate front — ie getting rid of $20 scratch tickets and maybe limiting people to X number of tickets purchased in one location in one hour. But even as it stands today, there is *nothing* in the gambling industry that compares with slot machines in terms of their predatory nature. The very things are *designed* to make people addicted to them.
I encourage everyone to watch this video, which discusses exactly why slot machines are so deceptive and addictive. They’re quick and they’re designed to keep you going until you play to extinction. They are far more dangerous than any other kind of gambling.
Ryan says
I’ll also include a link.
Here’s a link: http://youtu.be/B1CGWyT27-Y
HeartlandDem says
Great question and I would like to answer from my years of observing this debate as well as participating in analysis of the politics and economics of the proposals.
There was no real debate until political leaders expressed support for expanding predatory gambling. This dramatically unfurled in the Commonwealth with the pronouncement by Governor Patrick that he would study the proposals (which is political code for “we’re going forward with this”). The unexpected but in retrospect clearly orchestrated “change” by Governor Patrick signaled the opening of the purses for massive lobbying and media influence by the gambling industry.
Advertising for casinos increased in every medium including web ads on this blog. Consolidated corporate media favor their gambling corporate brethren (Globe, Republican, Patriot Ledger, etc…..) began to editorialize in favor. Government partnering with the predatory gambling industry became less unique to Atlantic City and Las Vegas as economically depressed sovereign Indian nations with reservations and states like Mississippi adopted casinos. The non-problem gambler who is not impacted by the proximity of a casino has either enjoyed a junket to a casino or is agnostic and does not really care one way or the other.
Economic desperation made the “jobs” argument difficult to oppose. Only the most astute citizens and legislators that understand the business model of corporate gambling monopolies or those personally impacted have not been swayed.
So, to summarize, effective marketing of casinos as “family entertainment”, lobbyist influence, leadership support and economic desperation have shifted perception and diluted passionate opposition.
Opposition is a mix of political/philosophical/values and vision for the Commonwealth. I see and hear very little moralistic opposition. Disgust with money influencing politicians and cynicism that Beacon Hill can manage expanding predatory gambling…..or anything properly and without corruption are strong opposing points.
Support is consistently from those who envision personal employment or financial gain, those who are desperate and see no other choice and those seeking what appears to be a quick-fix or a boost to jobs/economy.
Let’s be clear on a couple of things:
1. If this bill is enacted it is Governor Patrick’s full responsibility and legacy. He has been the primary mover to bring the lobbyists and the predatory gambling industry to Massachusetts. Governor Patrick is the better poker player than that poor bastard Bobby DeLeo from blue-collar Winthrop will ever, ever dream of being. Patrick demures while Bobby sweats and frets to save his poor boyos in the racing industry. Patrick’s former Chief of Staff and key political advisor is now in a lucrative job as a big-time gambling lobbyist. Time will tell how this fiasco benefits the future plans of Deval L. Patrick.
2. If this legislation passes, every destroyed family, neglected and abandoned child, DUI fatality (yes, complimentary alcohol served), embezzlement and taxpayer funded costs will hang around the necks of the Big 3 and the lemmings who follow.
3.”Studying this for years” has failed to produce a decent bill. It is predicated on false (pre-recession) projections for revenues and jobs. It has special interest carve-outs, confusing multi-bureacratic over-lap, no independent oversight and no accountability to voters once another (fiasco) independent commission with unchecked far-reaching powers is established.
gladys-kravitz says
Heartlanddem’s excellent answer to Bob’s question with a personal perspective.
I live in a town next to Middleboro, not far from where the Mashpee Wampanaog had wanted to site the ‘world’s biggest casino’. Aside from watching presidential debates, I had never been involved in politics, and definitely not local politics, and I couldn’t care less about casinos. But the thought of raising my family near one made me want to learn more.
So I attended my very first selectman’s meeting – in Middleboro. And what I watched go down there was more interesting and more unbelievable than the reality shows and sci-fi dramas on TV. It was like the twilight zone. People who opposed the casino were gaveled when they tried to speak out at public forums. Selectmen encouraged the crowds to laugh at them, called ‘braying mules’ in the press, and organized secret campaigns to discredit the businesses of local opponents. The weirdness went on and on and on.
And I just kept thinking, this is going to stop at some point… right? There are so many negative impacts of gambling – such as how addiction rates double within 50 miles of a casino just for one – but they were all being brushed aside. And, despite the arrest on corruption charges of Mashpee chairman Glenn Marshall, and his own promises to ‘lift the whole Commonwealth’, Governor Patrick was keeping the issue alive.
In the Fall of 2007 I attended a National conference on gambling in Washington DC, to hear a speaker on Indian Gaming law, but what I found instead was a professor from MIT speaking about her research on how newer slot machines purposely caused addiction in order to increase revenue.
Maybe because I worked with computers, I didn’t find a digital connection to addiction so hard to believe, and since then, Prof. Natasha Schull along with medical researchers who study the brain have testified four times before legislative committees and to the increasingly addictive potential of these new machines. But state and local gov’ts see only the money. They conveniently see one side of the balance sheet and not the other. They pay for benefit studies and brush off the need for cost/benefit studies.
And they never question why casinos can rake in so much money. Willful ignorance. In addiction to causing addiction, Dr. Schull has called slot machines the equivalent of loaded dice. Slot play isn’t even a game. Depending on a computer chip, you have won or lost before you even hit the button. Of course, cheating has historically been a terrific way of raking in more money.
And that’s when I realized – gov’t isn’t just trying to ‘recapture’ money going to CT or RI or create jobs. Our gov’t is going to cheat people and cause addiction in order to collect new revenue. And that is not the purpose of government.
I’ve tried for 4 years to educate the public and gov’t with various web sites blogs and videos, and by testifying before legislative committees myself. I stopped working so I could focus on it. And still, we get very few hits from the State House. People just shrug and say, ‘it’s inevitable’. They think I waste my time. Sometimes, like when the big three conspire to create a bill in private, I agree.
I never saw myself as becoming this involved in a political issue. But when something is so WRONG, so misunderstood, don’t you have to? If you could have stopped Bernie Madoff before he ripped off 60 billion dollars from countless retirement savings with SEC approval, wouldn’t you have?
Here on the South Shore we already know that gambling increases within 50 miles of casinos because we have a lot of gambling addiction already. When I met the infant son of a man who had committed suicide after he lost the bill money at a RI casino, there was no going back for me.
Ryan says
I really hope that’s not something I have to say to people 5 or 10 years from now.
I still have faith that if people just learn about the sleaziness in this bill — and there’s more in this one than any of the others — then they will demand things stop, and that we at least get a study that will look at the *costs.*