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Foxwoods' Bubble Has Burst
By Jeff Benedict
The Hartford Courant
September 19, 2010
I get it when the tribe pushes its addictive product. But state officials shouldn't be pushers. Not long ago, state Comptroller Nancy Wyman, while flattering the tribe for its vision, reportedly joked that she often talks to senior citizens who visit Foxwoods and tells them, "If you're going to gamble, could you go to the slot machines?" Not funny. For a senior citizen, slots are the most addictive device in a casino.
But here's the rub. Connecticut hitched its fiscal wagon to the casino in 1993 when Gov. Lowell Weicker Jr. cut the deal that gave Foxwoods slots in exchange for a 25 percent take. The more that Connecticut residents lose at the slots, the more that flows into the state treasury. That's not just stupid public policy. It's criminal.
LETTER: Don't gamble with community's future
By Rebecca S. O'Neill
The Herald News
September 10, 2010
You need to simply not do business with so-called investors who have lied in the quite recent past. I am speaking of the agreement between the Mashpee Wampanoags and the town of Middleboro. (And even that land was too far away to meet the land-into-trust requirements.) What I say is a lie is their signed agreement to establish a casino in Middleboro and bring in the money. They have proved themselves indecisive and untrustworthy because they obviously backed out and have failed to uphold their end of the deal.
These investors do not care one cent about our city, their potential host. They didn't (and don't) care about Middleboro. We cannot afford to ignore that.
So I am asking you to immediately re-offer the land to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for the BioPark. We cannot have both and we may find ourselves with neither.
Deval Patrick's Racino Problem:
Why Massachusetts pols are addicted to gambling.
By Christopher Caldwell
The Weekly Standard
August 16, 2010
The best explanation for why gambling failed despite all the votes in favor of it, is that the Democrats in the state house needed gambling to fail and they needed to vote in favor of it.
They needed to be on-record as supporting mega-casinos because Patrick has turned the gambling industry into a lifeline of campaign funding for his allies. Slot machine companies, scratch card companies, racetrack developers, and others are among the biggest contributors to Massachusetts politicians. The companies contribute themselves, they hire lobbyists who contribute, and their employees contribute as individuals. In April the Boston Globe reported that the New Jersey-based consulting firm that the state paid to come up with the financial estimates for gambling also was being paid by DeLeo's campaign.
Sucker-chusetts
House Plays For Time, We're Played For Chumps
By Ted Reinstein
Boston Chronicle Reporter
August 6, 2010
For her part, Senate President Therese Murray was more than happy to have Patrick and DeLeo slug it out over slots, while she seemed to stay above the fray, shoving wooden nickels into the debate. A real profile in courage, there.
Look, you want to pass a bill and build a casino or two? Fine. You want to have slots at the race tracks? Fine.
What's not fine is gaming the public that this whole effort is about shoring up the state's economy and creating tens of thousands of good-paying permanent jobs with benefits.
Deval Patrick won't let grandma get run over by slots
By Margery Eagan
The Boston Herald
August 3, 2010
If you're already disgusted by wired Beacon Hill insiders hiring wired Beacon Hill insiders, "wait til they start hiring here," said Harshbarger.
In other words, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, or Racino Bob, as he's fast becoming known, may have a hire or two in mind.
Rhode Island now shares, with gambling meccas Michigan and Nevada, the nation's highest unemployment rate.
LETTER: Casinos lead to community problems
By Bob Russell
The Herald News
July 29, 2010
Casinos are not economic engines. Businesses such as manufacturing, commerce, farming, fishing, etc. create new wealth. They add value to the raw materials they have, such as steel made into a bolt or seed made into an ear of corn. Casinos do not create new wealth. They take the money from the gamblers and then redistribute it. This redistribution goes to four main places: Back to the gambler; to the cost of operations (wages, utilities, maintenance, upkeep, etc.; to the government as a tax (the pro-casino politicians love this part); to the owners (typically outside of our region). The most important of these is the last. One thing is for sure - money leaves the region. So why are our pro-casino politicians promoting casinos?
Pity The Dog Tracks? Really?
By David Bernstein
The Boston Pheonix
July 29, 2010
I would suggest that the folks inside the state house mentally substitute "dog tracks" with something like "brothels," or "cockfighting arenas," or "crack dens," and then consider whether they really want to be clogging up the legislative agenda with this pissing match over how best to financially compensate the people hurt by the laws banning their business. Because, to 56% of the Commonwealth, that's exactly what's happening.
My View: Gaming bill further evidence of 'vampire' mentality pervading Beacon Hill
By Joseph F. Doyle
The Salem News
July 24, 2010
Once again, the money we're getting from the casinos won't even cover it all. The opportunity for "Billy Bulger-type" retirements will be rampant. You'll be amazed how many state and local elected officials and bureaucrats will be transferring to the new "gaming enforcement" branch of the state government and go out with six-figure instead of five-figure pensions, after only three or four years on the job.
Gambling is a stale, parasitic enterprise. It only benefits those at the top - the financiers, the owners, and elected and appointed officials. Outside of the people running the show, gambling is going to be a disaster for the commonwealth.
Our finances are already being mismanaged by officials for their own self-interest. Government was never meant to be a business, nor its citizens a "revenue stream." But now that we've reached this vampiric state of existence, how do we get their fangs out of us?
Jim Braude: Stalemate on casino bill in Massachusetts is 'godsend'
By Jim Braude
NECN
July 22, 2010
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