No Gambling Before Study

No gaming before study, advocates say
Patrick, others want independent study of gaming before Legislature votes

QUINCY — MIDDLEBORO – Authorizing casinos and slot machines at racetracks figures to be a tempting way to help fill the state’s estimated $3 billion budget gap next year. But anti-gaming advocates are sure that after a sober look at the facts, lawmakers will be able to resist the gamble.

Expanded gaming has been a perennial issue in the Statehouse, and gaming proponents are gearing up for anther session featuring bills authorizing resort-style casinos and 1,500 slot machines at racetracks like Raynham Park.

Gov. Deval Patrick, a proponent of resort casinos, has asked the Legislature for an independent cost-benefit analysis of expanding gaming in the state before lawmakers make any moves on the issue.

He is being supported by a wide coalition, such as anti-gaming groups like United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts, and independent groups like the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.

“We’re being told that there might be a 50-mile impact on the roads and people and those things. We at least want to sit down at the table and study what those impacts might be,” said Wayne Sampson, a retired police chief and executive director of the police chiefs association.

If a casino were located in a larger city, local police might be able to absorb the increased demand on their services, Sampson said. But what about the smaller communities nearby?

“Depending on where you are in the state – we have many communities that don’t even have 24-hour operations – (a casino) would dramatically change the law enforcement impact on those communities.”

However, Louis Pacheco, chief of police in Raynham, said he doesn’t need a study to show that Raynham Park has been a benefit for his department.

“The track has always picked up the cost of any police force it uses. They pay us like a paid detail,” he said. “What hurts us is the Wal-Mart that generates 400 arrests each year for shoplifting and pays for no detail.”

Jessie Powell, a 60-year-old Middleboro resident involved in United to Stop Slots, said she sees the crime and other social problems in Atlantic City and Las Vegas and doesn’t want to risk bringing that to Massachusetts.

“If slot machines have been called the crack cocaine of gambling, how do you justify replacing live racing with slot machines (at Raynham Park)?” Powell asked.

“Let’s do a cost-benefit analysis and find out what it’s going to cost. Obviously, that means more public safety personnel, more investigators, more prosecutors, more court time and more prison space.”

Kathleen Conley Norbut, president of United to Stop Slots and former selectman from Monson, said the Legislature should not dismiss the study idea.

“I absolutely think it’s something that legislators must pay attention to. They’re hired and paid to do due diligence on every piece of legislation in front of them,” she said.

Setting aside bias concerns, Conley Norbut said that past gaming studies are useless for making projects in an economy still reeling from the worst recession in decades.

Who wins in the end is still an open question. For her part, Conley Norbut is optimistic.

“If the numbers were there for the votes, this would have happened a long time ago.”