Sands: Promises, Promises, Promises

The casino vultures circling to suck Massachusetts' hard earned dollars from the local economy include Sheldon Adelson AKA Sands.

Image from Bella-Kona Race: July 2006





Sands promised:

to spend $600 million to build

a casino

300 room hotel

200,000-square foot, 50-shop retail mall

3,600-seat events center

that would create 1,825 jobs [Sands created 780]

generate $16.5 million in host fees for area governments

draw 4 million people a year


Traffic coordinators say the number of cars is well short of the 104,000 Sands projected each week.



Of Crime: Not there yet?
The article contains an anecdotal quote and not facts.

It fails to mention regional numbers of money-related crimes that increase with the presence of casinos/slot parlors, bankruptcies, domestic violence, child abandonment and so on.

In Slots = Community Degradation

From Texas Republicans Got It Right About Slots!

Skyrocketing Crime

Sept. 2004 research showed casinos hiked violent crime 13%.

Everywhere video slot machines have been legalized, crime rates have skyrocketed, including aggravated assault, rape, robbery, larceny, burglary, auto theft, embezzlement, and fraud.

1st 3 years of gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey went from 50th in nation in per capita crime to 1st in the nation.

From Ohio Gambling Opposition

In Atlantic City, 25% of small businesses closed 3 years after casinos opened. Prior to casinos, the unemployment rate in Atlantic City was 30% higher than the rest of the state. 10 years later, it is 50% higher than the rest of the state.

Do Casinos Cause Crime?


In the midst of an economic crisis, the U.S. gambling industry continues to grow—and so does the debate over its connection to crime.

It’s a familiar, and sad, story: a 41-year-old housekeeper in Bangor, Maine, forged $40,000 in checks belonging to elderly people in the assisted-living home where she worked, then gambled it away at Hollywood Slots, a cavernous 1,000-slot-machine establishment that dominates one side of Bangor, an old, poor, church-spired New England town.

She pleaded guilty, blaming an addiction to gambling, and in 2008 received a three-year prison term.




Sands, to the dismay of its investors, anted up its $600 million and raised that $143million [due to overruns]. This summer, Sands will spend an additional $30 million-plus to complete the hotel and $26 million to set up 89 table games, such as blackjack and craps, at the casino. By next year, its investment will stand at roughly $800 million.

Notice how they expanded gambling to increase their revenues before they fulfilled their promises?

Of Tourism and Economic Development:

And while Sands does not release attendance numbers, no one disputes that millions of people have driven and taken buses into Bethlehem -- many of them from New York and New Jersey.

So, what you're saying is that patrons are Day Trippers, probably mostly locals sucking discretionary income out of the economy and enriching Mr. Adelson et al?

What opponents dispute is whether many of them ever leave the casino to venture into Bethlehem.

Bethlehem Economic Development Director Tony Hanna said with most of the bus seats sold as day trips, visitors have little time to experience the city's historic downtown or eclectic South Side business district. But he expects that to change after tables are added this summer and the hotel opens next spring. [Note to Hanna: Don't hold your breath! Look at the evidence.]