Beacon Hill Redux

Fed a little manure, the number of jobs here is already growing --

....most notably the 900 full-time jobs created by SugarHouse.

Reported here:

Jobs for 800 full-time and 200 part-time casino employees are nothing to sniff at in tough economic times.

Either number is still far from the thousands promised and promoted on Beacon Hill, phony numbers gathered from flawed reports paid for with taxpayers' hard-earned dollars. Some may recall Beacon Hill's refusal to conduct an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis, afraid it might shed some light and truth on their folly.

Just because SugarHouse finally opened didn't mean the end of protests against it. Though overwhelmingly outnumbered by casino supporters - some of whom yelled, "Go home!" - a few dozen opponents were on hand with signs bearing such slogans as "Reclaim Our Neighborhoods" and "Reclaim Our Jobs."

The Rev. Robin Hynicka, of the Arch Street United Methodist Church and a volunteer with Casino-Free Philadelphia, insisted that the odds are stacked against the people waiting to get into the casino.

"The myth that they'll be winners is wrong," he said. "The reality is that they'll be losers and they won't be able to pay their rent and put food on their table. You don't see anybody here in three-piece suits."

Francesca Lo Basso of Casino Town Watch said, "The only way for SugarHouse to make a profit is through cultivating addiction."

She identified as "predatory" such casino-marketing tactics as round-the-clock operations, free alcohol and easy-to-establish lines of credit, which, she charged, "allows [gamblers] to potentially go bankrupt in one night."

Lo Basso added that SugarHouse's exemption from the city's smoking ban will put "workers' and patrons' health at risk."




Note this revealing comment on opening day, expansion plans are already underway in a never ending scheme of continued expansion to suck every remaining dollar from local economies to fulfill their greed:

But if those are concerns of SugarHouse's execs, they were keeping it a secret yesterday. As Chief Executive Officer Greg Carlin accepted congratulations from various well-wishers, he was asked when expansion plans would be developed.

"We're already working on 'em," he said with a smile.