“(Niagara Falls) could have looked at Atlantic City, they could have looked at Detroit,” Simon said. “(Casinos) basically destroyed local business in Atlantic City.”
But Simon, the casino expert, warns that waiting for casino-spurred development may only lead to disappointment.
“It doesn’t lead to reinvestment. It’s a bad model for redevelopment, but (cities and states) just keep repeating it,” Simon said. “Who benefits from casinos? The casinos.”
From: http://middlebororemembers.blogspot.com/search/label/Bryant%20Simon
Uninformed politicians like Rep. Koczera have failed to consider the evidence.
Mayor Mitchell discusses Taunton casino with Gaming Commission chairman
NEW BEDFORD — State law authorizes the Gaming Commission to solicit a commercial casino license if it determines the Mashpee Wampanoag can't get the Taunton land into trust, but the commission's head said he has no idea what a potential deadline would be.
"I don't have a clue how we're going to figure that out," commission Chairman Stephen Crosby told The Standard-Times Thursday after meeting with New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell. "Until the compact is approved, we've got so many other things to do we haven't gotten around to thinking about it."
Crosby predicted the commission will eventually seek legal advice, consult the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Mashpee Wampanoag, local communities and other stakeholders, "and try to figure out what are the likely outcomes here and what is a reasonable way to make an assessment of plausibility."
SouthCoast legislators had pushed for an amendment to include a deadline in Gov. Deval Patrick's compact that would allow the Mashpee Wampanoag to run a tribal casino at Routes 24 and 140 in East Taunton.
In a recent floor debate, Rep. Robert Koczera, D-New Bedford, argued that delays in the tribe's efforts to get the land put into trust could cause the area to lose out on [LOW WAGE] jobs and other economic perks of the casino.
The House, however, ratified the compact without the time limit, 120-32. The compact is currently before the Senate.
Mitchell said he discussed his views Thursday with Crosby about how the proposed Taunton casino would affect New Bedford. Concerns include how entertainment at the casino could hurt the Zeiterion theater and other local performing arts venues, he said, noting that he is also worried about increased traffic congestion on the already busy main route connecting SouthCoast to Boston.
On the issue of traffic mitigation, Crosby listed several possible steps of intervention.
"One is right now, when the tribe is trying to create friends ... and they'd rather have people be happy with them than unhappy," he said.
Last month, Mitchell was among local leaders calling for Patrick to direct funding for the long-awaited South Coast Rail project as part of a casino deal. Patrick's compact doesn't specifically address South Coast Rail. But after Thursday's meeting, Crosby echoed Patrick's office in pointing to another possibility for the project to benefit from casino dollars.
Though not marked for a particular project, "a portion of the money (for) infrastructure improvement is guaranteed to stay in the region, although it's not guaranteed to go to any specific project," a spokesman for the governor said.
Mitchell said he and Crosby also briefly discussed the merits of a casino in New Bedford and Mitchell's skepticism that the city's casino experience would be any different than that of Atlantic City.
Casinos "over the last four decades have failed to bring Atlantic City to a point where we could call it a success," he said.
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