The Granite State Coalition Against Gambling has some great information on their web site here: http://www.noslots.com/
It seems a pity the uninformed have ignored it.
Just one casino?
Lamontagne favors Rockingham Park, his firm's client
August 12, 2012
When he last ran for governor, in 1996, Ovide Lamontagne lambasted his opponent, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, for wanting to bring slot machines to the state's racetracks. And he did so colorfully.
"Jeanne Shaheen wants to trade the Old Man of the Mountain for a neon horseshoe, a fishing hole for gaming tables," he told the New Hampshire Union Leader at the time. "This is not what New Hampshire is all about."
That was then.
Last week, Lamontagne, a Manchester Republican, told the Nashua Telegraph that he supports slot machines but only at Rockingham Park in Salem. Let's look at what Lamontagne didn't say: That his law firm, Devine Millimet, represents Rockingham Park. Nor did Lamontagne explain his evolved stance.
Yet Lamontagne did promise transparency if elected. "I certainly will be vigilant in making sure that if I do have some conflict . . . to disclose that," according to a video of the interview.
Ayup! No CONFLICT here!
We tried to reach Lamontagne late Thursday, but his spokesman, Tom Cronin, said the candidate's schedule was packed through Friday. Instead, Cronin offered his own response by email.
On Lamontagne's gambling position:
"From the start of this campaign, Ovide has said he is open to a very tight, specific plan for expanded gaming that authorizes a single casino at Rockingham Park, provided state revenues are used to fund existing obligations or lowering taxes, not growing government," Cronin wrote. "As in 1996, Ovide continues to oppose plans for expanded gaming that would allow the proliferation of casinos and slot parlors across the state."
In 1996, Shaheen was proposing hundreds of slot machines across the state, Cronin said. Lamontagne opposed that plan then and does now, he said.
On the law firm's connection to Rockingham Park:
"As one of the state's largest law firms, Devine Millimet is proud to represent hundreds of clients across New Hampshire," Cronin wrote. "Though Rockingham Park is a client of the firm, Ovide has not worked directly on that portfolio. Moreover, if elected governor, Ovide has pledge to sever all ties with his law firm - financial and otherwise - and will be making decisions based on nothing other than the best interests of the state."
When Lamontagne opposed gambling in 1996, his opposition was, in part, what it is now: He didn't want gambling revenue spent on new government programs. But he also said Shaheen's desire to expand gambling would ruin New Hampshire's way of life.
Asked by the Telegraph whether he still had qualify-of-life concerns, Lamontagne said he did.
"The legislation would have to deal with that," he said. "We'd have to see what the consequences were and what was really happening on the ground . . . and then make a decision as to whether this was working or not working before we'd even consider another site."
He said he supported gambling at Rockingham Park because the horse track there had been a gambling site for more than 100 years. The owners of Rockingham Park have pledged to invest $450 million in the park for a casino and a return of live horse racing if the Legislature allows expanded gambling.
"As I go around the state and I talk about this," Lamontagne told the Telegraph, "even the people who are generally opposed to expanded gaming, and I would say I am, say, 'All right, a Rockingham (Park) solution, I could live with that.' "
The other major gubernatorial candidates, Republican Kevin Smith and Democrats Maggie Hassan and Jackie Cilley, also support some expanded gambling.
• Smith supports two gaming licenses, not one, and he would require they be awarded by a competitive bid process, he said. He would also require that the revenue be used to reduce property taxes, support education or pay for state projects like the widening of Interstate 93.
Smith, like Lamontagne, has spoken out against expanded gambling in the past, both as a former state representative and when he was the director of Cornerstone, a conservative political action nonprofit.
He said Friday that his position hasn't changed: Then, like now, he is against widespread gambling and putting any gambling revenue into the general fund.
• Hassan is open to bringing one "well-regulated, high-end casino" [Where have we heard that before? Oh! Right! Massachusetts!] to the state but would require a competitive bidding process for the license, her spokesman Matt Burgess said. The revenue, Burgess said, could pay for education "or other essential state services that are currently not being funded adequately."
• Cilley would support expanded gambling under limited conditions: The local community would have to want it; there would have to be close oversight; and there would have to be a wall between the gaming industry and its ability to influence legislation. [Never happen!]
She said she's open to discussing casinos in New Hampshire but isn't convinced the predicted revenue, which she said is $45 million to $100 million, is worth it.
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