Lost Local Business

From our friends at: No Eastie Casino

We came across a shocking news report today and simply have to share it. Here's the gist: Just one month after a casino opened in Ohio, most businesses in the area are reporting flat sales. One restaurant -- a diner directly across the street from the gambling palace -- reported losing an average of $300 per week in sales since the casino opened. Most likely, that will cost a diner employee their job. That's after just one month.

Here, watch the report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX9xcTZ3cfo&feature=g-upl





Of course, to anyone who's studied the impacts casinos have on local businesses, this comes as no surprise. What's shocking, perhaps, is how quickly the decline began to set in. Caesars and Suffolk Downs promise that a casino in East Boston will help area businesses. In their heart of hearts, though, they see the same reports that we do:

• 66 percent of independent restaurants closed in Atlantic City after the casinos opened there [1]
• 1/3 of the city's retail businesses have since closed [2]
• Donald Trump: "People will spend a tremendous amount of money in casinos, money that they would normally spend on buying a refrigerator or a new car. Local businesses will suffer because they lose customer dollars to the casinos."[3]
• Casinos divert dollars from local businesses and restaurants, as a result, local towns see no change in overall per capita income after the creation of a casino. ⁴
• A study on the costs and benefits of casinos found that for every $1,000 in increased casino revenue, businesses up to 30 miles away lost $243. ⁵

The casino knows local businesses will suffer. This is why they are preemptively offering to spend $150 million with select local businesses. But this bribe cannot possibly account for a massive decline in business because of the casino's presence or the unfair competition the casino presents with its extended hours and free food, drinks and products.

If you are a small business owner in East Boston or Revere, it is in your best interest (and that of your employees and customers!) to oppose the proposed casino at Suffolk Downs. Do not believe for a minute that this casino will impact you positively. If you're interested in learning more, hanging a sign in your shop window or joining the opposition effort to get the word out on casino impacts, please call Celeste Myers directly at 617-913-3332.

For everyone else, please share this video and information with the businesses you frequent. Media personnel, someone should do a story looking into the casino's impacts on small businesses throughout Greater Boston. Please be in touch if you'd like us to comment.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Celeste Myers and Brian Gannon

No Eastie Casino

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Notes:

1. Evelyn Nieves, “Our Towns: Taste of Hope at Restaurants Casinos Hurt,” New York Times, March 23, 1997, section 1, p. 39.

2. Robert Goodman, The Luck Business: The Devastating Consequences and Broken Promises of America’s Gambling Explosion (New York: Free Press, 1995), p. 23.

3. Interview with Donald Trump. "The Jackpot State", The Miami Herald, March 27, 1994

4. National Gambling Impact Study Commission Final Report, 1999, Chapter. 7 (p. 7-8), Chapter 4 (p.4-4), Chapter 7 (p.7-21 Table 7-2), Chapter 4 (p.4-13) http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/reports/fullrpt.html

5. Grinols, Earl L. Gambling in America Costs & Benefits. Cambridge University Press, 2004 (p.77) w/additional reference http://www.umb.edu/editor_uploads/images/centers_institutes/financial_services_forum/DiceOrNoDice.pdf (p.12)