Economic Black Hole

Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling NoSlots.com Blog & Alerts Immediate Release: Study Finds NE Casino Gambling in Decline Contact: Jim Rubens, (603) 359-3300 A new report on gambling behavior and attitudes finds that New England residents are gambling closer to home and gambling less.   The report, "Bring It On Home, An Overview of Gaming Behavior in New England," by Clyde Barrow of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, found that, between 2006 and 2012, the percentage of New England residents visiting a casino has dropped from 30 to 23 percent. The only exception to this decline was among Mainers, where casino gambling increased from 9 to 21 percent of residents. Casino gambling among Mainers increased largely as a result of the opening of the Oxford casino last year. The study also found that the remaining fraction of New Englanders who do so are visiting casinos closer to where they live.   Big picture for New Hampshire: casino gambling is in decline because the novelty effect of casinos has worn off and the New England casino market has become nearly saturated. Once the four Massachusetts casinos are built, New Hampshire will be surrounded by fifteen casinos.   Big Issue: Convenience Versus Destination Casino   Whether a Salem casino would be economically advantageous for New Hampshire hinges critically on whether it would attract out-of-state gamblers in large numbers. As you can see from the Barrow charts below, nearly 75 percent of visitors to Foxwoods, a Connecticut destination casino, live more than one hour distant. In contrast, 90 percent of visitors to Twin River in Rhode Island, a convenience or local market casino, live within one hour drive time.   Take home: nearly 70 percent of Twin River gamblers live within a 30 minute drive time. The Twin River casino is highly similar to the casino proposed for Salem by Las-Vegas based Millennium Gaming. Twin River has 4,751 slot machines, electronic table games, restaurants and bars, a comedy club, and a 2,000 seat entertainment arena. Millennium is proposing 5,000 slots, table games, restaurants, and entertainment for Salem.   Salem Casino Is Anti Small Business   Like Twin River, a Salem casino would be a convenience or local market casino, with most gamblers living within a 30 minute drive time, with only a fraction of its revenues beyond that proximity zone.   Convenience casinos create no new wealth, skills, or incomes among residents within their market area. Ergo, consumer dollars lost at a Salem convenience casino are displaced or cannibalized from thousands of existing local restaurants, hotels, conference centers, and entertainment venues.   Same with casino jobs, which are cannibalized from our local business community.   Once facility construction is complete and construction jobs are gone, Salem casino revenues and jobs will be largely offset by declines in jobs and revenues on Concord's Main Street, Manchester's Elm Street and Verizon Center, Portsmouth's Music Hall, and thousands of local businesses within the 30 minute drive time. Rather than being recycled back into the local economy and generating favorable multiplier effects, a Salem casino's purchases and profits will bleed out of New Hampshire to its Las Vegas owners.   Take home: a Salem casino is an economic black hole.   # # # Donate To GSCAEG 30 Reasons To Oppose Slot Casinos

Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling | PO Box 3931 | Concord | NH | 03302