A citizen committee has formed and will petition the Attorney General to review and approve language for a question asking voters to support Repealing the Casino Law on the November 2014 ballot.
If you have not already done so, kindly sign-up on the website http://www.repealthecasinodeal.org/the-details/ for us to be able to easily contact you and encourage your networks, friends and family to do the same.
Lastly, financial support is needed for this campaign. Please give what you can, if you can, when you can. Thank you.
For Release 1200hrs, August 7, 2013 www.repealthecasinodeal.org
| Contact: John F. Ribeiro Chairperson Repeal the Casino Deal Winthrop, MA 02152 Phone: 617-981-4177 johnfribeiro@gmail.com |
Repeal the Casino Deal |
MediaRelease
Citizens File Petition to Repeal Casino DealStatewide
(BOSTON, MA) A diverse coalition of public health, municipal, family and religious leaders along with concerned citizens from all walks of life submitted an Initiative Petition today to repeal the law allowing state government to partner with powerful gambling interests with the purpose of promoting casino gambling to its citizens.
Repeal the Casino Deal (www.repealthecasinodeal.org) filed the requisite paperwork with the office of the Attorney General starting the process to place a repeal question before voters on the November 2014 ballot. The casino bill, passed in 2011 allowing for three casinos and one slot machine parlor, was fueled by commercial casino interests in one of the most expensive lobbying campaigns in state history and aggressively pushed through by the state’s political establishment.
The signatures of ten certified voters were submitted with the petition to the Attorney General for approval of the proposed ballot language. If approved, the Secretary of State will prepare and print the signature petitions and then casino repeal supporters will need to collect 68,911 certified signatures of registered voters across the state throughout the fall.
Among the initial ten signers are: Mark Gottlieb, Executive Director of the nationally-recognized Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law; Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone former state Senator Sue Tucker of Andover; Kris Mineau, President of the Massachusetts Family Institute; and Steven Abdow of The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts.
"Most citizens believe state government should not be partnering with powerful gambling interests to promote casino gambling in our communities," said John Ribeiro of Winthrop, chairman of Repeal the Casino Deal. "Government’s promotion of casinos represents the wrong direction for Massachusetts. It’s a bad deal for citizens."
"I believe that we owe it to ourselves to revisit licensing corporations that rake in billions of dollars promoting addiction to casino gambling. Like the tobacco companies that get rich by selling a product that causes preventable disease, for which we all pay, the casino gambling industry’s business model is based on causing and exploiting gambling addiction," said Mark Gottlieb, Executive Director of The Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law who has spent the past twenty years taking on cigarette, junk food and other industries that profit by making others sick.
Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone who is regarded as a leader in government and economic sustainability showed his support by signing onto the ballot petition stating, "Casinos are not an economic development strategy. They have a detrimental impact on quality of life. They drain the tax base, requiring more and more local expenditures and services to counter their impact – expenditures and services from municipalities that cannot vote on proposed casinos in neighboring cities and towns. Putting the question of casinos to the Massachusetts electorate is the right thing to do."
The Massachusetts Family Institute continued its challenge to state government in support of the people of the Commonwealth with President, Kris Mineau’s remarks endorsing the ballot petition initiative, "Our state government should not be promoting expanded gambling any more than they should be promoting alcohol, tobacco or recreational drugs. Expanded gambling is not the answer to our state’s financial problems – the costs to our families, communities and culture are too great."
Ribeiro urged called on citizens to get involved and learn more about, Repeal the Casino Deal by going to the website and signing-up at www.repealthecasinodeal.org
www.repealthecasinodeal.org
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