Rhode Island Misplaced Hysteria

Ignored is REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL that will appear on the 2014 Ballot.

Rhode Island instead has genuflected before the limited Gam[bl]ing Industry that was supposed to preserve greyhound racing and much else, or at least their lopsided media coverage.

Rhode Island is now subsidizing the Gam[bl]ing Industry. So much for impartial journalism.

And Lincoln, RI? That voted to oppose 24/7/365 GAMBLING?


Border casino scare

Published: December 14, 2013

 

Rhode Island taxpayers may be feeling schadenfreude — German for pleasure in the pain of others — over the delay in opening casinos in Massachusetts. But state officials are duty-bound to prepare for losing state revenue to the Bay State within the next few years.

Assuming that the Massachusetts casinos do come, they will steal lots of business from Rhode Island, and especially from Twin River Casino, in Lincoln. That could mean a huge falloff in state gambling revenue, at an estimated $330 million this year. Gambling is the state’s third-largest revenue source, behind income and sales taxes.

The falloff could be up to $100 million — or more; economists can only guess. How many residents of Massachusetts will migrate to casinos nearer to home or remain loyal to their habits? We’d guess that proximity will win out in the end.

Nobody knows for sure where the new “gaming” sites will be, or how long it will take to build them.

Missed deadlines and lawsuits have delayed the state’s effort, kicked off in 2007, to have three casinos built, one near Boston, one in western Massachusetts and one in southeastern Massachusetts, plus a slots parlor (or “racino”) at some undetermined location. Voters in Milford, East Boston, West Springfield and Palmer have rejected casino proposals in recent months. Lakeville and Freetown turned thumbs down on proposals in nonbinding referenda last June.

Voters in Taunton, however, approved a casino proposal there last year, and while New Bedford voters have not spoken yet, voters in Plainville overwhelmingly approved a slots parlor there, which is the nearest proposed site to Twin River.

And talk in the Bay State of a referendum to repeal the 2007 casino initiative is still just talk. We trust that Ocean State officials are not counting out Massachusetts casinos. At least one of them, perhaps very close to Rhode Island, will probably open fairly soon.


http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/editorials/20131214-border-casino-scare.ece