Massachusetts Gambling Commission: Out of Control!

There is simply no excuse for the excesses by the Massachusetts Gambling Commission nor its staffers!

Put a bunch of political hacks in charge of the $$$ and they run amok!

Dear sirs and madams,

I am appalled. Please see the BBJ article linked below.

Is this acceptable to you?  

 

How can legislators, Governor Patrick and candidates for office refuse to address these egregious abuses of the public trust? 

 

Every superfluous dime spent on and by the MGC is funding that is not going to support taxpayers and off-set the costs of the predatory gambling industry.

 

People, infrastructure, institutions are suffering and failing.  

 

These behaviors, excesses and wrong-headed government sponsored actions are inexcusable.

 

Some of you are directly responsible for setting this in motion and culpable for not intervening on the fiscal arrogance being demonstrated by the Mass Gaming Commission.

What will you do to stop this flagrant practice of expenditures that has no ethical or moral standing to be part of our government?

This is wrong. 

 

Kathleen

BBJ preview: How the Mass. Gaming Commission plays by its own rules

Craig Douglas

Managing Editor, Online & Research- Boston Business Journal

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View Slideshow

Airfare: According to gaming commission reimbursement and credit-card reports, the agency's staffers spent approximately $85,000 on flights in the U.S. and to destinations abroad between May 2012 and Jan. 1, 2014. In one example, a commission staffer took a one-way flight from Hong Kong to Boston priced at $7,257.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has left no stone unturned in its rigorous, years-long effort to hand pick the list of casino operators who will ultimately operate in the Bay State. Nor have the commission and its politically connected staffers spared many expenses while traveling near and far.

Tomorrow’s Boston Business Journal provides an in-depth analysis of credit card statements and reimbursement reports highlighting repeated instances of lavish employee spending since the commission’s inception two years ago. The expenditures, which have been criticized by a state watchdog and at least one casino-license applicant, include dozens of charges at luxury hotels and top-rated restaurants in major cities throughout the world.

And unlike other state agencies, the gaming commission has operated without formal guidelines on the amounts and types of personal spending and travel permitted among its employees.

Members of the gaming commission have defended the agency’s spending as necessary and proper.


In doing so, they emphasized the commission’s daunting mission and tight timeline to establish a new multibillion-dollar industry for the state. Those same officials also reiterated that a considerable amount of the MGC’s costs, some $15 million to date, have been reimbursed by casino operators.

Nonetheless, examples of the commission’s extreme spending are many; the accompanying slide show offers a summary of some of the the commission's documented spending to date.

The BBJ's full coverage of the gaming commission and its spending records will be available online and in print Friday, Feb. 21.


http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/bottom_line/2014/02/bbj-preview-gaming-commissions.html?utm_source=ML+14%2F2%2F21&utm_campaign=20140221ML&utm_medium=email