FORUM: More gambling not answer to Connecticut’s financial woes
By Robert Steele and Tony Hwang
January was another bad month for Connecticut’s two mega-casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, which send 25 percent of their slot machine revenue to the state. Their combined slot winnings have now been down 23 of the last 24 months, the state’s share has gone from $430 million in 2007 to under $300 million today, and the competition from other states is just heating up.
Maine now has two casinos, New Hampshire is debating whether to legalize casinos, Rhode Island recently converted one of its two slots parlors into a full-scale casino, Massachusetts is in the process of selecting sites for three casinos and a slots barn, New Jersey is considering casinos for the Meadowlands, and New York, which already has slots casinos at its racetracks, just amended its constitution to allow the opening of up to seven full-scale casinos.
The national picture is similar. In 1988, only two states had casinos, Nevada and New Jersey. Today 39 states have casinos, and we now have nearly 1,000 of them, almost evenly divided between Indian and commercial casinos.
According to a recent study by the Institute for American Values, a nonprofit think tank based in New York, the casino explosion is having a profound impact on our society. Among the study’s findings:
• Casino gambling has moved from the margins to the mainstream of American life.
• The new casinos are primarily filled with modern, highly-addictive slot machines and cater overwhelmingly to middle and low rollers who live within an hour away, return frequently, and play the slots.
• Casinos depend on pathological and problem gamblers for their revenue base, with these troubled individuals providing 40-60 percent of slot machine profits.
• Living close to a casino increases the chances of developing a gambling addiction.
• Casinos constitute a regressive tax that hits low-income people the hardest, thereby contributing to economic inequality in America.
• The long-term costs of the new casinos exceed their benefits by as much as 3-1.
The new regional and local casinos, the study concludes, drain wealth from communities, weaken nearby businesses and reduce civic participation, family stability, and other forms of social capital that are at the heart of a successful community.
Despite the growing evidence of casino gambling’s corrosive influence, many of Connecticut’s political leaders appear intent on trying to replace the state’s faltering gambling money by encouraging still more gambling.
Last June, the Democrat-controlled legislature legalized keno (a highly addictive form of electronic bingo) for restaurants, bars and convenience stores in the hope of raising an additional $28 million a year, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has indicated he favors permitting online gambling for the state’s two casinos, which say they need it in order to defend and expand their customer base.
Not to be outdone, a legislative task force studying video slots quietly finished its work in January and is expected to recommend entering into an agreement with the tribal casinos that would permit the state to create three new slots casinos with up to 2,500 slot machines each in New Haven, Bridgeport and Windsor Locks.
If implemented, keno, video slots casinos and online gambling would represent a massive expansion of casino-type gambling in Connecticut. But all three new initiatives can still be stopped.
Last week, Malloy acknowledged the existence of strong public opposition to keno in the state by saying he would be willing to reverse course and sign a recently introduced bill to repeal keno should the bill be passed by the legislature. It remains to be seen whether this is just a ploy by the governor to disassociate himself from keno in view of the upcoming election, or if he will use his position as the leader of his party to kill it. It is an important question. If the public sees it can stop keno by speaking out on the issue, it will be encouraged to oppose the expansion of other forms of gambling as well. And if keno is a bad idea, slots casinos and online gambling are worse ones.
More gambling is not an answer to Connecticut’s financial problems. Rather than encouraging people to gamble away their paychecks, we need to attract productive, living-wage jobs, promote stable revenue streams, and end the runaway spending that saddled the state with $52 billion in debt.
Robert Steele of Essex was a Republican U.S. congressman from eastern Connecticut from 1970 to 1974 and is the author of “The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town.” State Rep. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield/Trumbull, is a member of the Public Safety and Security Committee, which oversees gambling.
http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20140218/forum-more-gambling-not-answer-to-connecticuts-financial-woes
Maine now has two casinos, New Hampshire is debating whether to legalize casinos, Rhode Island recently converted one of its two slots parlors into a full-scale casino, Massachusetts is in the process of selecting sites for three casinos and a slots barn, New Jersey is considering casinos for the Meadowlands, and New York, which already has slots casinos at its racetracks, just amended its constitution to allow the opening of up to seven full-scale casinos.
The national picture is similar. In 1988, only two states had casinos, Nevada and New Jersey. Today 39 states have casinos, and we now have nearly 1,000 of them, almost evenly divided between Indian and commercial casinos.
According to a recent study by the Institute for American Values, a nonprofit think tank based in New York, the casino explosion is having a profound impact on our society. Among the study’s findings:
• Casino gambling has moved from the margins to the mainstream of American life.
• The new casinos are primarily filled with modern, highly-addictive slot machines and cater overwhelmingly to middle and low rollers who live within an hour away, return frequently, and play the slots.
• Casinos depend on pathological and problem gamblers for their revenue base, with these troubled individuals providing 40-60 percent of slot machine profits.
• Living close to a casino increases the chances of developing a gambling addiction.
• Casinos constitute a regressive tax that hits low-income people the hardest, thereby contributing to economic inequality in America.
• The long-term costs of the new casinos exceed their benefits by as much as 3-1.
The new regional and local casinos, the study concludes, drain wealth from communities, weaken nearby businesses and reduce civic participation, family stability, and other forms of social capital that are at the heart of a successful community.
Despite the growing evidence of casino gambling’s corrosive influence, many of Connecticut’s political leaders appear intent on trying to replace the state’s faltering gambling money by encouraging still more gambling.
Last June, the Democrat-controlled legislature legalized keno (a highly addictive form of electronic bingo) for restaurants, bars and convenience stores in the hope of raising an additional $28 million a year, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has indicated he favors permitting online gambling for the state’s two casinos, which say they need it in order to defend and expand their customer base.
Not to be outdone, a legislative task force studying video slots quietly finished its work in January and is expected to recommend entering into an agreement with the tribal casinos that would permit the state to create three new slots casinos with up to 2,500 slot machines each in New Haven, Bridgeport and Windsor Locks.
If implemented, keno, video slots casinos and online gambling would represent a massive expansion of casino-type gambling in Connecticut. But all three new initiatives can still be stopped.
Last week, Malloy acknowledged the existence of strong public opposition to keno in the state by saying he would be willing to reverse course and sign a recently introduced bill to repeal keno should the bill be passed by the legislature. It remains to be seen whether this is just a ploy by the governor to disassociate himself from keno in view of the upcoming election, or if he will use his position as the leader of his party to kill it. It is an important question. If the public sees it can stop keno by speaking out on the issue, it will be encouraged to oppose the expansion of other forms of gambling as well. And if keno is a bad idea, slots casinos and online gambling are worse ones.
More gambling is not an answer to Connecticut’s financial problems. Rather than encouraging people to gamble away their paychecks, we need to attract productive, living-wage jobs, promote stable revenue streams, and end the runaway spending that saddled the state with $52 billion in debt.
Robert Steele of Essex was a Republican U.S. congressman from eastern Connecticut from 1970 to 1974 and is the author of “The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town.” State Rep. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield/Trumbull, is a member of the Public Safety and Security Committee, which oversees gambling.
http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20140218/forum-more-gambling-not-answer-to-connecticuts-financial-woes
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