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Monday, February 24, 2014

They Have No Control Even Over Themselves

Massachusetts taxpayers should be outraged!

Boston Business Journal included an extensive list of expenditures that's worth reviewing. Please take the time!

The only way to assure the safety of the Commonwealth of such excesses is to REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL!







February 24, 2014 - BOSTON – Repeal the Casino Deal’s chairman, John Ribeiro, responded today to an announcement by Steve Crosby, the state’s top gaming official, that he would investigate spending by the Mass. Gaming Commission on the heels of a Boston Business Journal report of a Commission employees spending extravagant amounts of money on expenses including room service, last minute flights around the world and hotel bills, while often receiving reimbursement from casino giants.


Ribeiro noted that while the gaming commission claims to be exempt from state public employee spending and travel guidelines because the commission was created with money from a state “rainy day fund” rather than a line item appropriation, Attorney General Martha Coakley contradicted that theory in a 2011 letter to Secretary William Galvin. In that letter she wrote that the law creating the state gaming commission was not subject to a referendum vote because the law appropriates money to fund the commission.

Massachusetts law states that "[n]o law . . . that appropriates money for the current or ordinary expenses of the commonwealth or for any of its departments, boards, commissions or institutions shall be the subject of a referendum petition."

Statement of Casino repeal chairman John Ribeiro on Mass. Gaming Commission spending

“It’s about time for Crosby to look into this extravagant spending. It shouldn’t have taken a newspaper report and public outrage to highlight the need for spending controls.

It is disheartening to see that the members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission have disrespected taxpayers with lavish spending, like one employee’s room service tab that totaled upwards of $500, a dinner bill at $111 per plate and plane tickets that rung up at three times the cost of economy flights.

Furthermore, for state commissioner Enrique Zuniga to claim that the very casino giants that the commission should be investigating and policing picking up tabs for flights, hotels and gourmet meals does not create a conflict is absurd.

This report just highlights the casino moguls’ ability to buy their way into Massachusetts communities, and the gaming commission’s disrespect for the taxpayers for whom they are supposed to be working.

These findings create a reason for the state’s voters to distrust the gaming commission and yet another reason for all residents of Massachusetts to demand the right to vote on this change to Massachusetts’ moral fabric.”



Contact: John Ribeiro -- 617-981-4177



Stop Casinos For Good!

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