Richard Brunswick: Question 3 can stop casino mess before it starts
Friday, October 10, 2014
To the editor:
I am writing to express my agreement with columnist Clare Higgins and a letter-writer in encouraging voters to vote yes on Question 3 to stop casinos in Massachusetts. TV airwaves are being flooded with ads promising many new jobs due to casino construction and employment.
What the ads don’t say is that casinos will hurt the Massachusetts economy by harming local businesses and causing more job losses in the areas around the casinos — more than casinos will create. Casinos will take an estimated $2 billion in gambling losses out of our citizens’ wallets and out of our economy and will ship them out of state to their investors. Gambling addiction will lead to more crime, bankruptcies, embezzlement and domestic violence. We will likely have an estimated 150,000 newly addicted gamblers which will cost our taxpayers more. The casino business model depends on a well-thought out plan to create gambling addicts (It’s “gambling,” not “gaming.”) More than half the money casinos collect comes from gamblers with pathologic or problem gambling. Let’s keep gambling’s troubles in Connecticut and other states. Please vote yes on Question 3 on Election Day to stop the casino mess.
Richard Brunswick, M.D., M.S.W.
Northampton
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