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Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Voters oppose online lottery, survey finds






Voters oppose online lottery, survey finds

By  GLOBE STAFF  
Nearly 70 percent of Massachusetts voters do not support legislation that would allow the state lottery to sell tickets online, a new survey has found.
Just 5 percent said they support expanding the lottery to include Internet games “very” strongly, the survey found, while 7 percent said they support the proposal “somewhat” strongly.
The survey was conducted by Princeton Research Associates on behalf of a coalition of business owners who fear they will lose business if lawmakers allow online lottery sales. The coalition includes the Massachusetts Food Association, the Boston Convenience Store Owners Association, the New England Service Station and Auto Repair Association, and the Massachusetts Package Stores Association.

“We’re heartened by this poll because it shows the public is as skeptical as retailers are about taking the lottery online,” said Joanne Mendes, executive director of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, which represents convenience stores. “We hope this poll goes a long way in educating lawmakers on how the public feels.”
State treasurer Deborah Goldberg, who oversees the lottery, has pushed for online sales. Last year, a bill to allow online lottery sales passed the state Senate, but failed in the House.
Proponents of online ticket sales note that lottery revenue has fallen 16 percent between 2008 and 2015, accounting for inflation. In an increasingly cashless society, fewer people are likely to have money on hand to buy lottery tickets at convenience and liquor stores, they say.
“The only way to reach the younger market is via online lottery games,” Goldberg has said. “It’s the future and we need to face it.”
Lottery officials declined to comment.
Lottery agents across the state say they rely heavily on lottery sales, and for several years have fought back online proposals.
Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said the state’s lottery is the most successful in the country, raising almost $1 billion annually to help pay for police, firefighters, teachers and other local services.
“Abandoning the current system for a model which has yet to be proven successful anywhere in the country is simply bad policy,” he said.
The survey also found that 80 percent of respondents believe state residents already have enough access to the lottery through the more than 7,500 lottery agents at convenience stores, gas stations, package stores, and other locations. It found that 65 percent of voters believe stores would be better able to prevent minors from playing than an online lottery.
The survey was based on interviews with 550 residents, randomly selected from voter lists across the state.
Sean P. Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @spmurphyboston.

How irrational is the selection and the COST?
Isn't this ENOUGH?  




http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/05/16/voters-oppose-online-lottery-survey-finds/zMPWRIaCePc5PSvmvDpLyN/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Atwitter


As State Senator, Michael Morrissey spoke in favor of casino gambling at several 
public forums and was wholly uninformed. now he has a 'crime problem' as 
Norfolk DA? 


Expanded FREE Drinking Hours? 

I posted the entire Boston Globe article [it had been archived] when Beacon 
Hill mentioned  expanded ALCOHOL. 

If Rosenberg leaves, this will go through. [He was unmercifully attacked 
about future changes - no one else will remember. This is what Casino Vultures do.] 

 




Norfolk DA wants state funds to deal with Plainridge Casino-tied crime
Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office is asking the state’s gaming commission to help foot the bill for an attorney who would deal specifically with crimes – such as firearm offenses, domestic violence cases and even instances of assaults on police officers – tied to the new Plainridge Park Casino, reports the Herald’s Matt Stout. Crime associated with new casinos? We thought there wasn’t supposed to a big spike in crime tied to casinos, or at least that’s what we were told by gambling proponents. (Insert obligatory snort here.)
DA seeks $75G for a casino attorney



Thursday, May 4, 2017

Casino Free New Hampshire: We Made a Statement: 275-82


Congratulations New Hampshire! 
Casino Vultures DEFEATED! 


NH House votes 275-82 to defeat SB242 Casino Bill
View this email in your browser
Good News, Casino Free NH Friends:

James A Garfield once said, "Justice and goodwill will outlast passion."     With the help of you and your organizations, we've again outlasted the slots casino industry.

The NH House made a resounding statement this afternoon, supporting the Ways & Means Committee ITL by a resounding  275 to 82 vote with an indefinite postponement.    The time for slots casinos has passed and the revenue prospects are diminishing by the day.

Thanks for all of you for writing your Op-Eds and LTEs, for taking time out of your real lives for making phone calls,  and for showing up when we asked.   Once again, we have prevailed, and New Hampshire's citizens will be the better for it.

Thanks from all of us at

Casino Free NH and the NH Coalition Against Expanded Gambling




Our mailing address is:
Casino Free New Hampshire
2 Eagle Square, Concord, NH, United States
ConcordNH 03301










Wednesday, May 3, 2017

MASSACHUSETTS DRUNKS ON THE ROAD? Conn. ended push for 24-hour bars at casinos after crash



EXPANDED FREE ALCOHOL IS NOT  ''another little change'! 
Massachusetts has only Plainridge Slot Barn open at this time and already CHANGES?



How many DRUNKS do you want on the road? 
Masachusetts is unable to reduce ALCOHOL RELATED fatalities now. 




Reported by MASSterlist 04/14/2017:


Rosenberg ‘not a fan’ of extending casino last calls to 4 a.m.
The House budget unveiled earlier this week has an outside section that would allow casinos to sell liquor to gamblers an extra two hours till 4 a.m. But Shira Schoenberg at MassLive reports that Senate President Stan Rosenberg is “not a fan of the idea,” in his words. "We said we're not going to chip away at the statute because this is how it happens in state after state," Rosenberg said. "First there's one little change, then another little change and before you know it the commonwealth loses control of the industry."
MassLive



Conn. ended push for 24-hour bars at casinos after crash

State had hoped to collect more slot machine profits

DRIVER CHARGED A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.DRIVER CHARGED
A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
By Gregory B. Hladky
Globe Correspondent / March 22, 2009

HARTFORD - Officials looking to help solve Connecticut's multibillion-dollar deficit thought they had found an easy way to raise another $5 million a year: allow casinos to serve alcohol 24 hours a day.

A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
DRIVER CHARGED
More hours of bar service would mean more gambling, they figured, which would mean the state could collect more slot machine profits.
But the proposal by Governor M. Jodi Rell's administration came to a sudden end at about 3:30 a.m. on March 7, when a car leaving the Mohegan Sun casino turned the wrong way down Interstate 395, headlights off, and slammed into a van full of college students on their way to Logan International Airport. They were scheduled for a flight to Uganda, where they had plans to help out at an orphan age over spring break.
Elizabeth Durante, a 20-year-old pre-med student at Connecticut College in New London, was killed.
The car's driver, Daniel E. Musser, 24, a sailor from the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, was charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
The next day, Rell called Durante's death "an unconscionable tragedy" and pulled back her budget proposal to make alcohol available 24 hours at the casinos.
"Even though this accident occurred under the laws as they have been for many years, the governor said it does give one pause to question the wisdom of extending liquor service hours at the casinos," Christopher Cooper, Rell spokesman, said recently. "We don't believe the bill is going to move forward this session."
Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the Mohegan Tribal Council, agreed.
"The Tribal Council in general has taken the position that it's time to pause and mourn the loss of this very bright light of humanity," Bunnell said, "that it's not appropriate to have those discussions right now."
Bunnell said the tribe was originally "approached on a bipartisan basis" by lawmakers looking for ways to increase state revenue.
Lori A. Potter, a spokeswoman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, said analysts at the tribe's Foxwoods Resort Casino stand by their prediction that extending casino bar hours would result in an increase in state revenue.
"It is important to note that it would be impossible to find a more heavily regulated serving establishment in the state of Connecticut than the two casinos," Potter said.
Connecticut law requires the casinos' bars to stop serving by 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and by 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. One of the arguments originally used in favor of allowing longer serving hours was that their competitors in Atlantic City serve alcohol 24 hours a day.
Legal hours for bars to serve alcohol vary greatly across the United States, according to Steven Schmidt, vice president for public policy at the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.
In Massachusetts, for example, state law allows service until 11 p.m., but local governing bodies can extend the hours to 2 a.m. In states such as New Jersey and Nevada, Schmidt said, local authorities are allowed to set bar closing hours.
Charles H. Gartman, one of the students with Durante in the van that night, has difficulty understanding why anyone thought round-the-clock liquor at the casinos was a good idea.
"Twenty-four-hour bar service is a little bit ridiculous," Gartman said last week in a phone interview from his New York City home. "You can't trust everyone to drink and drive safely."
Gartman, 19 and a sophomore at Connecticut College, has not yet recovered from injuries he suffered in the crash.
The five other passengers also suffered injuries, some minor.
"Both my legs were pretty banged up, and at first I couldn't walk," he said. "I have pretty severe lacerations on my chin."
Nor has he recovered from the loss of Durante, of West Islip, N.Y. Gartman said it was Durante who got him interested in going to Uganda to aid orphaned children. "It was her enthusiasm for helping people," he recalled.
Stephanie Hinman, who was Durante's roommate and one of the students on the Uganda trip, finds it ironic that her friend would die at the hands of an accused drunk driver.
"Neither Liz nor I ever drank," Hinman said from her home in Norfolk, Conn.
"We lived together in the substance-free dorm."
In a 2007 interview with a college publication, Durante said she wanted to become a surgeon and work in Africa with Doctors Without Borders.
For Janice Heggie Margolis, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Durante's death provided tragic evidence of why casino liquor hours should never be expanded.
She said the potential price to society of more fatal crashes is simply too high, no matter how much money might flow to the state. "This is exactly the reason why," Heggie Margolis said.
"You can never put on paper the cost of a life."


http://archive.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2009/03/22/conn_ended_push_for_24_hour_bars_at_casinos_after_crash/

Casino Free New Hampshire: SB 242 Vote Tomorrow; Need Help with Flyers 8:30 - 10:15 AM




SB 242 casino vote is tomorrow, Thursday!   See how you can help!
View this email in your browser
The END is near!
               
Tomorrow, May 4, is the full House vote on the SB 242 casino bill.   We're almost done, but I need your help one more time.

If you're able, I need six volunteers to help hand out flyers to legislators as they come into the chambers.   This flyer makes our final argument, and its important that we get it into the hands of everyone we can from 8:30 to 10:15 a.m.    I will be located on the 2nd floor of the State House near the elevator,  with CasiNO stickers and flyers.   Please confirm to me by email, BrianBeihl@CasinoFreeNH.org if you can help us close the deal.

If you wish to stay for the vote, you are absolutely welcome.   The bad news is that SB 242 is the last bill of the day, and we can't give you an exact time, particularly because there are two other significant bills Thursday.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all of your LTEs, calls, letters and help.   That's what makes us a great coalition of NH citizens who want to keep our state casino free!

Brian Beihl,
Field Organizer
Casino Free NH

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Our mailing address is:
Casino Free New Hampshire
2 Eagle Square, Concord, NH, United States
ConcordNH 03301