....will Beacon Hill keep the money safe?

Casinos to pay for compulsive gambling help, but will Beacon Hill keep the money safe?
Mike Beaudet
Kevin Rothstein, Producer

BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - Once Massachusetts casinos are open and generating taxes, tens of millions dollars are supposed to be set aside to help treat compulsive gamblers. But some are wondering if Beacon Hill’s addiction to cash will make them try and grab some of the money for other uses.

“The legislature giveth and the legislature taketh,” said Steve Shestakofsky, executive director of Tobacco Free Mass, who has seen millions originally meant for smoking prevention programs be diverted.

Anti-smoking programs were supposed to get a far bigger share of cigarette tax and tobacco company settlement money, but tens of millions of dollars were instead sent instead to the state’s general fund for lawmakers to spend as they please.

“Massachusetts takes in $832 million from these tobacco sources. In our last budget, only $4.15 million was appropriated to the Department of Public Health to do something,” Shestakofsky said. “That's about one-half of one percent of all the tobacco dollars that have come into the state, which is not what it should be.”

Just like anti-smoking programs were supposed to be funded with tobacco money, gambling addiction programs are slated to be funded by casino tax money. The state’s new casino law includes the creation of a public health trust fund, funded with five percent of the state tax collected on gross gaming revenue. That’s an estimated $20-25 million a year to address problems associated with compulsive gambling.

Many in Massachusetts are already skeptical about casinos. FOX 25 viewers responding to a myfoxboston.com poll overwhelmingly said corruption will go hand-in-hand with casinos. That's a finding that surprised Stephen Crosby, head of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission when he was interviewed by FOX 25 the day after his appointment.

“Ninety-seven out of 100 people assume that this process will not be on the level. Wow,” Crosby said, responding to the poll’s findings.

“So how do you make it on the level?” he was asked.

“It's totally in our actions and not in our words obviously we will try to be as transparent as we can possibly be,” he said.

But there’s more evidence for skeptics who wonder if money for gambling addiction will be siphoned away.

There’s the Spinal Cord Injury Trust Fund, funded by the fee people pay to reinstate their driver's license after a suspension. All the money was supposed to go to the fund for research, but in the eleventh hour, lawmakers diverted half into the general fund.

Then there's the Underground Storage Tank Fund. Every gallon of gasoline contains a two-and-a-half cent tax that was promised to go toward the fund to help pay the cost of cleaning up leaking storage tanks at gas stations. It totals about $80 million every year, but just weeks after then-Gov. Mitt Romney got an increase in the fee, he eliminated the fund, sending the tens of millions of dollars promised for environmental cleanup instead into the general fund

FOX Undercover reporter Mike Beaudet asked state Rep. Brad Jones, the House minority leader, if the same thing could happen with casino money.
“Absolutely could happen. The potential is absolutely there,” Jones said.

The Reading Republican says the creation of the public health trust fund is a key ingredient of the casino law for a lot of legislators, and he expects lawmakers to protect it.
However, legislative history is not lost on him, either.

“A dollar bill on the ground on Beacon Hill is in jeopardy because they'll be a hundred people to jump on it. And a pot of money will be viewed as the path or solution to a great many problems,” he said.

He’s not the only one worried.

“These windfall gambling profits, the legislature often spends them just like they won the lottery,” said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Whyte points to other states that dedicated casino money to help fight compulsive gambling, only to later divert millions to pay for other things.

“We've seen a 90 percent cut in Florida. We've seen massive cuts in other states,” Whyte said.

A Massachusetts public health official points out that the state is dedicating more to gambling addiction than any other state.

“I can't speak on behalf of the Legislature or what they might do, but I think we have broad support, particularly from the governor and the Legislature to make sure that this money will be used for the purposes for which the law is designed,” said state assistant public health commissioner Michael Botticelli, who heads the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services.

“But this governor and this Legislature probably won't be here when that money is there,” Beaudet said.

“Again, I can't speak for the Legislature or what future members might do, but I think what they embedded in the legislation and would require some level of legislative change to really look at using those dollars in other ways,” Botticelli said.

Whyte says other states’ experiences should be a warning for Massachusetts.

“We're deeply concerned that even though casinos are often sold as having this dedicated fund, it's easy apparently for legislators to go back in and not actually commit all that money that was promised,” he said.

The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling canceled an interview with FOX Undercover, deciding it would be premature to comment on the new law. Perhaps because, the council gets money from the state to do its work and is in line to get a lot more money, it doesn't want to angry anyone on Beacon Hill.

Executive Director Marlene Warner did provide a statement saying, “Unlike misdirected cuts to problem gambling services in other states, such as Nevada and Florida, the Commonwealth has committed to the people that they will appropriately address and fund the prevention, intervention and treatment services needed to mitigate the problems associated with legalized gambling.”

Read more: http://www.myfoxboston.com//dpp/news/undercover/casinos-to-pay-for-compulsive-gambling-help-but-will-beacon-hill-keep-the-money-safe-20120202#ixzz1m53TxS00