Granite State Coalition
Against Expanded Gambling
NoSlots.com Blog & Alerts
Will NH Casinos Stop Revenue Flow to Mass?
Casino
shills make two major claims:
- New Hampshire can lure Massachusetts residents to a casino here;
A casino here will stop many New Hampshire residents from gambling at Massachusetts and Connecticut casinos.
Key findings (see charts below):
Overwhelmingly, Maine's Hollywood Slots casino has failed to attract out of state gamblers, with 96 percent of gamblers there living in Maine. This number has held steady for seven years running.
One percent of Hollywood Slots gamblers (1%) live in neighboring Massachusetts. Even during a brief two-year novelty phase, only 3.6 percent of Maine casino gamblers lived in Massachusetts. In 2011, Massachusetts residents spent a paltry $577,000 at Maine's casino, generating only $286,000 in state and local tax revenues.
The Maine casino completely FAILED to halt the flow of Maine gambler money to Connecticut casinos. In 2004, the year before Hollywood Slots opened, Maine residents spent $33 million at the Connecticut casinos, $34 million in 2011.
Source/Notes:
UMass
Dartmouth annual New England gaming reports 2005-2012
for calendar years 2004-2011.
* 2006 is Hollywood Slots first full year operation (opened 11/4/2005).
** Hollywood Slots opened a larger casino and increased slots from 476 to 1,000 in summer, 2008.
Massachusetts will soon have four big, flashy, destination-style casinos. If our legislature gets snookered into allowing them, New Hampshire casinos (like Maine's) will be plain vanilla, local market casinos which will FAIL like Maine's to attract significant out-of-state gambling money
and will FAIL to stop New Hampshire gamblers wanting an amenity-rich casino experience from heading South to Massachusetts and Connecticut.
New Hampshire casinos will social and economic black holes, just like Maine's. They
would cannibalize consumer spending and jobs from thousands of existing New
Hampshire businesses, charities, and nonprofits, and increase gambling addiction
and serious crimes perpetrated against innocent New Hampshire residents.
Once Allowed, Will Slots Proliferate Statewide?
Casino shills keep talking about limited gambling, implying that no casino will be
permitted near your town, degrading your quality of life, imposing uncompensated
infrastructure, social welfare, and crime costs on your community.
Today (April 12), the Maine legislature (pending expected final Senate Appropriations
Committee approval) voted to allow fraternal organizations such as the Elks or American Legion to own and operate up to five slot machines. Conservative Governor Paul LePage is considering vetoing the measure.
In every state, once the first slot casino is legalized, the legislature becomes addicted
to casino money and slots or casinos wind up near every community.
Talk To The Candidates
All five candidates for New Hampshire governor are "open" to
predatory slot casinos.
Keep any eye out for their local campaign events such as house parties, local party
meetings, and Rotary speeches. Show up and ask the candidates how they will keep
these social and economic black holes from proliferating statewide and damaging
your community.
Damages include:
Revenue and jobs cannibalization of thousands of New
Hampshire businesses, charities, and nonprofits.
Political corruption by casino interests, recently in Pennsylvania, New York, and Alabama.
According to the New Hampshire Gaming Study Commission, legalization of even one Salem or Hudson casino would cause 1,250 additional FBI Index I crimes each year (see Table 13) and 10,000 additional problem and addicted gamblers (see Table 11) along with the
consequential bankruptcies, broken families, and attempted suicides.
Best,
Jim Rubens
Chair,
GSCAEG
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