What does it say about an Industry that has destroyed communities across the country?
Members of Massachusetts Gaming Commission leave Springfield with important advice about casinos
Published: Thursday, August 09, 2012
SPRINGFIELD — Members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission left Springfield today with some important lessons about casinos.
Stephen P. Crosby, the chairman of the five-member commission, helped lead a five-hour forum today at Western New England University on mitigating the effects of casinos, tourism and workforce development.
It was the first meeting the gaming commission held in Western Massachusetts, a region that is immersed in a winner-takes-all competition for a casino involving some of the biggest names in the casino industry.
Several casino companies sent representatives, including the Mohegan Sun, Hard Rock Entertainment, Ameristar Casinos and MGM Resorts.
Some panelists said it is key for casinos to be connected to other attractions and businesses in a region.
"If you don't sit these folks down, they will try to maximize their little box and keep everybody in the box," Crosby said about casino companies when asked about the comments of one panelist at the forum. "That's their business model – keep everybody in the box. We ... have to take the initiative to make sure that there is an incentive for them to look outward and figure out how to enhance the rest of the tourism industry."
Crosby and the four other gaming commissioners – Bruce Stebbins, Gayle Cameron, James McHugh and Enrique Zuniga – convened at the end of the forum to officially announce the commission is ready to accept initial applications from possible casino developers. Starting Thursday, developers seeking a casino license in Massachusetts can fill out a form and pay a $400,000, nonrefundable application fee to achieve the status of official applicant, allowing them to meet with state agencies about permits and letting communities know they are serious.
During the event, a top tourism official in a casino-rich area of Indiana told leaders in Western Massachusetts to come up with "a comprehensive game plan" when negotiating with casinos.
"Ten years from now, they won't know who you are and they won't care," Speros A. Batistatos, president of the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority in Hammond, Ind., said about casino companies in general.
Batistatos was on a tourism panel that also included Peter Rosskothen, president and CEO of the Delaney House and Log Cabin in Holyoke and chairman of the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Batistatos and other panelists emphasized that communities need to find ways to link casinos to other entertainment attractions and to help other businesses in the region share in the economic advantages.
Outside Rivers Memorial Hall at the university, anti-casino advocates and a pro-casino group from Palmer both demonstrated before the forum started.
Springfield lawyer Michael T. Kogut said he is considering creating a political action committee to support the anti-casino side in a possible vote in Springfield.
"I do not believe it is going to offer the economic stimulus," Kogut, a Springfield resident for 28 years, said of a casino. "It's going to add to inherent urban problems."
People in so-called host communities would vote in referendums on proposed casino deals before casinos apply for licenses from the gaming commission.
Kevin E. Kennedy, the chief development officer for Springfield who attended the forum, said it's possible that Springfield will receive multiple proposals for a casino.
Kennedy said a casino could help revitalize the downtown. He said any casino, including a proposal by Ameristar Casinos off Page Boulevard and Interstate 291, must be tied to the MassMutual Center, Symphony Hall and CityStage, for example.
"It's critical that the casino become part of the community," Kennedy said.
Last month, in one downtown proposal, two companies associated with Peter A. Picknelly, chairman and CEO of Peter Pan Bus Lines, submitted a proposal for an option to buy The Republican's Main Street building and property in Springfield and the newspaper's eight vacant acres on the Connecticut River. The two Picknelly-associated companies would like to develop a casino in the city's North End.
In a lesson that could hit home in Springfield, Batistatos, a panelist at the forum, said casinos in the city of Gary, Ind., hired thousands of workers, but those employees soon moved to the suburbs. They took their families, their paychecks and they left, he said.
Batistatos also advised that local businesses, including restaurants and banks, need to prepare for casinos possibly luring away their employees. He said businesses need to start thinking now about how to retain employees.
"Give them some love," he said, referring to employees.
When negotiating with casinos, communities should assure neighborhoods are improved, small businesses are developed and schools and residential housing are boosted, he said.
Under the state's gaming law, casinos will need agreements with communities where casinos would locate and with surrounding communities. The agreements could include payments from casinos or other methods to reduce the effects of casinos on areas such as traffic, education, water, sewer and public safety.
The Indiana visitors authority includes representation from five communities with waterfront casinos on Lake Michigan or an inlet including two in Gary, Ind. Indiana approved casinos in 1993.
Paul E. Burns, a Palmer town councilor, said Palmer is already negotiating with the Mohegan Sun, which is planning a casino off Exit 8 of the Massachusetts Turnpike. He said the town is making good progress.
Ultimately, he said, both the town and the Mohegan Sun will talk with leaders of surrounding communities.
"In many respects, a regional approach is the only approach in terms of mitigating this," said Burns, who attended the event.
One sticking point is that the commission needs to define what determines a surrounding community.
Crosby, the gaming commission chairman, said a surrounding community will likely be defined as one that would receive a "substantial negative impact on some aspect" of the municipality. He said most surrounding communities will be obvious.
"If a casino company has identified a site and is working on it already, a potential surrounding community would be well advised to call up and get talking," Crosby said. "If you have got an identified site, then I would say, yeah, they probably ought to be proactive."
Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, said a casino means regional impacts. Brennan said he would like the planning agency to facilitate regional talks on casinos. "I just see that as beneficial," said Brennan, the moderator of a "community mitigation" panel that included Monson Selectman Edward Harrision, the chairman of the Western Massachusetts Casino Task Force.
William Messner, president of Holyoke Community College, and Laurie Salame, lecturer at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, were members of a third panel on workforce development.
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