When the Brainless follow the Clueless.....

CAUTION: Choking Alert! Do not read with mouth full!

After you read the article below and pick yourself up off the floor from laughter, this is one more reason to REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL!

DeLeo gets award for helping gambling addicts

House Speaker Robert DeLeo accepts the Kathleen Scanlan Advocacy Award from Marlene Warner, the executive director of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling. The award was given Friday afternoon at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Natick. Contributed photo


By Jonathan Phelps
Daily News Staff
Posted Apr. 12, 2014

NATICK – House Speaker Robert DeLeo said Friday afternoon he was compelled to pass legislation for expanded gaming in 2011 after meeting with 700 electrical and construction union workers.

Many were out of work and concerned about health care, mortgages and educating their children, he said.

"I looked at this as a way to get jobs to the blue-collar workers," he said of expanded gambling before a group at the Massachusetts Conference on Gambling Problems Friday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Rte. 9.

But he understood the need to pass legislation to help gambling addicts.

"I am very well aware of the horrors of gambling addictions," he said. "We spent a lot of time getting it right."

DeLeo, D-Winthrop, was in town Friday afternoon to accept the first Kathleen M. Scanlon Advocacy Award by the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling. The award, in its first year, was developed in honor of Scanlon, the former executive director of the council. The council is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

"I've received many awards, but this is really special to me," he said. The award was given during the 2014 Massachusetts conference on gambling problems.

DeLeo has been a "longtime champion" of intervention and treatment of gambling disorders through statewide services, said Marlene Warner, executive director of the statewide council.

"He had understood the need for balance in both securing plans for economic development and growth in his districts of Revere and Winthrop, as well as statewide, while also recognizing that there is a downside to legalized gambling and securing services to address those," she said.

DeLeo said the state has the "finest law in the country" on expanded gaming.

"I think Massachusetts is going to stand out as a state that got it right," he said.

He said they worked hard to make sure there were strong provisions for public health programs for compulsive gambling, support programs and prevention.

The state's Gaming Commission will require each gaming establishment to pay $5 million annually into a public health trust fund for these programs. Additionally, 5 percent of casino gaming annual revenue will go to the trust fund, estimated to be $15 million a year.

DeLeo spoke of the "Moral Test of Government" by Hubert Humphrey, who served as vice president under Lyndon B. Johnson.

He said the "test" is how the government treats children, elderly, sick, needy and handicapped.

"I'd add that the moral test of government is how the government treats those struggling with gambling addiction, those tormented by drug addition and those suffering from mental health woes," he said.


 http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/article/20140412/NEWS/140418625/11514/NEWS