Vote no on 'predatory gambling' in Tiverton

Guest Opinion: Vote no on 'predatory gambling' in Tiverton

Here are 10 reasons to oppose the expansion of state-sponsored predatory gambling in Rhode Island.

By John E. Higginbotham
and the Interfaith Clergy of Tiverton and Little ComptonPosted Jun. 22, 2016

On June 13, the Providence Journal reported that Twin River management would begin a statewide campaign to persuade Rhode Island voters to approve the casino referendum, Question 1, on the ballot in November for the construction of a $75 million casino on 45 acres of land off Route 81 in Tiverton.

Twin River Chairman John Taylor’s kick-off campaign will point to the 550-600 new jobs the casino will ultimately create along with hundreds of jobs in construction.

Here’s the rub: That’s if they win the permission of the voters in Tiverton. The population of Tiverton is approximately 14,000. On Election Day, the final vote in Tiverton determines the go/no go decision for the casino.

Tiverton is like many small towns in Rhode Island. property taxes are high and the town is strapped for cash. Many Tivertonians could care less about gambling or the casino. They are focused on the promised $3 million-a-year in tax relief.

The question for Tiverton is simple: Are you willing to risk the future health of your beautiful home town based upon the promises made by a casino operator? In typical casino fashion, the odds will always be stacked against the gambler.

Another casino in Rhode Island, planted in Tiverton, is a lose-lose situation, especially for Tiverton. Rhode Islanders generally, and Tivertonians particularly, will ultimately pay for it in losses in the casino and businesses in the town. In the long run, when the casino is no longer profitable, the casino will pick up its chips and walk away in typical casino fashion, a la Atlantic City.

So, why should you care?

Here are 10 reasons to oppose the expansion of state-sponsored predatory gambling in Rhode Island.

• Any short-term benefits from a Tiverton area “convenience” casino would be heavily outweighed by its longer-term economic and social costs.

• The Northeast is becoming oversaturated with casinos. Fewer out-of-staters would visit the proposed casino in Tiverton to gamble, especially with the new Plainville Casino and the $1 billion dollar proposed First Light Casino planned in Taunton by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe.

• The proposed convenience casino would keep some residents from going out of state to gamble. But its main effect would be to expand casino gambling in Rhode Island by encouraging current Rhode Island gamblers to gamble more frequently and encouraging local people in Tiverton, Fall River and New Bedford who do not currently gamble to do so. Moreover, if casino operators win approval for a Tiverton area casino, it will be Tiverton area people and local businesses that will be sucked dry by a business that will do anything to part them from their money and their customers. In other words, the aim of the casino is not to send gamblers elsewhere to spend their money (with local businesses) but rather to seek to engage their customers to spend all they can within casino walls.

• Those 550-600 jobs, the profits, and the tax revenue produced by a convenience casino would be funded overwhelmingly by the gambling losses of Rhode Island residents generally, and East Bay folks particularly, which would merely redistribute existing money within the state without creating any net economic gain.

• With the Northeast facing a casino glut, it makes little sense from an economic development standpoint to open another casino in Tiverton. Casino winnings are flat or shrinking in many states, a third of New Jersey’s casinos have closed, and Connecticut’s casino revenue is down 40 percent from its peak. A 2016 study by the Nelson Rockefeller Institute of Government in New York warns, “… while new casinos may generate short-run increases in public revenues, those revenues can quickly reverse and decline.”

• Casinos have been increasingly turning to part-time jobs to reduce wage costs and eliminate medical benefits. Casino workers interviewed in a recent New Jersey study said they would not recommend casino jobs for their children because of the shift from full-time jobs with benefits to part-time positions that do not offer enough pay and benefits to sustain a family in today’s economy.

• Casino gambling represents a regressive tax that hits low-wage earners, the poor, minorities, and the elderly the hardest, thereby contributing to economic and social inequality.

• State sponsored predatory casino gambling spreads gambling addiction, debt, bankruptcies, broken families, and increases in suicide and crime, particularly embezzlement, within 10 miles of the facility. Multiple studies show that 35 to 50 percent of casino gambling profits come from problem gamblers. In other words, the casino industry’s very business model is dependent upon preying on addicted gamblers, and up to half the money government obtains from casino gambling comes from exploiting addicted citizens and the people close to them.

• According to a landmark report from the Institute for American Values, a non-partisan think tank, the new local and regional casinos drain wealth from communities, weaken nearby businesses, hurt property values, and reduce civic participation, family stability, and other forms of social capital that are at the heart of a successful community.

• More gambling is not an answer to Rhode Island’s financial problems. In fact, once all the economic and social costs are factored in, economist Earl Grinols, the country’s leading independent expert on the subject, concludes that on average the cost-to-benefit ratio of bringing a casino into a new area is greater than 3-1.

Fr. John E. Higginbotham is rector of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Tiverton. The Interfaith Clergy of Tiverton and Little Compton include Rev. Charles Simonson, Rev. William Sterrett, Rev. Missy Quay, Rev. Joseph Runner and Rev. Rebecca Floyd Marshall.

http://www.heraldnews.com/opinion/20160622/guest-opinion-vote-no-on-predatory-gambling-in-tiverton

Taunton Daily Gazette Promise of jobs kicks off campaign for Tiverton casino Taunton Daily Gazette Promise of jobs kicks off campaign for Tiverton casino ... and instead guaranteed Massachusetts 17 percent of gaming revenues from the tribal casino.