Propaganda & Hallucinations: All Things Travel: Out-Of-State Casinos Beating Plainridge Slot Bar

One only had to consider comparisons from the AGA's [American Gaming Association] web site. 

These words from former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and Gov. Michael Dukakis: 

After jobs, the argument for casinos is that they provide a new state revenue stream. But the numbers don’t add up.

Commonwealth Magazine reported that in order to reach the revenue estimates when the bill was unveiled — of between $1.4 billion and $1.9 billion — somewhere between $5.6 billion and $7.2 billion must be bet and lost at the two proposed casinos every year.

In Las Vegas, it takes 266 casinos to bring in $11.6 billion in gross revenue, which translates into $924 million in tax revenue. Even the $300 million to $600 million now estimated here is a stretch based on that data.

To read the article in its entirety:
What’s the big hurry? 


The projections are deliberately OVERSTATED to sell PREDATORY GAMBLING to voters and to dazzle elected officials. 

FROM: 

We tried to tell them....

All Things Travel: Out-Of-State Casinos Beating Plainridge Park

December 31, 2015 3:00 AM By Bob Weiss

BOSTON (CBS) — As the year comes to a close, Plainridge Park Casino is finishing in fourth place in the New England gaming race behind Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and Twin River in Rhode Island.

Related: Keller @ Large: Plainridge Park Casino A Flop

The numbers don’t add up for Massachusetts’ first gaming establishment.

At a time when the state’s unemployment is low at five percent and the average family is paying about $600 less each year to buy gas, gamblers are choosing to travel out-of state.

A couple of other gambling options may also be hurting Plainridge. Fantasy sports are an easier alternative for younger players, and the availability of higher price lottery scratch tickets may be a factor.

The popularity of Connecticut casinos can be seen in the prices that Mohegan Sun is charging for New Year’s Eve and January weekends. One-third of their guests are expected to come from Massachusetts by car and bus.

New Year’s Eve is priced at $799 for a room, and Jan. 1 is sold out at Mohegan.

On Jan. 9, the announced price is $499. However, frequent customers will pay less. If you come Monday or Tuesday during the first week of the year, your reward’s card might entitle you to a free room depending on availability.

At Foxwoods, they are getting ready for the second Boston Red Sox fan weekend of fun and games featuring retired players before the start of spring training on Jan. 23.

On recent visits to both Plainridge and Twin River on a Monday afternoon, people playing the slots didn’t draw a crowd.

What was crowded was the live action of Blackjack at the tables in Rhode Island. The food options at Twin River are better.

Then, there is the situation of the ATMs at Plainridge.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has made it so banking machines will not be allowed at casinos, and that’s true. They’re not allowed on the floor where slot machines are located, but if you step into the food court or near the entrance, that’s where you’ll find them.

The original estimate was that Massachusetts’ first casino would take in more than $200 million in its first year. However, the year-end figure could be nearly half of that amount.

In Plainridge on New Year’s Eve, a big night out, the casino is offering $25,000 in free slot play, or $2,016 every hour.

Resort casinos in Everett and Springfield will show much higher results. People are always looking for new ways to lose their money at a resort casino.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/12/31/all-things-travel-casinos-plainridge-park/

Pennsylvania Gambling Addict sentenced to prison

From Bill Kearney:

Massachusetts ‘GAMING’ Future

When it comes to addictions, gambling, especially casino gambling has the most cost monetarily.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - September 20, 2012 - Man gets jail sentence for stealing $350,000
...

A Baldwin Borough man was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail for stealing more than $350,000 from men who own an ATM business.

John Sullivan, 46, pleaded guilty in June to two counts each of theft by deception and theft by unlawful taking.

He was sentenced Tuesday by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III to incarceration plus restitution.

 According to an affidavit of probable cause, Sullivan took the money from two men who operated JBS Concepts and ATM Concepts, which own several hundred ATMs located throughout the Tri-state area.

Sullivan worked as a technician installing and servicing machines for an umbrella company, ATM Cash World, for more than 10 years.

According to the complaint, Sullivan approached the owners of JBS and ATM Concepts and told them he was setting up his own ATM locations. He asked the men for startup money to load the machines, plus the cost to buy them on more than a dozen different occasions from January 2008 to February 2010.

Sullivan told the men he never bought the ATMs and instead used the money to gamble at casinos and to place bets with bookies in Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-south/man-gets-jail-sentence-for-stealing-350000-654162/#ixzz276Xp0KWt

See More

Teen Suicide Blamed on ATM Access

ATM at Warragul pokies venue found key to teen’s death

A coroner has found the suicide of a teenager in Warragul last year was due to an ATM at a local gambling venue inflaming his gambling addiction.

Jacob Anton Van Berlo, 19, hanged himself in the garage of his parents’ Maple Way home on May 11 last year after almost draining his bank account in 40 minutes at the Warragul Downtowner pokies.

The teenager had depression and a known gambling problem and contacted Gamblers Anonymous for help in September 2010 after losing his week’s pay in a day. His parents also knew of his problem.

The coroner, E C Batt, stated in his findings that access to an ATM inside the venue fuelled Mr Van Berlo’s gambling addiction.

“There is a strong inference arising from the circumstances of the young person’s death that the opportunity to access an automatic teller machine located within the gambling venue, operated to feed his gambling addiction and so fuel his depression as to drive him to commit suicide,” Mr Batt said.

Mr Batt also said the case should be brought to the attention of key bodies and policy formulators concerned with ATM’s and other cash dispensing machines in gambling venues.

From July this year ATM’s will be banned from pubs and clubs with poker machines, a policy implemented by the previous state government and extended by the present government to cover all automatic money withdrawal services.

Mr Van Berlo was an apprentice in pre-press graphics at the Warragul & Drouin Gazette, and visited the Downtowner in his lunch break on the day of his death. He did not return to work and was later being discovered dead by his mother when she returned from work just after 4PM.

He spoke with his employers about his problem early in 2011 and was prescribed a daily dose of Zoloft by a psychologist, a drug designed to combat major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Zoloft’s manufacturer, Pfizer, however warns the drug increases the risk of suicidal thinking and behaviour in children, adolescents and young adults.

The drug did not cure his gambling addiction and Mr Van Berlo went on to lose his week’s pay on at least two other occasions, once borrowing money from his mother having lost his pay at the pokies.

In the morning of the day of his death Mr Van Berlo texted a friend to say he would repay him the $100 he owed him.

The coroner described Mr Van Berlo as “a highly intelligent young person who became frustrated and somewhat directionless in his final years at secondary college.”