Doubling down on a troubled industry

Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 11:00 am

By Robert Steele and Tony Hwang |

The initial proposals are in and the race is on to see which of four towns — Hartford, East Hartford, Windsor Locks, or East Windsor — gets to host the “convenience” casino the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans want to open in northern Connecticut.

Advocates contend the proposed casino would help protect Connecticut casino revenue and jobs from MGM’s Springfield casino, generate municipal tax dollars, and spur local economic development. In short, they argue, the casino would be a windfall both for the state and the lucky town chosen to host it.  

But would it? Or would it, in fact, entail doubling down on a declining state industry that comes with a mountain of economic and social problems that would far outweigh any benefits?

The evidence suggests the latter.

Economically, the Northeast’s growing casino glut is taking its toll, sharply reducing the inflow of out-of-state money that fueled Connecticut’s casino boom. The combined revenue for Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun is down 38 percent from its peak. The two casinos have eliminated a third of their jobs and have been replacing full-time jobs with part-time jobs to reduce wage costs and eliminate medical benefits. Foxwoods has stopped profit-sharing payments to its tribal owners and is mired in debt.

The proposed convenience casino would slow the decline of Connecticut’s casino industry by helping to keep state gamblers in Connecticut, encouraging local gamblers to gamble more frequently, and expanding the market for casino gambling in greater Hartford.

But the casino’s customer base would be heavily skewed to state residents, which would mean most of its revenue and jobs would be funded by the gambling losses of Connecticut people, resulting in simply redistributing money within the state and doing little to create any net new economic value.

What the new casino would do, however, is increase a myriad of societal problems, including debt, bankruptcies, broken families, and crime. A 2009 state-sponsored study reported a steep increase in the number of Connecticut residents seeking treatment for gambling addiction following the arrival of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, while arrests for embezzlement soared by 400 percent, a rate of increase 10 times the national average. More recently, a Western Connecticut State University study revealed that violent crime increased in nearby towns after the casinos opened despite a sharp drop in violent crimes nationally and in Connecticut as a whole. According to the study’s author, interviews with local officials also indicated increases in prostitution and illicit drug use.

Looking at the evidence nationally, the Institute for American Values, a nonpartisan think tank, concluded that casinos constitute a regressive tax that hits low-wage earners, minorities, and the elderly the hardest. In sum, the Institute found, the new regional and local 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.

There is another reason to be concerned about the proposed casino.

The tribes and their legislative allies originally proposed opening three convenience casinos. They backed off that proposal out of fear three couldn’t make it through the legislature all at once, but they are almost certain to revive the idea if they get the first one. Combined with the state’s decision to roll out the casino game keno to bars, restaurants, and convenience stores, the Hartford-area casino could be the first step in a massive expansion of casino-type gambling in the state.

It is time to examine not only the economic and social impact of additional casinos, but the serious ethical questions involved in government promoting them.

Multiple independent studies document that casinos obtain 35 percent to 50 percent of their revenue from problem gamblers — individuals with some level of gambling addiction. In other words, the casino industry’s business model is dependent upon preying on addicted gamblers, and up to half the money government obtains from casinos comes from exploiting addicted individuals and those around them.

Does anyone really think that’s a formula for economic growth?

Robert Steele is a former U.S. representative from Connecticut’s 2nd Congressional District and the author of “The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town.” Tony Hwang is assistant leader of the state Senate’s Republican minority.

http://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/other_commentary/doubling-down-on-a-troubled-industry/article_988235da-8798-11e5-aac8-63cf51d9fe14.html

Former Congressman speaks against casinos

Robert Steele speaks about casinos to the Suffield Women's Club at the Suffield Senior Center. Photo by Diane Church.

By Diane Church


With the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes seeking to build casinos in north central Connecticut, a new part of the state may soon experience issues that are now familiar to those in the southeastern region.

Both tribes want to build new casinos along the Interstate 91 and 84 corridors north of Hartford to compete with the MGM Casino now under construction in Springfield, Mass.

Reactions have been mixed. Officials in Windsor, Suffield and Enfield have said they don't want casinos. East Hartford has said it would welcome a casino at the former Showcase Cinemas on Silver Lane, which sits alongside I-84 and has been abandoned for years. Meanwhile, Bradley International Airport has been suggested as a possible location.

Robert Steele, a business executive, former U.S. Congressman and son of radio legend Bob Steele, wants area residents to know about how casino gambling can quickly change a community. He spoke about the issue on April 28 at a Suffield Women's Club meeting at the Suffield Senior Center. Steele lived in southeastern Connecticut and watched the developments firsthand, he said, coming to the conclusion that the casinos deal their communities a losing hand on many fronts.

"It started in 1988 when Congress passed the Indian Gaming Act," Steele said. "This allowed federally recognized tribes to start casinos to support themselves."

The Mashantucket Pequots, who received federal recognition in 1983, were the first to open a casino in 1992. Then another tribe, the Mohegans, received recognition in 1994 and opened their casino two years later.

Prior to that, Steele said, the only states that allowed legalized slot machines and table games were Nevada and New Jersey. Gamblers, he said, were affluent folks who usually visited the casinos occasionally.

Now 40 states have a combined total of more than 1,000 casinos. With this competition, the stakes have been raised. Casinos now aim for a more diverse audience while still keeping up their glittery, high-class façade, Steele said. Some people are lured into gambling addiction, hooked on the thrill and the promise that the next game could yield a jackpot.

Steele said that it's a myth that casinos contribute to the local economy by bringing in more customers. He said a friend of his who had a restaurant in New London County thought the casinos would increase his business. Instead, they had the opposite effect and the restaurant closed after a couple of years.

Steele said people go to the casino, eat at the casino, stay overnight in the casino hotel, attend events at the casino and drive home after fueling up at the tribal-owned gas station.

Although casinos bring in jobs, Steele said they are usually low-skilled, low-paying jobs. To supplant their workforce, casinos bring in immigrants who crowd into houses, often living in substandard conditions, he said.

In recent years, the tribes have watched the recession and new gambling operations in the area take away their casino monopoly and the profits that went with it. New York opened nine racetrack casinos and eight Indian casinos and has four more casinos planned or proposed. Slots parlors have opened in Rhode Island. Now the latest competitor, the MGM Casino, is poised to take customers from the Boston area.

When the casinos opened, the tribes agreed to give 25 percent of their slot machine revenue to the state in exchange for a monopoly on slot machines. Now that the state is hooked on that money, officials have been nervously watching their cut dwindle along with casino profits. They are hoping, along with the tribes, to increase casino revenue, so the proposed new casinos are getting little opposition from them, Steele said.

Steele wrote a book, "The Curse," to inform people about what happens when a casino comes to town. The work of historical fiction chronicles a fictional family dealing with some of the very real problems the casinos caused in southeast Connecticut. It starts with fictional character Ethan Williams, fighting in the real Pequot War. His wife is killed in the war, but he settles in the area and starts a farm.

Fast forward some 350 years to the late 1980s, and one of Williams' descendants, Josh Williams, moves home and wants to save the family farm in the fictional town of Sheffield. The Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans soon built their casinos nearby, causing the problems Steele spoke about.

Then a third tribe, the "Northern Pequots," seek federal recognition so they can build a casino near the farm. This is fact-based. There actually was a tribe called the Eastern Pequots that tried unsuccessfully to get federal recognition in the 1990s so they could build a casino in the area.

Steele said he plans to speak in Windsor Locks, but nothing has been scheduled yet. His schedule of public appearances can be seen at http://www.rhsteele.com.

"If a casino comes to your town, you will not recognize your community," he said. "The pressure for more casinos is a daunting prospect for those of us who think we have enough."



http://www.courant.com/reminder-news/windsor-locks-edition/rnw-wl-suffield-steele-casinos-book-the-curse-0514-20150505-story.html

Five reasons to kill the casino bill

Published 4:00 pm, Friday, April 10, 2015

 

It's getting hard to keep up with all the attempts to expand casino-type gambling in Connecticut. Last year, public opposition stopped legislative leaders from putting the gambling game keno in restaurants, bars and convenience stores, and earlier this year a lack of support derailed a proposal by a legislative task force to place video slots in OTB facilities.
 
Now, the Democratic legislative leadership wants to pass a bill that would allow the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, owners of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively, to jointly build three commercial -- not tribal -- satellite casinos in order to fight out-of-state competition.

The tribes want to open the first "convenience" casino on I-91 between Hartford and the Massachusetts border in an effort to keep Connecticut residents from going to the new $800 million MGM casino being built in Springfield.

They reportedly hope to open the other two casinos along I-95 and I-84 in Fairfield County to defend against New York's casinos. The Hartford-area casino would be heavily oriented to slot machines, with up to 2,000 slots and 50-75 table games, no entertainment, and limited food and beverages. There are about 5,000 slots and 300 table games at Foxwoods.

The bill's supporters argue the new casinos would help both the tribes and the state by slowing the decline in gambling revenue and helping to preserve casinos jobs. But the bill is a bad one for Connecticut for five reasons:

1. The primary economic benefit of Connecticut's casinos has come from their success in drawing over half their combined customers and billions of dollars from other states. These out-of-state customers are the ones who are disappearing because they have new casinos in their own backyard. Building new scaled-down casinos in Connecticut will do nothing to bring them back.

2. While opening convenience casinos would encourage current Connecticut gamblers to stay in state, it would also encourage them to gamble more and attract thousands of other Connecticut residents to gamble, with a corresponding increase in gambling addiction, debt, bankruptcies, broken families and crime.

3. There is a growing body of research on the negative effects of casino gambling's spread. According to a recent report by the nonpartisan Institute for American Values, the new local and regional casinos drain wealth from communities, prey on low-income people, 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 society.

Here in Connecticut, a 2014 study from Western Connecticut State University shows that despite a sharp drop in crime in the state as a whole, the number of violent crimes, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, increased in nearby towns after Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun opened.

While the number of thefts declined modestly, the value of property stolen skyrocketed by nearly 40 percent. Interviews with police and judicial officials also indicated increases in prostitution and illicit drug use.

4. In disregard for Connecticut voters, the bill makes no provision for residents of proposed host towns to vote on whether they want a casino in their community, but simply gives the municipality's legislative body the power to make this far-reaching decision.

5. Just over a decade ago, Connecticut showed its opposition to more casinos by repealing the charity gaming law that opened the door to our two current Indian casinos, and then mounted a successful effort to keep its other tribes from gaining federal recognition and the right to open casinos.

Now our governor and congressional delegation are in a battle to stop the federal government from changing regulations that would again create the possibility of more Indian casinos -- and land claims -- in Connecticut. Passage of the new casino bill would make a mockery of the state's argument that it opposes more casinos and would destroy its ability to win that fight.

More casinos are not an answer to Connecticut's economic problems. Instead of encouraging our citizens to gamble away their savings, we need to attract productive, living-wage jobs, promote stable revenue streams and end the runaway spending that's put the state so deeply in debt.

Robert Steele, of Essex, was a U.S. representative from eastern Connecticut and is author of "The Curse: Big-Time Gambling's Seduction of a Small New England Town." State Sen. Tony Hwang, R-28, of Fairfield, is an assistant Senate minority leader, representing the towns of Easton, Fairfield, Newtown, Weston and Westport.


http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Five-reasons-to-kill-the-casino-bill-6192037.php


If you haven't read the book, I encourage you to do so.

CT: Gambling Expansion is NOT really Gambling Expansion

Tribes: Plans To Expand Slots Would Invalidate Revenue Deal


CHRISTOPHER KEATING

9:00 pm, February 6, 2015

 

HARTFORD — A bill that would legalize slot machines outside the state's two Indian casinos took a huge hit Friday when both the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes said the plan would violate their revenue-sharing compacts with the state.

Representatives from the tribes did not testify this week when House Bill 5378 was debated at a public hearing. But spokesmen said Friday that both tribes oppose the idea of expanding gambling at offtrack betting parlors in Windsor Locks, New Haven and Bridgeport.

"The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation's position is that HB 5378 would violate the memorandum of understanding between the State of Connecticut and the tribe,'' said spokesman William Satti. "We feel any discussions of this nature should be on a government-to-government basis with the present administration to discuss ways to protect jobs and revenue for the State of Connecticut."

The compacts with the tribes that operate Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun requires the casinos to pay 25 percent of their slot machine revenue to the state. The agreements have brought the state $6.5 billion since the arrival of slots in 1993. In return, the tribes have the exclusive right to operate the lucrative slot machines.

The issue of expanding slots is important because the money sent to the state from the casinos has been dropping sharply and is forecast to plummet further.

Slot revenues peaked at $430 million in the 2007 fiscal year and have since fallen to $267 million in the current fiscal year. The revenue is projected to fall to $191 million in the 2018 fiscal year as the tribes face competition in Springfield, Mass., and from places like Aqueduct in Queens, N.Y., and Yonkers Raceway in Westchester County, N.Y.

Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the Mohegan tribe, said that even a small number of new slots outside the casinos would knock out the entire amount of money the tribes are currently providing to the state.

"Two slot machines at Windsor Locks would violate the agreement — the whole thing,'' Bunnell said.

"One slot machine. The state has done extraordinarily well based on the exclusive right of the two tribes.''

With fast-growing competition in New York, Rhode Island and soon in Massachusetts, Bunnell said Mohegan Sun is "acutely aware'' of venues that are drawing away Connecticut customers.

"At this point in time, we have done a lot of analysis,'' Bunnell said. "It is our desire to share that data with the state so that they're fully informed and again offer our willingness to sit and work together, if that is something the state wants to do, to protect the jobs that we have created. We are not presenting a plan at this point in time.''

With a casino scheduled to open just over the state line in Springfield in 2017, some Connecticut legislators say the state needs to act to preserve thousands of jobs and millions in state revenues.

Lawmakers are pushing ahead with the proposal to allow slot machines in Windsor Locks, Bridgeport and New Haven so residents will not be tempted to gamble out of state.

The push is particularly strong in north-central Connecticut, where supporters say that slot machines would provide a boost to the Bradley Teletheater in Windsor Locks. The town of fewer than 15,000 residents has 1,500 hotel rooms because of the nearby international airport. State Rep. Peggy Sayers, a Windsor Locks Democrat, said the slots would be popular because "people fly in for meetings and frequently look for evening entertainment.''

State Rep. David Alexander, D-Enfield, said the opening of the $800 million MGM Resorts International casino in Springfield will immediately draw gamblers from Enfield and surrounding towns.

"We're bleeding money now to Rhode Island and New York, and soon to be Springfield,'' Alexander said. "We can stop some of that bleeding. We're not expanding the market. It's three isolated facilities. We can keep some revenue here, as opposed to other states.''

Sayers and Alexander supported the plan during a public hearing this week, the first step in moving a bill through the legislature.

Expansion Of Gaming 'Complicated'

But state Rep. Stephen Dargan, co-chairman for more than 20 years of the legislative committee that oversees gambling, said the tribes' opposition did not surprise him, and that the state must be careful not to break the tribal compacts.

"The expansion of gaming is complicated,'' Dargan said. "If you have someone outside the two tribes who want to do it, it complicates it. They feel they have exclusivity with the compact agreement.''

Dargan says the plans to expand slot machines to the state's three offtrack betting sites — the Bradley Teletheater, Sports Haven in New Haven, and Shoreline Star in Bridgeport, do not include the exact number of slot machines.

"I haven't seen any comprehensive plan,'' Dargan said. "There needs to be broader discussions.''

Malloy has largely stayed out of the issue, saying he would not play a "lead role'' in expanding slot machines.

"It's not something I've been actively thinking about or pursuing,'' Malloy said previously. "I don't see Connecticut doing it, but, you know, that's a legislative matter, at least initially. … I don't think that there is a consensus in Connecticut that people want a lot more gaming.''

Former House Speaker James Amann, now a lobbyist for Shoreline Star, said the two major new gambling venues in New York — Aqueduct and Yonkers — have drawn large numbers of gamblers out of Fairfield County.

"When MGM opens, the erosion will continue, and if there is inaction taken by this General Assembly, it will only get worse,'' Amann said. "This is not about promoting or expanding gambling opportunities. It's about the fight the state is forced to wage with neighboring states for gaming dollars. … Other states are taking the fight to Connecticut. We need to protect what we have and keep Connecticut dollars in Connecticut.''

While some lawmakers are focused on jobs and revenues for the state, other advocates say the state is not paying enough attention to the social costs of gambling. State Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, was strongly opposed to keno proposals and he is also opposing the expansion of new slots.

"Gambling addiction is a disease,'' Hwang said. "We're not treating it as a disease in these discussions.''

Hwang has teamed up with former U.S. Rep. Bob Steele, a Republican who represented the state's Second District from 1970 to 1975.

"Today's slots have become highly addictive computers'' that "produce relatively few jobs,'' Steele testified Thursday to the legislature's public safety committee. "They drain wealth from communities.''

In the same way, Cheryl Chandler of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling raised questions about the proposal.

"This would not only be an expansion of gambling, but an introduction to communities of the form of gambling found to be most closely associated with addiction,'' Chandler said. "One example close to home is that fact that 46 percent of problem gamblers who called the problem gambling helpline identified slot machines as the form of gambling with which they have a problem.''

But Amann said that additional slot machines would not be disruptive because Connecticut residents have been dealing with various forms of gambling for decades.

"For those critics who argue that the promotion of gambling under any circumstances is wrong, they need to realize that gambling is nothing new to the state,'' Amann said. "For the past four decades, Connecticut has been a gaming state, beginning with jai alai, lottery, bingo, and most recently, casinos. … This has the potential to be a win-win for the state of Connecticut and its taxpayers.''



http://touch.courant.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82750058/

 

Shrewsbury Fire Department HQ. 11 Church Road, Shrewsbury. Saturday Oct. 18th, 7pm.

NoPlainvilleRacino shared a link via Casino-Free Milford.

 

Why vote YES to Repeal the Casino Deal in the upcoming elections? To
speak on the subject, former congressman Robert Steele, author of the “ The Curse” will be in Shrewsbury to enlighten voters on the perils casinos bring to communities. 

Location: Shrewsbury Fire Department HQ. 11 Church Road, Shrewsbury. Saturday Oct. 18th, 7pm. 
Coffee and cookies served served. Open to the public.

WHY VOTE 'YES' TO REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL?

www.scribd.com

Former CT Congressman Robert Steele knows firsthand how casinos affect host communities as well as surrounding communities. He has lived in Ledyard, home of Foxwoods...can you get any more 'firsthand' than that? Come hear what he has to say about casinos before you...

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! Join Us for a Free Night with Bob Steele and Jimmy Tingle!

You're invited to MASS MADNESS: A Night of Comic and Common Sense on the Casino Debate on Tuesday, October 21st at 6:30, hosted by Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, and featuring author Bob Steele and humorist Jimmy Tingle.

• It's going to be a great event!
• No reservations needed!
• First come, first serve - so get there early!

QUESTIONS? wmassvyo3@gmail.com

About Bob Steele Robert H. Steele is the author of The Curse: Big-Time Gambling's Seduction of a Small New England Town. As a Ledyard, CT resident with a ring-side seat to the development of the CT casinos Mr. Steele's novel provides us with an engaging insight into the potential future for Massachusetts and the gambling industry. He is Chairman of Connecticut-based NLC Insurance and has been a director of other companies, including the American Stock Exchange. He graduated from Amherst College and Columbia University, and served in the CIA and in Congress.

About Jimmy Tingle This well-informed son of Massachusetts brings a unique wit to the political twists and turns of the 2014 campaign and the casino referendum. His credits include films and turns on MSNBC, PBS, the BBC, The Tonight Show, CNN, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Larry King's Weekend, The American Comedy Awards, and his own HBO comedy special. He was born in Cambridge, graduated from Harvard and recently completed his MPA at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

About Alex Morse Alex Morse is the current mayor of Holyoke, elected the youngest mayor of that city at age 22, defeating the incumbent Mayor, and re-elected to a second term, defeating a businessman.

Repeal the Casino Deal | wmassvyo3@gmail.com 59 Meridian Street 2nd Floor, East Boston, MA 02128

(617) 569 2599 | www.repealthecasinodeal.org

6.30 PM Tuesday Evening x OCTOBER 21

Holyoke Senior Center 291 Pine Street Holyoke MA 01040

YES on 3 Repeal the Casino Deal

CAMPAIGN OFFICES EAST BOSTON 59 Meridian Street 2nd Floor Boston MA T Accessible SPRINGFIELD 130 Maple Street Suite 241 Springfield MA MAIN CONTACTS Field Director Brain Ashmankas repealfielddirector@gmail.com Call/Text 774-276-1281 Western Massachusetts Al Cabot WMassVYO3@gmail.com Call/Text 413-438-4963

Join your friends and neighbors:

REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL!

Gambling foes roll repeal dice 

Launch effort on ballot question

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

By:

Marie Szaniszlo

 

With less than a month to go before the state Gaming Commission is expected to decide who will get the sole Boston-area casino license, foes of legalized gambling are more focused on Nov. 4, when voters will decide whether to repeal the law and render the commission’s decision moot.

With nearly 1,000 volunteers at its disposal, Repeal the Casino Deal, a coalition of anti-gaming groups, has kicked off its grassroots field operation, fanning out in cities and towns across the state to make phone calls and knock on doors, urging people to reject the gaming-brings-prosperity pitch of Wynn Resorts, which wants to build in Everett, and Mohegan Sun, which aims to build on the Revere side of Suffolk Downs.

“We feel the more voters know about casinos, the less likely they’ll be to vote for them,” said Darek Barcikowski, campaign manager for Repeal the Casino Deal. “If you look at Atlantic City and other communities that bought into the promises of casinos, we believe you’ll agree casinos are not economic engines; they’re economic vacuum cleaners. They suck up a huge chunk of the disposable income that would otherwise go to local businesses.”

A spokesman for Wynn Resorts said the company is not involved in the referendum campaign. A spokesman for Mohegan Sun did not return a phone call. But casino foes are gearing up for a David vs. Goliath fight, expecting Wynn, Mohegan Sun and MGM, which wants to build in Springfield, to spend millions of dollars to try to defeat the repeal movement.

With that in mind, what Repeal the Casino Deal lacks in money, it intends to make up for through word of mouth, social media and boots on the ground.

Last week, for example, former U.S. Rep. Robert H. Steele (R-Conn.), one of several speakers the coalition has recruited, gave a talk at the Pittsfield Rotary Club about his state’s experience with casinos. Other speakers who’ll be addressing local clubs, chambers of commerce, houses of worship and political committees include former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger,

Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone and Repeal the Casino Deal Chairman John Ribeiro.

“We don’t have the resources casinos do,” Barcikowski said. “But at the end of the day, when people have to choose between believing people from their own community or believing an outside industry, I think our message will resonate more.”


http://bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2014/08/gambling_foes_roll_repeal_dice




 

Let's not replicate the mistakes of others!

REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL!

If you haven't already read Robert Steele's book, it's a MUST READ!

Connecticut’s casino boom going bust

Bay State should be wary of hopping on gambling bandwagon

BY: ROBERT STEELE

 

Massachusetts officials repeatedly cited the spectacular success of Connecticut’s two casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, when making the case for legalizing casinos in the Bay State. With a casino repeal measure on the November Massachusetts ballot, it’s worth taking a look at how Connecticut’s casino story has been playing out.

Opened in the early and mid-1990s, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun got off to blistering starts. Facing no competition other than from Atlantic City, 250 miles away, they quickly became the two biggest and most profitable casinos on the planet, attracting over half their combined customers from out of state, creating 20,000 casino jobs, and sending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the state treasury in Hartford.

But the casinos’ revenue has been declining for the past eight years, and we in Connecticut have been learning more and more about the downside of bringing casinos into the state.

For starters, the casinos’ presence has created a pervasive gambling culture in southeastern Connecticut, they’ve skewed the region’s economy heavily toward low-paying service jobs, and they were followed by a sharp spike in the number of Connecticut residents seeking treatment for gambling addiction.

One of the most remarkable findings from a 2009 state-sponsored study was that there had been a 400 percent increase in arrests for embezzlement in Connecticut since the casinos opened, a rate of increase 10 times the national average. A columnist for the New London Day, the area’s largest newspaper, described southeastern Connecticut as the embezzlement capital of America.

Moreover, although the casinos have unquestionably created jobs for their employees and billions in revenue for their owners and the state, those jobs and revenue have come from the gambling losses of their customers, leaving those individuals with less money to spend on other goods and services. At the same time, the casinos have done little to generate spin-off businesses or long-term economic growth for the region. Nor, apparently, have they done much in the final analysis to strengthen the state’s finances. Connecticut receives 25 percent of its casinos’ slots revenue, which has provided the state with more than $6.5 billion dollars over the past 20 years. Yet Connecticut today is in the worst financial shape in its history, with the highest debt and unfunded liabilities relative to state GDP of any state in the nation, according to Barron’s Financial Weekly.

Despite these factors, the conventional wisdom has been that Connecticut’s casinos have been a net economic plus for the state because of their success in attracting so many out-of-state gamblers who leave their money in Connecticut and take their problems home with them.

We don’t know whether that is true or not because the study has never been done, but we do know that the regional monopoly that allowed Connecticut’s casinos to attract so many out-of-staters has now largely disappeared as the Northeast has become increasingly oversaturated with casinos.

When Foxwoods opened in 1992, there were only 10 other casinos in the 12 states comprising the Northeast, all of them in Atlantic City. Today, there are 57 casinos in the Northeast and the number could go to 77 based on those being proposed.

As a result of the growing competition – particularly from Rhode Island’s Twin River Casino and the slots casinos at Aqueduct and Yonkers Racetracks in New York – Connecticut’s slot revenue is now down 34 percent from its peak, with the state government’s take falling from $430 million to under $300 million today. Connecticut’s casinos are laying off employees and increasingly replacing full-time jobs with part-time jobs to reduce wage costs and eliminate benefits, while Foxwoods, which has already defaulted on a half billion dollars of loans, continues to be deeply in debt.

Increased competition is wreaking even greater havoc in Atlantic City, where casino revenue is down 46 percent. The Atlantic Club shut down in January, the Showboat and Trump Plaza are expected to close shortly, and the city’s newest casino, the $2.4 billion Revel, which just opened in April of 2012, has already filed for bankruptcy protection twice and appears likely to close by the end of the year.

Nationally, revenues are down for casinos in a growing number of markets, while Moody’s Investors Service recently downgraded its outlook for the US casino industry as a whole from “stable” to “negative.”

Nevertheless, casino proponents continue to argue that Massachusetts’ casino plan will provide a major economic boost for the state by attracting large numbers of out-of-state gamblers and setting aside enough casino revenue to “mitigate” the costs that will inevitably result from encouraging hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents who do not currently gamble to do so.

Perhaps they’re right. But the odds are heavily against it for two reasons.

First, Massachusetts’ proposed casinos may choose to portray themselves as “destination casinos” for out-of-towners and out-of-staters, but the proliferation of casinos across America, and increasingly across the world, is turning most US casinos outside Las Vegas into primarily “convenience” casinos for local people.

Second, there is a growing body of evidence that bringing casinos into a new region is simply not worth it.

Nowhere has the downside been laid out more clearly than in a 2013 report from the Council on Casinos, an independent, nonpartisan group of scholars and public policy leaders assembled by the institute for American Values in New York.

“From time to time in American history,” the report begins, “a new institution takes root across the country, and in doing so, changes the nation – changes the physical landscape, impacts the patterns and habits of daily life, affects citizens’ and communities’ economic outcomes, and in some cases even alters relationships between the governing and the governed, the more privileged and the less privileged.”

That, according to the report, is precisely the impact the new casinos are having as they spread across the country, relying on problem gamblers for their revenue base, using highly addictive gambling machines to generate most of their profits, and encouraging increasing numbers of low-income people to gamble away their money, thereby contributing to economic and social inequality in our society. In sum, the report concludes, the new casinos’ long-term costs greatly exceed their benefits. They drain wealth from communities, undermine public health, weaken nearby businesses, and reduce voluntarism, civic participation, family stability, and other forms of social capital that are the heart of a successful community.

Despite the growing costs, both the federal government and most states continue to promote more gambling. On the federal level, the executive branch has adopted positions supporting the further expansion of Indian casinos and the legalization of Internet gambling, while a growing number of state governments are locked in casino border wars in which states late to the casino game are authorizing new casinos and states earlier to the game are seeking to bolster their existing casinos with tax concessions, online betting, reduced regulation, and other measures designed to forestall layoffs and keep the easy money flowing.

With the social and public health costs of casinos increasing and the economic arguments that have been used to justify those costs unraveling, the question for Massachusetts voters this fall is whether it makes sense for their state to join the game.

Robert Steele is a former Republican US congressman from Connecticut and the author of The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town. His website is rhsteele.com.

 

 

http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Voices/Perspective/Online-Perspectives-2014/Summer/003-Connecticuts-casino-boom-going-bust.aspx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a MUST READ book if you want to know the TRUE cost of Predatory Gambling.... 

When Mr. Steele has a speaking engagement nearby, please go to hear him speak and ask questions about the economic damage Tribal Casinos have done in Connecticut that no one will tell you. 

Book propels Steele's anti-casino campaign

By Brian Hallenbeck
Publication: The Day

Published June 16. 2014 4:00AM

Tim Cook/The Day

Former congressman Bob Steele says he is convinced that governments have no business promoting an industry that many believe is predatory.

Ex-congressman travels all over to warn of downside

Bob Steele steps to a lectern at the Liberal Club in Fall River, Mass., and proceeds to tell another audience about the impact of southeastern Connecticut's Indian casinos.

It's a stump speech, of sorts, but it's devoid of partisan politics, which is perhaps a little surprising in the case of Steele, a former Connecticut congressman and one-time Republican gubernatorial candidate.

He speaks compellingly, his tone measured, his message almost entirely fact-based. Like the 2012 book
whose publication led to this early-June appearance - and the nearly 200 other appearances he's made the last 18 months or so throughout Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island - Steele delivers a cautionary tale.

He tells an audience of fewer than 40 people that Congress opened a Pandora's box when it passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988, authorizing Indian casinos. Now, he says, the country is "awash" in casinos, both commercial and tribally owned. And, he adds, state governments are shamelessly promoting the development of more of them, eager to raise revenues without directly raising taxes.

"One wonders how closely they've looked at the downside," he says.

The 75-year-old Steele has immersed himself in that downside, convinced that governments have no business promoting an industry that many believe is predatory, relying, he says, on problem gamblers for 40 to 50 percent of its profits. He recites a litany of social and economic costs casino opponents associate with gaming: local economies skewed toward low-paying service jobs, pressures on housing markets and school systems, and spikes in the numbers of drunken-driving arrests and embezzlements.

In an interview days after his Fall River talk, Steele was asked about his motivation. What drives him to keep showing up wherever casinos are on the agenda? Why travel to Albany one week, Fall River and Granby the next, Boston and Worcester the one after that?

"It's all since the book," he said, referring to "The Curse: Big-Time Gambling's Seduction of a Small New England Town," the "fact-based novel" he worked on for parts of 14 years. Set in a fictional version of Ledyard, where Steele lived from 1977 to 1998, after he left politics, the story plays out against events that took place during the 1990s.

Steele, who now lives in Essex, all but shelved the project after a major publisher lost interest in it around 2009. Then, in 2011, Massachusetts authorized the Bay State's first casinos.

"I thought, if there's ever going to be a strong interest in this topic, it's now," he said.

After the book came out, Steele promoted it at bookstores, libraries and historical societies. Soon enough, he started getting invitations to speak to civic groups, at colleges and before anti-casino groups in places where casinos had been proposed, such as Citizens for the Common Good, the Fall River organization that called him.

Steele typically sells copies of his book at his appearances, but "in 99 percent of the cases" receives no compensation for speaking.

"I do it because I believe in it," he said. "For me, it's a public policy issue. The question is: Should government be encouraging people to gamble just because our political leaders don't have the courage or the foresight to develop more stable forms of revenue?"

About 70 percent of his talk is the same every time, Steele said. The rest is tailored to the audience, be it in Leominster or Palmer, Tewksbury or Milford, East Boston or Newport.

Sometimes he's appeared on panels, but usually he's by himself. His audiences have ranged from five to 500 people, he said.

He offers his listeners hope, pointing out that several Massachusetts towns have rejected casino proposals in referendum votes. Recent poll results even suggest a drive to repeal the Bay State's expanded-gambling law could succeed if the state's highest court allows the question to appear on Election Day ballots in November.

"Nobody gave Repeal the Casino Deal a chance six months ago," Steele said. "Now look at it. The arrogance of political leaders saying it shouldn't be on the ballot is mind-boggling."

He holds up the example of Palmer, the western Massachusetts town that shocked many observers last November when its voters narrowly shot down Mohegan Sun's plan to develop a casino and water park off Exit 8 of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

"Four to five weeks before the referendum, the opponents had no organization," Steele said. "They pulled it together in the last two weeks and educated people. They kept saying, 'The more you know about casinos, the less you like them,' and the message got through. ... And for anyone to suggest that Mohegan Sun didn't make a full effort to win is preposterous."

Las Vegas-based MGM Resorts International, which proposed a project in Springfield, was left without competition for the sole western Massachusetts casino license, which gaming regulators officially awarded Friday.

"I have no doubt the Springfield casino will be very successful - in the first year," Steele said. "After that, who knows?"

b.hallenbeck@theday.com


http://www.theday.com/article/20140616/NWS01/306169957/-1/NWS

Crisis! Exploitation by Casinos of Small New England Cities and Towns

MUST WATCH!

Former Conn. US Rep. Steele to speak: Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Liberal Club at 20 Star St., Fall River

This is a MUST if you haven't heard Former Conn. US Rep. Steele speak or read his book!

Only a neighbor knows how bad Predatory Gambling is and what it does to a community!

Former Conn. US Rep. Steele to speak against casino proposal at Liberal Club on Wednesday


FALL RIVER — Amid the possibility of a casino coming to Fall River — or New Bedford, depending on who you talk to — a group of Greater Fall River residents who opposed to Foxwoods' proposal to build a resort-style casino has been quietly organizing.


On Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Liberal Club at 20 Star St., the group called Citizens for the Common Good will host speaker, author and former Connecticut Congressman Robert Steele, who will give a presentation titled “The explosion of casino gambling and its impact on Connecticut, New England and the nation.”


The event is free and open to the public.


“Most people don’t know what is involved and how it affects their community,” Steele said.


From the 1970s to the late 1990s, Steele lived with his family on the edge of the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation, he said. Steele said he saw firsthand the effects of living in a community with the two largest casinos in the world in their backyard.


Steele said he’s been speaking to groups across the commonwealth and New York who oppose the development of casinos in their municipalities.


Former Fall River mayoral candidate and community organizer Joseph Carvalho said his group invited Steele to speak to “try to give people a sense of the other side of the story.”


“He’s coming to tell people the experience based on what’s happening in Connecticut,” Carvalho said. “The education process is very important, and we’re finding people are overwhelmed by the propaganda from Foxwoods.”


It’s important, according to Carvalho, to show people a casino is the wrong way to build a local economy.


Carvalho said Citizens for the Common Good was started in 2009 when Mayor Will Flanagan first proposed a casino at the site that now houses the biopark.


He said the group reorganized when it was made aware a new casino proposal was possible.


In January, Flanagan and Foxwoods CEO Scott Butera announced the casino conglomerate was looking to build a $750 million resort casino in Fall River.


Initially, the company identified a 30-acre parcel at the New Harbour Mall site, but Flanagan recently reported that Foxwoods was looking to move the project to a 120-acre waterfront site.


Foxwoods has not confirmed the change of location, and last week, The Standard-Times reported the company was in negotiations with New Bedford.


Flanagan said he received assurances from Butera the reports were not true and that Foxwoods remained committed to developing in Fall River.




http://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20140602/NEWS/140609465/1994/NEWS

Mark your calendars!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE! Please share liberally!

Local opposition told that Northeast market is saturated

The author is scheduled to speak in Fall River - a MUST ATTEND!

Casino panned by ex-lawmaker

Local opposition told that Northeast market is saturated

Kenneth C. Crowe I, Times Union

By Kenneth C. Crowe II

Updated 10:25 pm, Thursday, May 22, 2014

 

Albany
It's difficult and can seem daunting, but it's possible to fight against casino development and win, an author and former Connecticut congressman said Thursday.

"It's got to start with the grassroots." said Bob Steele, author of "The Curse: Big-Time Gambling's Seduction of a Small New England Town."

"All the casinos do is suck money out of your town, your city," said Steele, who represented eastern Connecticut, the site of the Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Congress.

Steele was in Albany to speak to people organizing to fight casinos proposed in the Capital Region.

His appearance was sponsored by No Casinos in the Capital District, Occupy Albany, Bethlehem Community Voices and the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany.

"Clearly the deck is stacked against you. Look at the language in the referendum," Steele said about the scene in New York state where four casinos are to be licensed.

But while the odds may seem long, he said, when local residents organize the can win the battle against casinos.

Steele said gambling interests push economic benefits, but they don't last and the health and social negatives are not addressed.

The casino market in the Northeast is becoming oversaturated, he said.

The casino planned for the Capital Region, he said, will not draw in tourists who can opt for the glitz of Las Vegas but will rely on local gamblers.


http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Anti-casino-rally-in-Albany-5497596.php

Mayor Joe Curtatone to speak at Statewide RTCD Meeting

REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL! Donate Volunteer The Details

REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL! BAD FOR COMMUNITIES, BAD FOR THE COMMONWEALTH

Please join us on Saturday, April 26 from 10-noon in Framingham Good news! Our speaker will be Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone. The Mayor has been an outspoken critic of the failed casino policy speaking forcefully against the proposed projects. Mayor Joe on casinos Also in attendance will be noted authors Robert Goodman and Bob Steele. Click through to see what these two experts have to say. Professor Goodman on casinos Congressman Steele on casinos The statewide meeting of Repeal the Casino Deal will take place at Wesley United Methodist Church, 80 Beacon St., Framingham. www.framinghamumc.com All are welcome. RSVP to repealthecasinodeal@gmail.com. Agenda: • Status of SJC Case • Signature Gathering • Campaign Messaging • Campaign Planning • Guest Speaker Mayor Curtatone Best regards, John Ribeiro and the Repeal the Casino Deal team

Repeal The Casino Deal Committee ι (617) 701-7823

More gambling not answer to Connecticut’s financial woes

FORUM: More gambling not answer to Connecticut’s financial woes

By Robert Steele and Tony Hwang

Posted: 02/18/14

   January was another bad month for Connecticut’s two mega-casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, which send 25 percent of their slot machine revenue to the state. Their combined slot winnings have now been down 23 of the last 24 months, the state’s share has gone from $430 million in 2007 to under $300 million today, and the competition from other states is just heating up.

Maine now has two casinos, New Hampshire is debating whether to legalize casinos, Rhode Island recently converted one of its two slots parlors into a full-scale casino, Massachusetts is in the process of selecting sites for three casinos and a slots barn, New Jersey is considering casinos for the Meadowlands, and New York, which already has slots casinos at its racetracks, just amended its constitution to allow the opening of up to seven full-scale casinos.

The national picture is similar. In 1988, only two states had casinos, Nevada and New Jersey. Today 39 states have casinos, and we now have nearly 1,000 of them, almost evenly divided between Indian and commercial casinos.

According to a recent study by the Institute for American Values, a nonprofit think tank based in New York, the casino explosion is having a profound impact on our society. Among the study’s findings:

• Casino gambling has moved from the margins to the mainstream of American life.

• The new casinos are primarily filled with modern, highly-addictive slot machines and cater overwhelmingly to middle and low rollers who live within an hour away, return frequently, and play the slots.

• Casinos depend on pathological and problem gamblers for their revenue base, with these troubled individuals providing 40-60 percent of slot machine profits.

• Living close to a casino increases the chances of developing a gambling addiction.

• Casinos constitute a regressive tax that hits low-income people the hardest, thereby contributing to economic inequality in America.

• The long-term costs of the new casinos exceed their benefits by as much as 3-1.

The new regional and local casinos, the study concludes, drain wealth from communities, weaken nearby businesses and reduce civic participation, family stability, and other forms of social capital that are at the heart of a successful community.

Despite the growing evidence of casino gambling’s corrosive influence, many of Connecticut’s political leaders appear intent on trying to replace the state’s faltering gambling money by encouraging still more gambling.

Last June, the Democrat-controlled legislature legalized keno (a highly addictive form of electronic bingo) for restaurants, bars and convenience stores in the hope of raising an additional $28 million a year, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has indicated he favors permitting online gambling for the state’s two casinos, which say they need it in order to defend and expand their customer base.

Not to be outdone, a legislative task force studying video slots quietly finished its work in January and is expected to recommend entering into an agreement with the tribal casinos that would permit the state to create three new slots casinos with up to 2,500 slot machines each in New Haven, Bridgeport and Windsor Locks.

If implemented, keno, video slots casinos and online gambling would represent a massive expansion of casino-type gambling in Connecticut. But all three new initiatives can still be stopped.

Last week, Malloy acknowledged the existence of strong public opposition to keno in the state by saying he would be willing to reverse course and sign a recently introduced bill to repeal keno should the bill be passed by the legislature. It remains to be seen whether this is just a ploy by the governor to disassociate himself from keno in view of the upcoming election, or if he will use his position as the leader of his party to kill it. It is an important question. If the public sees it can stop keno by speaking out on the issue, it will be encouraged to oppose the expansion of other forms of gambling as well. And if keno is a bad idea, slots casinos and online gambling are worse ones.

More gambling is not an answer to Connecticut’s financial problems. Rather than encouraging people to gamble away their paychecks, we need to attract productive, living-wage jobs, promote stable revenue streams, and end the runaway spending that saddled the state with $52 billion in debt.

Robert Steele of Essex was a Republican U.S. congressman from eastern Connecticut from 1970 to 1974 and is the author of “The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town.” State Rep. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield/Trumbull, is a member of the Public Safety and Security Committee, which oversees gambling.


http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20140218/forum-more-gambling-not-answer-to-connecticuts-financial-woes

 

Former Congressman Warns of Ill Effects of Gambling

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Former Congressman Warns of Ill Effects of Gambling

 

Robert H. Steele, an Essex resident, corporate executive, author, former U.S. congressman (2nd District, CT) and gubernatorial nominee who was defeated by Ella Grasso in the 1974 election, told the Westport Rotary Club today of what he said were the ill effects of gambling casinos in the state. “Gambling addiction is a real problem,” he said. “There’s a 400 percent increase in embezzlement cases in southeastern Connecticut due in large part to gambling addiction.” Steele’s book, “The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town,” a story of history, money and politics, was published in 2012. Steele’s father, known as Bob Steele, was host of the state’s top-rated morning show on WTIC-AM for more than 50 years.  Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

 

 

http://www.westportnow.com/index.php?/v2_5/comments/46790/