We tried to tell them....

Once upon a time, Massachusetts Governor Deval "Slot Barn" Patrick spent a bucket of taxpayer $$$ to have Casino Shills prepare a report proving that 3 Glorified Slot Barns would create a GAZILLION JOBS and BUCKETS OF $$$$!

Former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and Governor Michael Dukakis pointed out the overstated projections in the expensive report.

Flim-Flammed by the Casino Vultures!


Who was listening?

Their chief argument is that casinos will fuel an economic boon, providing 6,500 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs, virtually all of them unionized, with benefits and an average yearly salary of about $45,000 (more with tips). The casinos have pledged millions of dollars annually to their host and surrounding communities, thanks to the “repatriating” of cash that Massachusetts residents will no longer be dropping in other states.


FROM:

Penn National: 200 CONSTRUCTION JOBS = 6,500 ?

 

 

 

 

Elected officials, those who should know better, LABOR UNIONS and the KoolAid consumers lined up to believe the Fairy Tale.

Genting opens a Super Duper Glorified Spa & Slot Barn and employs 1100?


[Elsewhere, you'll find the numbers of workers LAID OFF by Casino Closings and Bankruptcies in Atlantic City. And you believed it?]

I testified on Beacon Hill about the phony promises, suggested that if GUARANTEES were 
mandated,  you'd see those numbers return to reality.

Below is yet another article that destroys the Massachusetts Mega Myth:

Recruitment day for 1,100 jobs at Birmingham resort

The drive to find 1,100 staff for the new Resorts World Birmingham entertainment complex has been stepped up with a recruitment day planned for next week.

 

 

 

The centre, based at the NEC, will have an 11-screen cinema operated by Cineworld, a 900-delegate conference centre called The Vox, an Asian-themed spa with swimming pool, shops and restaurants when it is opened this Summer.

And now bosses have started recruiting for the huge leisure complex - the first of its kind in the UK.

A recruitment day is being held at the Genting Arena at the NEC on May 6.

People interested in jobs at the Genting International Casino, four-star boutique hotel, spa and shops can go along to the arena in Pentigo Way from 10am to 8pm or register online at www.resortsworldbirmingham.co.uk/careers.

Representatives of a range of employers that are recruiting will be present to explain the jobs that are available and answer questions.

 

A complimentary shuttle bus will run throughout the day from Birmingham Moor Street Station to and from the Genting Arena every hour from 9 am to 6pm on the day.

Among the retailers that will be opening outlets at the £150 million Resorts World are Nike and Gap.

Genting UK is building the complex opposite the Genting Arena, which it sponsors.

The impressive glass front of the building and integral structural work are now complete.

The five double-storey building will feature 50 discount outlet brands, 12 restaurants, with Pizza Express and TGI Fridays already signed on, five bars, a late night lounge and nightclub.

Genting marketing director Barry Clemo said they were looking to recruit from the local area to fill roles. Some senior roles in the management offices and casino have already been filled.

The range of jobs on offer will also include housekeeping roles, chefs, reception, bartenders and waiting staff as well as a number of administrative and accounts roles within the hotel, spa and casino.


Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is working with Resorts World Birmingham to help local people apply for opportunities at the complex and are also providing support to help them prepare for interviews.

Director of Human Resources for the Birmingham development, Julie Davies, said; "This is a significant boost to the jobs market in the area. When we are fully operational and all of the tenants have completed their recruitment process 1,100 full time equivalent jobs will have been created across retail, hospitality, operations, security, maintenance and gaming.

"There will be a wide range of jobs for prospective employees to come and discuss with us and I would urge anyone who would like to work at one of the UK’s most exciting venues joins us on May 6 to hear about the fantastic opportunities we are creating”



http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2015/04/28/recruitment-day-for-1100-jobs-at-birmingham-resort/

 

Flim-Flammed by the Casino Vultures!

One did not have to be an 'EXPERT' to know how grossly overstated the phony Massachusetts projections were and how flawed the foundations were.

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.

Bad bet? Casino money misses states' forecasts

Michael Melia, Associated Press 6:02 p.m. EST February 21, 2015

 

 

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — For anyone betting on the Northeast's casino bonanza, the odds are long on projects hitting financial expectations.

 

In the last several states to open casinos — Ohio, Maryland and Pennsylvania — overall revenue is coming in below baseline forecasts, according to a review of state tax data. Officials blame miscalculations of spending habits and competition, but some also question how much the projected numbers reflected wishful thinking.

 

The casino industry has grown exponentially over the last decade as revenue-hungry states have moved to claim business that once went across state lines to Atlantic City, New Jersey, or the tribal-owned megaresorts in Connecticut. After Nevada, Pennsylvania has emerged as the country's No. 2 gambling marketing, overtaking Atlantic City, where four of 12 casinos closed last year.

 

As Massachusetts and New York prepare for a new round of casino building, they have added new levels of financial scrutiny, enlisting consulting firms to vet revenue projections. But the industry's growth in the Northeast's tight geography has made modeling more complex, and experts warn there are no guarantees.

 

"This isn't a science," analyst Alan Woinski said.

 

Projections are developed through so-called gravity models, premised on the concept that bigger casinos draw more people from farther away. They are used by developers and regulators to estimate how a property will perform based on factors including the affluence of surrounding towns.

 

The track record shows big margins for error. With access to the same data, developers regularly come back with higher projections than regulators who run the numbers themselves, especially when companies are competing for bids. A recent study by Cummings Associates, a Massachusetts-based consulting firm, found that projections done for the same project were, on average, 20 percent apart and, in cases where the casinos were actually built, almost always were proved too high.

 

USA TODAY

Atlantic City fears darkness after casinos close

Casinos generally remain big moneymakers, and some projects have far exceeded predictions, but state averages have been below forecasts that set expectations for tax revenue.

 

One of the biggest misses came in Ohio, where the state Department of Taxation weighed in on a proposed constitutional amendment in October 2009 with an estimate that casinos would generate at least $470 million in annual tax revenue. In 2014, tax revenue from the casinos totaled $267.5 million.
 

"In retrospect, we were guessing," said Mike Sobul, who was the tax department's director of research.
 

Sobul said the gravity model run by Ohio officials used industry assumptions that were overly optimistic, and, more significantly, officials underestimated how the recession would affect consumer spending. Sobul, who tracks the numbers now as a financial officer for an Ohio school district, said schools that once were expected to receive more than $80 per pupil statewide in casino money are now expecting about $51 per pupil.
 

In Maryland, casino revenue has been hundreds of millions of dollars short of a December 2008 projection by the Department of Legislative Services.
 

Chips sit on a blackjack table in the Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin shortly after its grand opening in Farmington, Pa. The odds are long on the Northeast casino projects hitting financial expectations. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) ORG XMIT: BX701 (Photo: Gene J. Puskar, AP)

Even in Pennsylvania, the casino boom's success story, it took the addition of table games in 2010 to bring revenue beyond levels projected by a state task force that assumed they would offer only slot machines. Doug Harbach, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, said the projections were not badly inflated.
 

"You have to take into account that the market in surrounding states now has much more competition," he said.
 

For all the attention to revenue projections, many industry insiders say the real test is whether banks, which conduct their own research, will loan money for a casino.
 

"If a bank is going to put up a hundred million dollars, that's a tacit show of feasibility," said Michael Ross, president of the Innovation Group in Winter Park, Florida, one of many consulting firms in the forecasting business.

Where some earlier states were often guided by in-house analysis, Massachusetts and New York have brought in more outside experts to conduct their own market research, assess the numbers from the developers and guide state officials who acknowledge their limited experience with the gambling industry.
 

Even so, estimates made during a bidding process can vary so widely that even rival developers say they are sometimes mystified. The chief executive at Connecticut's Mohegan Sun, which lost out to Wynn Resorts in a competition for a Boston-area casino license, said the Canadian consulting firm working with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission should have challenged their rival's projections for spending by international high rollers.
 

USA TODAY

'Basic economics apply to casinos': Opposing view

"I don't think enough questions were asked by the consultants," CEO Mitchell Etess said. "If you're in meetings with the gaming commission, and you get the sense they like Wynn, you're not going to ask a lot of questions."
 

Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner Enrique Zuniga said Wynn promised lower numbers overall but from a broader area. He said officials are well aware that projections are only estimates, and they look at many other factors, including details of the proposed property, the developers' established clientele and market research.

"We're not taking any numbers to the bank," Zuniga said.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/02/21/casinos-inflated-expectations/23614343/

 

Question 3....No Debate? The Secrecy of Predatory Gambling?

Casino clash shaping up ahead of election

Gerry Tuoti
Wicked Local Newsbank Editor
Posted Oct. 2, 2014

While casino opponents may not have a chance to square off against casino CEOs and the lawmakers who crafted the state’s expanded gambling law, key players on both sides of the issue are scheduled to face off in a forum later this month.


The Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University has announced an Oct. 23 panel discussion on Question 3, the ballot initiative seeking a repeal of the state’s 2011 casino gambling law. The event, according to the Ford Hall Forum, will feature Repeal the Casino Deal chairman John Ribeiro and former state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger on the anti-casino side; and Everett Mayor Carlo DiMaria and Coalition to Protect Mass. Jobs labor outreach director Charlie Stefanini.

Repeal the Casino Deal had previously launched an unsuccessful attempt to line up debates with several casino supporters, including Senate Majority Leader Stanley Rosenberg, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and the CEOs of MGM Resorts International, Penn National Gaming and Wynn Resorts.

The forum was announced after state Senate Majority Leader Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, notified Repeal the Casino Deal that he was declining an invitation to a separate debate. Rosenberg played a major part in drafting the casino law that legislators passed in 2011. Repeal the Casino Deal said it had not received responses from the other parties.

“I have respectfully declined Yes on 3’s invitation,” Rosenberg said in a statement. “When legislators, and the governor, approved expanded gaming we did so only after painstaking research and extensive public debate. We’ve had our say on the issue. Voters, with Question 3, will now have the opportunity to have their say by either ratifying or repealing the law.” *****

Ribeiro criticized the response.




“If you’re not willing to stand before the people and promote your legislation, how strongly do you really feel about it?” Ribeiro said. “Our legislators have never held a public debate before the voters. Perhaps it’s difficult to defend this legislation when the decision was made without an independent cost-benefit analysis on casinos. I’m still willing to debate, if he has a change of heart.”


The state Gaming Commission has awarded resort casino licenses to Wynn Resorts, which plans to build in Everett, and MGM, which is proposing a Springfield casino. Penn National won the slots license and has begun construction in Plainville.


Massachusetts voters will decide Nov. 4 whether to repeal the law that authorizes up to three commercial casinos and one slots parlor statewide.


Casino opponents argue that expanded gambling has net negative impacts on the community, could lead to crime and harm small businesses.


Proponents of casino gambling say the industry will lead to economic development, increased state revenues and new jobs.


THIS IS ATLANTIC CITY'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & HOMELESSNESS:

Penn National announced Wednesday that it is halfway through construction in Plainville.

“Eight months ago we started the development of this $225 million dollar facility, and in eight months we will open Plainridge Park Casino,” Penn National spokesman Jeff Morris said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of the work product to date, the jobs and revenue we have created for union construction workers and small businesses in Massachusetts, and the career opportunities for residents of the area that are coming in the very near future.”



http://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20141002/NEWS/141008524/11157/NEWS#NEWS/?Start=1&_suid=141238008467207226626106699296

****On a personal note, the PAINSTAKING RESEARCH Senator Rosenberg's seem to be referring to is his PERSONAL RESEARCH, discussed in PRIVATE, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS!

There was no PUBLIC DEBATE! Where is the RESEARCH? Who has it?

Senator Rosenberg repeatedly refused to discuss/address/present information publicly.

When has any other PUBLIC POLICY been so secret?

Penn National: 200 CONSTRUCTION JOBS = 6,500 ?

Flawed arithmetic and overstated projections!
Filled with phony promises!

That's the Gambling Industry!



Penn National’s chief operating officer, as he looked out the other day on 200 workers; soon, 1,000 workers will be on the site.


6,500 construction jobs

Massachusetts May Shut Down Casinos Before Even One Opens

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYEAUG. 30, 2014

 

 

BOSTON — With the casino industry showing signs of retrenchment, voters in Massachusetts may do something that voters nowhere else have done, at least in the last century: slam on the brakes on casino gambling.

 

Massachusetts was one of the last states to climb aboard the casino craze, approving legislation in 2011 to allow three casinos and a slots parlor. Now it may be the first to reverse itself, with voters deciding in November whether to repeal the law before a single casino has been built.

Related Coverage

• 

  Uncertainty for Workers Losing Jobs at Atlantic City CasinosAUG. 25, 2014

The stage is set for a multimillion-dollar campaign pitting the casino industry and its allies in organized labor against a coalition of grass-roots activists, religious leaders and mom-and-pop businesses. The two sides have already squared off in several town-by-town referendums across much of Massachusetts over the last year, fighting each other to a near draw. Now they are laying the groundwork for an all-out, statewide donnybrook that will burst into public view in September in television ads and on doorsteps as both sides try to secure support, house by house.

Photo

Darek Barcikowski of the Repeal the Casino Deal group at its headquarters in East Boston.Credit Katherine Taylor for The New York Times

The November vote will be closely watched as a bellwether of the industry’s future in the Northeast, where two dozen casinos have sprouted in the last decade, to the point, some analysts say, of saturation.

 

“If Massachusetts votes to repeal casinos, this could represent a turning of the tide,” said Richard McGowan, who teaches business at Boston College and specializes in casino gambling. “But even if the casinos win, the fact that they’re even having this vote says to the industry that maybe they should think twice about how many casinos they’re opening.”

 

The nation has a long history of embracing gambling and prohibiting it. After corruption scandals led to bans on casinos and lotteries in the mid-1800s and again in the early 1900s, states brought them back, most recently during the Depression in the 1930s to stimulate the economy. Since then, 23 states have approved commercial casinos. Some states have rejected them, but analysts say no state in recent times has spurned them after legalizing them.

 

“No state has ever repealed expanded gaming legislation since the modern industry of gambling started in 1931 with Nevada,” said Clyde W. Barrow, a political scientist at the University of Texas-Pan American who studies gambling.

 

Why is Massachusetts having second thoughts?

 

When the legislature voted to allow casinos, the state was limping through a nationwide recession.

 

And Massachusetts gamblers continued to plunk their money down in other states.

 

But since then, the economy has improved. Red flags have been raised about the overall health of the casino industry. And the tortuous process of awarding casino licenses here has dragged on for three years, with no tangible benefits.

 

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has designated only one of the three casinos, MGM Resorts International in Springfield. But it has not formally issued the license because that would force MGM to start paying millions of dollars in obligations, and the company wants to hold off until after the November vote. The commission has awarded the sole slots parlor license to Penn National Gaming in Plainville. Construction has begun there, but if the repeal measure is defeated, the slots parlor is not due to open until next year.

Photo

Proponents of the state gambling law say the slots parlor, at right in a rendering, and casinos will create jobs, a promise that opponents say is hollow.Credit JCJ Architecture

 

“A lot of the negative attitude toward casinos has been driven by the gaming commission’s performance,” Mr. Barrow said. “Massachusetts has already taken longer than any state in history on its licenses.”

 

The process of awarding a license for the Boston area, the last untapped big market in the Northeast and by far the most lucrative in Massachusetts, has been especially convoluted and is still underway; the gaming commission is to name the winner by Sept. 12. That hard-fought contest is between a $1.6 billion proposal by Wynn Resorts, for a casino on chemically contaminated land in Everett, and a $1.3 billion proposal by Mohegan Sun at the fraying Suffolk Downs thoroughbred racetrack in nearby Revere.

 

The commission chairman, Stephen P. Crosby, was accused of conflicts of interest, and although he said he could be impartial, he eventually recused himself from all decisions involving the Boston-area license.

 

Polls here show that support for casinos, favored late last year by a ratio of two to one, has ebbed.

 

More people still back them than oppose them, but support has dropped to about 50 percent, with 8 percent to 10 percent undecided. Even Gov. Deval Patrick, who helped push through the casino legislation, has said he would vote against a casino near his home.

 

The debate has unfolded against a backdrop of bleak forecasts for the industry. In July, Fitch Ratings said industry weakness would persist, citing the saturation of regional markets, stagnant wages among lower-income players and the growth of online gambling. The steady drumbeat of bad news from Atlantic City has also caused concern here. Atlantic City is plagued with problems, many of them caused by competition from casinos in neighboring states. Four of its 12 casinos are shutting down this year, putting 8,000 people out of work, even as casino fever intensifies near New York City.

 

Despite this grim environment, casino advocates here express confidence that they will prevail. They say Atlantic City’s woes are not relevant because New Jersey put 12 casinos in one place; Massachusetts has planned just three, in three separate regions.

 

Their chief argument is that casinos will fuel an economic boon, providing 6,500 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs, virtually all of them unionized, with benefits and an average yearly salary of about $45,000 (more with tips). The casinos have pledged millions of dollars annually to their host and surrounding communities, thanks to the “repatriating” of cash that Massachusetts residents will no longer be dropping in other states.

 

“We can generate more than $400 million a year for state government, cities and towns, and that can go to improving fire, police, adding more teachers, infrastructure, roads and bridges here,” said Justine Griffin, a spokeswoman for the pro-casino coalition, which calls itself the Committee to Protect Mass Jobs.

 

Photo

In Atlantic City, the Showboat casino, above, and three others are shutting down this year, putting 8,000 people out of work.Credit Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Because MGM is delaying construction of its casino in Springfield until after the November vote, the pro-casino campaign is focusing on the slots parlor in Plainville, where construction is underway and television ads are being shot. Penn National is so confident of the outcome of the vote that it will have spent $100 million there by November.

 

 

“We want voters to understand this project is real,” said Jay Snowden, Penn National’s chief operating officer, as he looked out the other day on 200 workers; soon, 1,000 workers will be on the site. “If Massachusetts votes to repeal the law, these jobs all go away the next day,” he said.

 

The campaign to repeal casinos maintains that the promise of jobs and prosperity is hollow. It says casinos will not bring a net gain of jobs but a net loss, that people will spend their discretionary income at the casinos and sap local businesses, forcing them to lay off workers.

 

“Maybe Massachusetts is unique,” Scott Harshbarger, a former state attorney general, said last month at the start of the anti-casino drive in Springfield. “Maybe in fact we will be the first state in the nation and first city to actually see real economic development come from casinos. But it’s hard to believe.”

 

What critics do believe is that casinos will destroy their communities with more crime, traffic and addiction and that Massachusetts should not rely on a predatory industry to improve its economy because it will only fail.

 

The anti-casino campaign, called Repeal the Casino Deal, acknowledges that it faces an uphill battle. It lacks the resources of the casinos. It lacks a simple, bumper-sticker message like “jobs” to appeal to voters. And the ballot question could work against itself: To oppose casinos, voters must choose “yes.” Aware of the problem, the repeal group has created a slogan that it hopes will stick in voters’ minds: “Vote yes to stop the casino mess.”

 

Still, Darek Barcikowski, the campaign manager for the repeal group, is optimistic. He said his side had been outspent 100 to 1 on the casino referendum in East Boston in November and still pulled off a surprising victory.

 

“We prevailed on the doorsteps and on phones and by reaching out to neighbors,” he said. “We are putting that organization in place again, all across the state.”

 

The pro-casino side is doing the exact same thing.

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/us/31casino.html?_r=0

 

 

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




 

"Casinos are a mistake we don't have to make."

Good afternoon,

The house of cards is collapsing. Atlantic City's newest casino, Revel Atlantic City, announced this week it will be closing within the month-after only two years in operation. That's the fourth Atlantic City casino shuddering operations this year alone.

"Casinos are a mistake we don't have to make."

Reflecting on the industry's broken promises on Fox25 News, former Mass. Attorney General and casino opponent Scott Harshbarger reminded us on Tuesday that Massachusetts can do better, we already are.

We're being sold a four year old argument. The fact is, Massachusetts is doing better than casino states: more residents employed, businesses growing, and construction projects increasing.

The casino industry and its supporters are now online, in the news, and will soon be on the airwaves. While they will portray this vote as inevitable, we know better. But it's going to be a David v. Goliath battle, and we need your help!

Please join us online, donate to our growing campaign, volunteer to help and join us on social media.

Together, we'll defeat the casino industry.

John Ribeiro

Chairman

Repeal the Casino Deal

 

 

Repeal the Casino Deal | PO Box 520162 | Winthrop | MA | 02152

 

 

 

The Casino Predators don't want you to vote!

The more Massachusetts voters learn about the Predatory Gambling Industry, the more they OPPOSE subsidizing these giants!

That MGM offered self-defeating message that repeal is anti-business is simply false. The crushing impact of state subsidized multi-national billion dollar monopolies with special advantages and protections is the attack on businesses and the regional economies of Massachusetts.
Please note that the SJC matter has nothing to do with business climate and economic development. The merging of the two is a ploy to distract from the legal technicalities of the court case.

REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL!  The only sensible solution.

Casino repeal goes to Mass. SJC



(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston) - The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has already awarded a license for a slots parlor in Plainville, the Plainridge Park Casino, and appears to be weeks away from awarding MGM Springfield the western Massachusetts casino license.

Monday morning, the state’s highest court took up oral arguments over an important question: Is it too late for voters to get a chance to say "no?"

Attorney General Martha Coakley has ruled, on technical grounds involving state constitutional protections around private property rights, the referendum to repeal the 2011 law authorizing up to three destination resort casinos and a slots parlor should not be allowed on the Nov. 4 state ballot.

MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis warned that his company is already thinking about suing the state if the question is allowed on the ballot and gets approved.

"I’m very hopeful that our legal argument would prevail, but certainly, we would preserve all our legal rights, as we would have to" if the question wins, Mathis said.

What’s before the Supreme Judicial Court is an extraordinarily knotty set of questions about just what kinds of "property rights" casino applicants and casino license winners have, and at what stage in the process, and what legally can be voted away by voters at the ballot box.

Justices including Margot Botsford and Ralph Gants seemed to struggle with Coakley’s office’s logic that casino license holders could have their licenses revoked at any time – but companies that are in the process of applying for a casino license have a property right that can’t, under the state constitution, be removed without compensation.

Justice Robert J. Cordy, in his questioning, appeared to express astonishment at the idea companies could invest millions in seeking and winning casino licenses and then have those licenses suddenly revoked. Of course, court experts always warn that justice’s questions from the bench can’t reliably be taken as indicators of how they’ll ultimately rule.

John Ribeiro, the head of ballot question committee Repeal The Casino Deal, said he was encouraged by how the questioning went.

"By the way I read it, I think we're going to be on the ballot in November. If common sense prevails, we'll be on the ballot in November," said Ribeiro.

Former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, who has crusaded for years against casinos as a predatory industry that would be bad for the state’s economy and culture, explained what he said was the more narrow finding the SJC should reach.

"People have a right to vote," he said. "That's all this is about. It's not about the policy arguments. It's about whether people have a right to vote on this very important issue."

Chief Justice Roderick J. Ireland, in a question from the bench, made clear that members of the court have heard some business-community leaders’ arguments that a repeal would hurt the state's business climate.

"What you do you say," Ireland asked, "to the argument that has been made, if you prevail, this will have a chilling effect on all businesses in the future that are thinking about engaging in activities in this state?"

Casino foes outside court said polls show more and more Bay Staters recognize casinos just drain dollars from other businesses, especially entertainment and hospitality businesses, and create a wave of social problems like gambling addiction, personal bankruptcy, family strife, divorce, and suicides.

"The more people learn about casinos, the less likely they are to have one nearby," Ribeiro said. "What this is all about is giving all the people in the state the right to vote on this."


With videographer Christopher D. Garvin and video editor Mike Bellwin



http://www.necn.com/05/05/14/Casino-repeal-goes-to-Mass-SJC/landing_business.html?blockID=866014&feedID=11106

Not a done deal – Yes, We Can STOP Casinos - Here's how you can help!

The message below is from Former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger.....

Massachusetts has proven time and again the importance of 'grassroots - you and me!

A few dollars, some information to friends, family and acquaintances.

Please join. Please support. Let's do this to protect ALL Massachusetts communities!

My friends – I received this note last evening from a supporter of, and donor to, the REPEAL effort:

“Hey Scott – I read the Vennochi piece in the Sunday Globe (See Below), and I know Tom Bean. I’m glad he is fighting on your behalf – top-notch lawyer.

Let me know what I can do to further spread the word about the cause.”

To which I replied:

“Thank you. I agree! Joan’s piece is great and I’m glad to share the briefs with you any time, but, now more than ever, we need to raise money – in whatever increments anyone can afford or is willing to contribute, even if merely symbolic.”

Frankly, my friends, if everyone who we know who is opposed or neutral, or simply believes there ought to be more information, debate and a vote, contributed a small amount, we could fund our valiant, lean, mean legal and media effort, and a core campaign manager to staff our amazing grass roots citizen leaders all over the state.

A request to your networks, enclosing the link, also serves to raise awareness and remind folks this is not a done deal! In fact, we are winning!!

Thanks, my friend

Scott Harshbarger

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/columns/2014/04/19/casinos-next-draw-sjc/z1xHeIAlP5NgCJAlGODyAJ/story.html

On casinos, SJC holds trump card

By Joan Vennochi

| GLOBE COLUMNIST APRIL 20, 2014

LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 2013

Guy Romano (left) and Nancy Wojick (center) held signs opposing a casino in Milford.

THE SUPREME Judicial Court is the next and last stand in the battle to keep casinos out of Massachusetts.

If you have any doubts, listen to former mayor Thomas M. Menino, talking last week on WBZ-TV’s “Keller at Large.” Asked by host Jon Keller if voters will still support casinos in Massachusetts if the SJC allows a ballot measure on the question to go forward in November, Menino said, “I really believe that if it goes on the ballot, it’ll lose.”

“If it goes on the ballot” is entirely up to the SJC, which is scheduled to hear arguments on that question in early May. After a year of controversy and confusion over the license-granting process, recent polls show slippage in support.

If Menino — once the key political force behind a casino in East Boston and always an astute reader of public opinion — now believes the tide has turned enough to trigger repeal, the industry must be nervous. So nervous that it is determined to keep the question off the ballot.

Last August, the group that wants to kill casinos filed a petition with Attorney General Martha Coakley. It proposed a law that would essentially overturn the expanded gambling law passed by the Massachusetts Legislature in 2011. In September, Coakley — the current front-runner in the Democratic race to be governor — blocked the petition. In a ruling that essentially put the AG on the side of gaming, she argued that the millions that casino operators put on the table to take part in the state’ s licensing process amounts to an “implied contract.” Therefore, if the ballot question wins and the law is repealed, the outcome amounts to an unfair and unconstitutional taking of property.

Put aside the irony of trying to protect from risk the investments of an industry that makes its fortune off other people’s risks.

The “No Casino” group, which appealed Coakley’s ruling, contends the weight of the law falls on the side of the people and their right to vote. According to the brief they filed with the SJC, Coakley’s argument of an “implied contract” runs up against a US Supreme Court decision — Stone v. Mississippi. The case, which goes back to 1879, eerily echoes the circumstances at issue in Massachusetts today.

In Stone, the Mississippi legislature granted a 25-year charter to a lottery company in exchange for an initial $5,000 fee, an annual $1,000 tax, and a percentage of receipts from the sale of tickets. A year later, voters adopted a new state Constitution which outlawed lotteries. The holder of the lottery charter argued that it had contracted with the state to operate a lottery and that the new Mississippi Constitution violated it and, with it, the contract clause of the US Constitution.

But the Supreme Court ruled that no contract existed. The fundamental principle, which the SJC has adopted, is that the state cannot bargain away, even by express grant, the right to exercise its police powers to protect the public welfare, said Thomas O. Bean, one of the lead lawyers for the “No Casino” plaintiffs.

In Massachusetts, there is more recent precedent. The SJC ruled in a 2008 case that owners of a dog-racing track had “no compensable property” in their racing license after voters approved a ballot question banning dog racing.

The ballot initiative process followed by “No Casino” advocates was added to the state Constitution almost 100 years ago. It allows citizens to adopt laws they want enacted, or repeal those with which they disagree. After gathering nearly 70,000 signatures, casino repeal backers are hoping that Menino’s prediction holds true. But first, they have to get the question before the voters.

But there are huge business interests at stake, and the casino industry is rallying to protect them. MGM Resorts, for example,has asked the state gambling commission to delay the formal award of its license until after the SJC makes a ruling. The license award would trigger some $200 million in obligations to Massachusetts. MGM doesn’t want to pay that sum — and still risk losing the right to build a casino if the ballot measure goes forward and is approved by voters.

This is an industry that understands risk better than any other. To improve its odds of cashing in, it must stop the people from cashing out. How lucky that, on the next legal battlefield — before the SJC — gaming has the state’s AG on its side.

Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.

The people are entitled to vote --We Need you

Message from Former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger:

Friends and Colleagues – I am grateful for the contributions many of you have made to our effort to REPEAL the CASINO DEAL. As you may have read, we filed our Brief Friday, March 21, in the SJC. (See our website below.)

With the recent polls trending in our direction, the quality of our legal team, and the statewide citizen-led grass roots effort, we feel very good about the upcoming challenges, but we need your continued support -- and that of all those you can contact on our behalf -- now more than ever. (Here is link to our website –for information and for donations.)

Thank you, my friends.

Scott Harshbarger

 

 

 

REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL! Donate Volunteer The Details

REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL! BAD FOR COMMUNITIES, BAD FOR THE COMMONWEALTH
“We respect the Attorney General but, respectfully, she got this wrong.”                   The Repeal the Casino Deal campaign is seeking a ruling from the state's highest court to allow Massachusetts voters to decide whether to roll back the state casino law, despite an opinion from state Attorney General Martha Coakley that the repeal question is unconstitutional. Casino foes file court papers aimed at repeal To view the brief in it's entirety click here RTCD legal brief Former AG Scott Harshargar stated, “The hurdle is rightly high to deny the people a right to vote. In this case, the proposed question is reasonable, it is well drafted, timely filed and constitutional. Beyond that, we have secured enough signatures and, now, the public is clearly starting to lean against the industry. It’s time to right the balance and let democracy win out.” “The public is clearly moving toward support for a full repeal of this casino law and the industry is rightly getting nervous that our grassroots effort is taking flight and the industry’s promises are proving to be empty, as we predicted,” said John Ribeiro, chairman of the casino repeal campaign. “We always knew the AG was wrong to deny this question – now we know we have the legal arguments to prove it.” Support sustaining the effort to repeal the casino deal by donating now Donate Onward, Paul, John, Kathleen, Steve, Kris and the RTCD team Please like our Facebook page Repeal the Casino Deal
Repeal The Casino Deal Committee ι (617) 701-7823