Speakers in Springfield

Casino gambling opponents have their say at Christ Church Cathedral in Springfield

06.26.2013 | SPRIGNFIELD -- Former Connecticut Congressman Bob Steele speaks at an anti-casino rally held at the Christ Church Cathedral. (Photo by Don Treeger / The Republican)

By Suzanne McLaughlin, The RepublicanThe Republican
on June 26, 2013

SPRINGFIELD — Western Massachusetts Episcopal Bishop Douglas Fisher said a casino in Springfield would be “bad news for the poor.”

“When the proponents tell you it will lead to economic revival, you can almost believe them,” he said.

He said that casinos “are not an economic engine, but a vacuum cleaner. ... Legalized casino gambling is a regressive tax on the poor,” he said, adding that the thought of a large amount of money is too tempting to people who have little.

State law allows up to three casinos in the state, with one slated for Western Massachusetts. Three developers are vying for the license, with one being MGM Resorts International, which is proposing a $800 million casino in the city's South End employing up to 3,000 people.

View full size06.26.2013 | SPRINGFIELD -- The crowd listens to speakers at an anti-casino rally held at the Christ Church Cathedral.

The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts hosted a program Wednesday night for opponents of casino gambling at Christ Church Cathedral on Chestnut Street. About 300 people attended the event.

The main speakers for the event were former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and Bob Steele, a former congressman from Connecticut and the author of “The Curse: Big Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town.”

Steele said casinos are not necessarily a job creator. He said a casino in West Virginia replaced card dealers with electronic card dealers when it lost profits. In 1988 only two states had legalized casino gambling, and now 39 states have it, Steele said.
 
Because of competition from Rhode Island and Yonkers, N.Y., slot revenues are down 32 percent in Connecticut, Steele said. He said that there have been layoffs at both Connecticut casinos.

Springfield is not likely to be a destination casino, Steele said, but a convenience casino for local people.

Harshbarger said that opponents need to be sure to vote against the Springfield casino proposal on July 16. The project must be approved by the host community before being eligible to seek the state license to operate. “You live here. This is your community,” he said.

“We teach our children to work hard and play by the rules and you will be a success," Harshbarger said. “The solution to every economic problem is not a casino.”

“The owners of the casino will make profits, the state will make money and the losers will be the people,” he said. “If the casino sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

Harshbarger said the Springfield opponents of casino gambling need to join a statewide effort to change the law legalizing casino gambling.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said.


http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/casino_gambling_opponents_have.html#incart_river_default

Great Event! Wednesday, June 26th Get the FACTS about Predatory Gambling!

Anti-casino event in Springfield will feature former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger among speakers

08.08.2012 | SPRINGFIELD -- Opponents of a casino located in Springfield gather at the meeting site of a forum featuring members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission at Western New England University. (The Republican [file])

By Peter Goonan, The RepublicanThe Republican
Follow on Twitter
on June 25, 2013


SPRINGFIELD — The public is invited to hear from three prominent anti-casino advocates, including former Attorney General L. Scott Harshbarger, during an event scheduled Wednesday at the Christ Church Cathedral on Chestnut Street.

The talk is scheduled at 7 p.m., at the church, 35 Chestnut St., and admission is free. The program is sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts.

The speaking program will be followed by a question-and-answer period.

Scott HarshbargerFile photo / Associated Press

 

Harshbarger is a longtime casino opponent and strongly objected when Gov. Deval L. Patrick and the state Legislature legalized casinos in 2011. Harshbarger warned of a “gold rush” in Massachusetts, that he said would bring corruption and backroom deals to the state.

Supporters of casinos say the projects will bring jobs, economic development and new revenue to the state, while opponents say it will harm small local businesses and worsen social ills related to problem gambling.

In addition to Harshbarger, the speakers at Wednesday’s event include Bob Steele, a former congressman from Connecticut, who has written a new book: “The Curse: Big Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town (Levellers Press, Amherst, Mass.) The book is described by the Episcopal diocese as a novel that addresses “the explosion of casino gambling” in Connecticut during the 1990s, in reference to the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun projects.
Great book! You need to read about the community destruction that accompanies Predatory Gambling!

 The third speaker is Episcopal Bishop Douglas J. Fisher, described by the diocese as an outspoken advocate for social justice.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission will consider approving up to three casinos in state and one slots parlor, including one casino in Western Massachusetts.

There are three casino developments vying for the single gaming license in Western Massachusetts: MGM Resorts International, proposing a casino in the South End of Springfield; Mohegan Sun, proposing a project in Palmer off the Massachusetts Turnpike; and Hard Rock International, proposing a project in West Springfield at the Eastern States Exposition.

“The Diocese is sponsoring the talk to give Springfield area residents an opportunity to hear firsthand about casinos in Connecticut and ask questions about their social and economic effect,” the diocese’s release stated.

Harshbarger is currently senior counsel in the Boston office of Proskauer Rose LLP. He served two terms as Massachusetts Attorney General, and his background also included serving as a public defender, civil rights attorney and district attorney.


http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/anti-casino_event_in_springfie.html

2 Great Events from Springfield!

Let's join our friends in Springfield --

Our website is in good shape and we’re asking people to sign onto our email list via the website. Our focus is on Springfield with this one, and we are campaigning to get a NO vote on July 16.

www.citizensagainstcasinogaming.com

Please forward this along as you see fit so we can build the list.

Note two events:

June 13 Rally at Court Square in Springfield at 4:00 PM

June 26 Speaker event:

Speakers to Discuss Casinos in Western Mass.

You are invited to Christ Church Cathedral. 37 Chestnut St., Springfield on June 26 at 7 PM to hear Connecticut author and former Congressman Bob Steele speak regarding Connecticut’s experience with casino gambling. Mr. Steele will talk about the factual background to his new book, The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town. The Curse is a novel set against the explosion of casino gambling that hit southeastern Connecticut during the 1990s, when two Indian tribes built the world’s two biggest casinos in the southeastern corner of the state.

Also speaking will be former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, along with the Rt. Rev. Doug Fisher, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of W. Mass. Free admission. Open to the public.

Best,

Steve Abdow

Steven P. Abdow

Finance and Administration Officer

Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts

37 Chestnut Street, Springfield, MA 01103

413-737-4786 office

413-746-9873 fax

sabdow@diocesewma.org

Welcoming the Bubonic Plague

Watching leaders genuflect to the Casino Vultures without conducting their due diligence is reminiscent of welcoming the Bubonic Plague.

Palmer was among the early communities to be targeted and appointed a Citizens' Casino Study Committee that determined the annual cost to host Mohegan Sun would be $18 MILLION to $39 MILLION, not including $50 MILLION to bring water from the Quabbin.

That ignores the impact of Low Wage Jobs and substandard housing that Mohegan Sun brought to Connecticut.

You might begin your research here - this is what happened in Connecticut:

Massachusetts casino live chat series:
We want your questions for Mohegan Sun

10/10 /12 Palmer- Republican Staff Photo by Mark M.Murray - Mohegan Sun's Mitchell Etess, talks to members of the Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce during a luncheon at the Pathfinder Vocational Technical High School. (Republican Staff Photo by Mark M.Murray)

 

By Mandy Hofmockel, MassLive.comThe Republican
Follow on Twitter
on April 22, 2013

 

As a part of MassLive.com and The Republican's live chat series with companies competing for the single Western Massachusetts gaming license, MassLive.com will host an online question and answer session with Mitchell Etess, chief executive officer of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24.

Mohegan Sun's $800 million casino proposal would be located on 152 acres off Route 32 in Palmer, just off the Massachusetts Turnpike.

MassLive.com previously hosted live chats with MGM Resorts International President Bill Hornbuckle and Penn National Gaming's Eric Schippers, and we'd love to hear our readers' questions for Mohegan Sun as the next live chat approaches.

How to submit a question

Public participation in this process is critical and we want your questions. Please send questions to feedback@masslive.com with "Casino Chat Question" in the subject line.

Please include your name and town of residence with your question in order for it to be considered for the chats.

You can also share general questions and thoughts on the various casino proposals in the comments section below.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/massachusetts_casino_live_chat_mohegan_sun.html

 

The Curse

Senior Men: Casino gambling author speaks

By New Canaan Advertiser on April 11, 2013

Robert Steele will address the Senior Men’s Club of New Canaan in Morrill Hall at St. Mark’s Church on Friday, April 12, at 10, on the topic of Connecticut casino gambling.

Steele is the author of “The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town,” a novel set against the explosion of casino gambling that hit Connecticut during the 1990s, when two Indian tribes built the world’s two biggest casinos in the southeastern corner of the state.

The book comes at a time when Connecticut’s two mega-casinos face the prospect of heavy new competition from New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, the state’s casino revenue is declining, and there is growing political pressure to legalize Internet gambling.

Steele is vice chairman of an international retail marketing agency and has been a director of numerous companies, including the New York Mercantile Exchange, CME Group and the American Stock Exchange. A graduate of Amherst College and Columbia University, he served in the CIA and Congress (2nd District, CT) and was a candidate for governor of Connecticut.

The Senior Men’s Club is open for new members and applicants are welcome to attend this meeting.


Read more: http://www.ncadvertiser.com/21015/senior-men-casino-gambling-author-speaks/#ixzz2QFcFun7D

Bob Steele's Provocative Novel

Bob Steele’s Provocative Novel Demands Readers Face Ongoing Casino Saga

Published: Tuesday, April 09, 2013

 

By Andy Thibault

Catherine Avalone/The Middletown Press Former Congressman Robert Steele in his office at his Essex home is the author of "The Curse: Big Time Gambling's Seduction of a Small New England Town." Mr. Steele's novel describes the wrenching when the federal government allowed two Indian casinos to open in eastern Connecticut.     

Are Indian casinos the just revenge against the white man for the genocide of Native Americans?

This point of view is not dismissed easily.

The tension and interplay of race, money and politics in the tribal recognition process, however, can make the search for truth a murky process. Who is really descended from Native Americans? Does genealogy count? Jeff Benedict’s book published in 2000, “Without Reservation,” raised those issues and challenged the legitimacy of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

Even then, what could we reasonably expect from records kept by the occupiers who certainly displaced the indigenous people, time and time again?

As the casino and internet gambling industries evolve in a fragile economy, a companion narrative to “Without Reservation” has emerged. This time it’s an historical novel, written from the point of view of an old-line Connecticut family. “The Curse: Big-Time Gambling’s Seduction of a Small New England Town,” is former Congressman Bob Steele’s vehicle to put a lot of touchy issues back on the table.

Steele is one of those rare talented and successful guys secure enough to remain open, accessible and not full of himself. He is a striking figure in the most understated way, especially given his life roles which have also included CIA agent, bank president and international retail consultant.

The last time I saw Steele was in a Stamford warehouse in 1997. The 30,000-square-foot facility was hidden in plain sight. I remember Steele pushing a button in one of the building’s theaters opening up a wall that led to a mock city street. It was sort of a Disneyworld for bankers, filled with prototype branches of the future designed to lure and serve customers. Steele didn’t seem to mind when I told him the scene was reminiscent of 1960s TV secret agent Maxwell Smart’s journey to headquarters.

Now he tops it off with this novel set mostly in eastern Connecticut where he lived near the Mashantucket’s Foxwoods Resort Casino for 21 years.

His story begins with events leading to the massacre of Pequot Indians in Mystic in 1637, then jumps to the 1980s and 1990s when as many as a dozen tribes sought federal recognition and the opportunity to get rich quick via legalized gambling. The narrative plays out through a family with intriguing genealogy and local townspeople whose lives are impacted by embezzlement, organized crime, international finance and, of course, political corruption. It would be challenging to count the number of ironies presented within the characters and their deeds.

Steele’s strategic skills developed from other endeavors are evident in the pacing of the novel and the unraveling of history and intrigue. The sympathetic characters and the villains and their dialogue are credible for the most part, although perhaps a bit forced toward the finale. The nitty-gritty of local, state and national politics is revealed by a master. He uses the device of a stone wall late in the narrative to tie together most of the story of 13 generations on native or Connecticut land. It is among the elements that keep the reader in suspense.  

There are some good action scenes, including occasional doses of fisticuffs, sex and homicide. We even get to see how “bill collectors” from Providence set up lucrative scams and otherwise ply their trade preying on growing numbers of gambling addicts.

Also striking was an example of how the federal government systematically stiffs citizens who try to use the Freedom of Information Act to retrieve documents the public owns, employing delays and omissions to frustrate and drive people away.

Steele mixes fictional characters with actual historical figures including former Gov. Lowell Weicker, Hartford Courant columnist and former state Sen. Kevin Rennie and former U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson, who followed Chris Dodd and Steele himself serving in the Second District seat.

In interviews and radio broadcasts, Steele makes the point that gambling has grown to become a politically-active, $63 billion industry. “The Curse” is about the sordid underbelly of what Steele says happened and almost happened in eastern Connecticut.

It is also a frame of reference for how Connecticut will be affected by our border states – Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York – as they deal with the rise of casino gambling. Will on-line gambling, as Steele predicts in his public appearances and interviews, put a casino on everyone’s “Smartphone?”

Steele continues to make almost daily rounds of libraries and social and professional clubs throughout the spring. He appeared in Litchfield last week and has upcoming appearances scheduled in Cheshire, Wethersfield, Griswold, South Windsor, New Canaan, Salem and Hebron over the next few days.

Andy Thibault is a contributing editor for Journal Register Co.’s Connecticut publications and the author of Law & Justice In Everyday Life. He formerly served as a commissioner for Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission. Reach Thibault by email at tntcomm82@cs.com. Follow him on Twitter @cooljustice.

http://www.countytimes.com/articles/2013/04/09/opinion/doc51641ef0854f8678824850.txt?viewmode=default


 

Book Signing

 

 

From: Charlotte Burns

To: Quaboag Valley Against Casinos

Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 9:07 AM

Subject: Re: Book signing

The book signing was absolutely incredible! I wish more people had shown up and that Doug Farmer had been there to do a write up. I bought the book and have started to read it.

It is extremely interesting, tells a lot about the history of the area just south of us. Mr. Steele was as good as any of our forum guys at letting folks know just how pernicious casinos are. He said that,

Yes, they created 20,000 jobs at a time other industries were leaving the area. But he talked about how they were low paying service jobs and how a casino culture has taken over.

He talked about how several friends who lost their businesses because of the casinos and friends who are gambling addicts. He talked about gridlock traffic. He talked about the history of the indian casino debacle and the role of the government in making this happen.

He talked about how competition and a failing economy are hurting their business. He talked about, as Bob Goodman put it, convenience gambling, and how they are going after the local market now to save their skins.

He also talked about how for every dollar they make, $3 is taken out of the economy. He also talked about Natasha Schull and the addictiveness of slots, and about how 75% of their profits come from these mindless addiction machines. He is a former congressman and extremely knowledgeable. I will go through my notes and write a letter to the editor about the talk. Perhaps for the week after's Journal.

Someone's got to tell the town about the talk and the book. I'll give myself one more week to get well into the book. I just have to put Keith Richard's book down, which is hard!