Any short term gains are not worth the long term costs... vote Yes on 3. Stop the Casino Mess.
Showing posts with label community destruction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community destruction. Show all posts
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Day Four: 18 reasons in 18 days to Vote YES on 3
[Note: YOU are our advertising campaign. Unlike casinos, we don't have millions of dollars to advertise. YOU are the only way this message reaches other voters. Please share and post widely. ]
Casinos
Harm Our Communities
Casinos
will extract millions of dollars from the residents of your hometown.
Millions (and in many cities, tens of millions) of dollars in current
local retail spending will be shifted to the casinos every year.
It doesn't matter if the casino is located in your backyard, or 25 miles
away, every dollar your neighbors lose at the casino is one less dollar they
will spend in town. Every resident of your community will pay the
price for that loss.
If you
want to see how much money your neighbors are projected to gamble at the casinos
every year, go to the following links to view how much money will be flowing
away from businesses in your town, to the casinos:
Central
and Northern Counties: http://massvoteyeson3.blogspot.com/2014/10/new-casino-gambling-losses-per-city-or.html
Southern,
Cape and Island Counties: http://massvoteyeson3.blogspot.com/2014/10/new-casino-gambling-losses-per-city-or.html
Is whatever you believe might be gained from
casinos,
worth everything that you will
lose?
On
November 4th, Vote YES to Repeal the Casino Law
Vote YES on #3
Vote
YES to STOP the Casino Mess
WANT TO
HELP?
3 Ways You Can:
1) Please share/post these messages widely: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005253047911
We Can't Win Without
YOU!
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Day Four: 20 winning casino repeal arguments in 20 days
For 20 days, I will be e-mailing a new, effective argument each day
which can be used by Repeal leaders and volunteers to Stop the Casino
Mess.
Casinos
Harm Our Communities
Casinos will extract millions of dollars from
the residents of your hometown. Millions (and in many cities, tens
of millions) of dollars in current local retail spending will be shifted to the
casinos every year. It doesn't matter if the casino is located in
your backyard, or 25 miles away, every dollar your neighbors lose at the casino
is one less dollar they will spend in town. Every resident of your
community will pay the price for that loss.
On
November 4th, Vote YES to Repeal the Casino Law
Vote YES on #3
Vote
YES to STOP the Casino Mess
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
#Yeson3MA
A green casino... good for our planet maybe... but, still not so good for our communities and our people. This fall, we can stop the casino mess by voting #Yeson3MA
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Casinos: "We have all the money"
 |
THE DECK IS STACKED AGAINST THE COMMONWEALTH
Casinos: "We have all the money"
Dear Friend:
As our campaign to turn back the
casino culture in Massachusetts continues to grow, the media is starting to look
more closely at our efforts - and our opponents!!
Yesterday's Boston Globe brings our challenge to the
forefront and showcases just how the casino industry sees this race shaping
up:
It’s Money vs the People, and the
Casinos know it!!
In a rare moment of honesty, a casino leader told the Globe: “We have a great
base and all the money.”
“And all the money.”
We’ve always known that we are
David lining up for a fight against Goliath. We’ve known that since the moment
we took on the casino industry and its supporters but we have fought together
and we have won.
We need your support to make that
happen. Please join us online, donate to our growing campaign, volunteer to help and join us on social media by tweeting and
retweeting us.
As you saw last week, for the
first time since the Globe has been measuring public sentiment on the casino
question in June, casino supporters polled less than a majority. The more voters
learn about the casino industry the more voters are rejecting the idea of
Casinos in Massachusetts.
We know we aren’t going to be able
to compete against the deep pockets of the casino industry, but we do need the
resources to tell our story, to educate the public and to make sure we keep
moving these numbers.
The truth is, voters know we can
do better than casinos. We will vote YES to Stop this Mess!!
Thank you for helping us turn this
tide- join us today.
Sincerely,
John Ribeiro
Chairman, Repeal the Casino
Deal
p.s. Please forward this message
on to 10 of your friends to help spread the word!
Repeal the Casino Deal • P.O. Box 520162 • Winthrop, MA 02152
Repeal the Casino Deal • P.O. Box 520162 • Winthrop, MA 02152
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
"...the people who are living there now won’t be there [if] the casino gets built...."
A pretty good statement as to why casino development is not in the best interest of cities and towns of diversity of income and race which are seeking legitimate industry that will raise the quality of life of ALL it's rsidents...despite their false projections of increased revenue and jobs...
"That spillover would almost certainly wash away some of the neighborhood’s diversity, said Phil Bronder-Giroux, executive director of Tri-Cap, an antipoverty agency that serves Everett..., Malden, and Medford. He said the casino and the city’s revitalization plans will lead to higher rents, making the neighborhood unaffordable for many longtime residents.
“I can say pretty assuredly to you that the people who are living there now won’t be there [if] the casino gets built,” said Bronder-Giroux.
Even if Wynn’s plans are rejected, city officials say, the neighborhood is gaining momentum, enough to continue its upward swing. They believe they could lure other development to the former Monsanto site that would contribute to the area’s revitalization."
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/05/17/awaiting-casino-outcome-everett-neighborhood-faces-change/R0oZY1N67ldP4eBMcYzpOK/story.html?s_campaign=email_BG_TodaysHeadline
Change to the neighborhood, known as the Lynde, could come at lightning speed...
The Boston Globe
EVERETT — From a vacant parcel of land, choked with weeds and framed by smokestacks and storage tanks, you can look across the Mystic River. If residents of the adjacent neighborhood had access to this section of waterfront, they might see their future.
In the distance loom Charlestown and Somerville, post-industrial communities that have reinvented themselves to become among the most desirable in Greater Boston, attracting new people, businesses, and investment. Here, not far from the border with Boston, similar changes are underway as abandoned factories are converted to high-end housing and greener businesses, such as microbreweries, replace dirtier ones.
That change is likely to accelerate to lightning speed should Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn gain approval to build a $1.2 billion resort casino on that vacant property along the Mystic — a development that many agree would transform a long-struggling neighborhood, remarkable for the diversity of people, income, and land use packed into 11 city blocks.
Related
Known as the Lynde (pronounced “line”), the neighborhood stretches a half-mile on either side of Route 99, cut off from the rest of Everett by the
Sweetser Rotary to the north. Poor immigrants live next to middle-class whites, blacks, and Hispanics in single-, two-, and three-family homes and across Route 99 from young professionals in upscale condos.
Junkyards, auto repair shops, small manufacturers, and major international corporations are interspersed throughout the neighborhood. Giant oil tanks loom over wood-framed houses.
Much of what keeps Greater Boston moving is found in the Lynde. The MBTA services its fleet of subway trains here. Exxon Mobil’s tank farm stretches east to Chelsea. Distrigas of Massachusetts operates the liquefied natural gas, or LNG, terminal in Everett, the oldest facility of its kind in the United States.
The Distrigas complex, in turn, has connections to two interstate natural gas pipelines, as well as the Mystic Power Station, just over the border in Charlestown, which generates electricity for about 1.5 million homes.
“The things that power this area all come from Everett, which is great for the rest of us,” said Jason Schwartz, senior editor at Boston Magazine, who has written about liquefied natural gas deliveries and the casino proposal. “But Everett hasn’t necessarily shared in all of the prosperity that the rest of us have gotten from their work.”
The Lynde grew up at the turn of the 20th century when it was a thriving manufacturing mecca, a place where blue-collar workers, mostly Italian immigrants, lived and walked to jobs at the oil refinery, tool manufacturing plant, or Monsanto Chemical Co.
Frank Dascoli, 76, and Jim Marchant, 78, grew up in the neighborhood in the 1940s and ’50s, their families sharing a duplex on Lynde Street. They recalled the Lynde as a place of adventure, where industrial neighbors provided their playgrounds. In winter they ice-skated around oil tanks, and in summer they swam in the polluted Mystic, admiring the greens, blues, reds, and yellows spreading on the surface, and risking a spanking when they returned home.
“That water was loaded with sulfur, loaded with tar,” Dascoli said. “You’d go down there clean and you’d go home . . . filthy.”
Everett History Facebook page
A view of the Monsanto Chemical property in the 1920s.
Today, the neighborhood is a mere remnant of its industrial heyday, dotted with a few vacant lots, abandoned homes, and empty factory and commercial buildings, including the former Esso Office Building on Beacham Street, where graffiti and boarded windows tower over a small patch of unruly weeds.
Until a few years ago, revitalizing the neighborhood was never a priority for city officials, who long hoped that manufacturing would return. When it became clear it wouldn’t, they began looking for other ways to improve the area.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a no man’s land, but it’s an area where you don’t quite know what the neighborhood is supposed to be or wants to be,” said James Errickson, executive director of the Everett Planning Department. “So defining that is what the challenge is.”
Signs that the neighborhood was changing first appeared in 2005 when the former Charleston Chew candy factory was converted into a 69-unit condominium development. Nancy Koury and her husband, Steffen, were among those who bought, lured by an easy commute to their respective jobs at a Boston law firm and product design company.
Mark Micheli for The Boston Globe
LNG storage tanks seen from Robin Street in the Lynde.
The Kourys bought two units with exposed brick walls and ceilings with aged wood beams, then combined them into a penthouse suite with a deck and skyline views of Boston.
Nancy Koury said it was an opportunity to get more for their money than in other Boston-area neighborhoods, including the Charlestown Navy Yard, where they once lived.
“We pretty much fell in love with the space,” said Koury, who today is a member of the Everett Planning Board.
The city had plans to improve the neighborhood at least two years before Wynn set his sights on the former Monsanto property in 2012 as the location for his company’s casino. Over the past couple of years, it has repaved Route 99, added a bike lane, and installed new lighting. City officials also plan to study the feasibility of adding a commuter rail stop along tracks on the west side of Route 99.
Robert Burns is cofounder of Night Shift Brewing, one of two breweries in the Lynde. In the three years since the microbrewery opened on Charlton Street, Burns said he’s noticed new businesses, more young people, and more activity in the neighborhood.
“It just seems as if it’s going up and up,” Burns said. “And I think as more people realize the close proximity to public transportation and how close it is to the city, it’s going to be a great alternative to living in the more expensive communities around it.”
Mark Micheli for The Boston Globe
Smokestacks loom large from this vantage point on Bow Street.
Developer Andy Montelli is betting on that. His company, Post Road Residential of Fairfield, Conn., is building the $91 million Batch Yard luxury apartments. Although rents have yet to be set for the 328 units there, they are expected to be lower than advertised rents in similar projects around the area.
“We’re pioneers,” Montelli said. “Everett hasn’t seen a lot of development. It hasn’t been a traditional community where developers go, where banks invest.”
Montelli had plans to build here before Wynn Resorts proposed the casino on the former Monsanto property. Later this year, the state Gaming Commission will decide whether to award the sole license in the Boston area to Wynn or to Mohegan Sun, which has proposed a casino for the Suffolk Downs racetrack property in Revere.
If Wynn gets the license, Montelli said, he is hopeful that the casino would make the neighborhood and his development more attractive. Other restaurants, hotels, and shops would likely open along Route 99, providing additional amenities for residents.
“When you put a billion dollars into a place, there’s got to be some spillover effect,” he said.
Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff/File
That spillover would almost certainly wash away some of the neighborhood’s diversity, said Phil Bronder-Giroux, executive director of Tri-Cap, an antipoverty agency that serves Everett, Malden, and Medford. He said the casino and the city’s revitalization plans will lead to higher rents, making the neighborhood unaffordable for many longtime residents.
“I can say pretty assuredly to you that the people who are living there now won’t be there [if] the casino gets built,” said Bronder-Giroux.
Even if Wynn’s plans are rejected, city officials say, the neighborhood is gaining momentum, enough to continue its upward swing. They believe they could lure other development to the former Monsanto site that would contribute to the area’s revitalization.
“The only fear I would have is that it stayed the same,” said Everett City Clerk Mike Matarazzo, the city’s unofficial historian. “Its value is being looked at quite differently now, and I don’t think that is a realistic fear.”
Monday, May 26, 2014
The Fight Against the Slot Parlors Around the Corner
The Fight Against the Slot Parlors Around the Corner
LAS VEGAS — Five miles from the flashing lights and scantily clad dancers of the Las Vegas Strip, Dotty’s Gaming and Spirits lounge on Tropicana Avenue hardly resembles a casino. Decorated with red-and-white checkered tablecloths, plastic flowers, knickknacks and old clocks, the place, like most of the other 64 Dotty’s outposts scattered across this metropolis, looks more like your grandmother’s living room — if your grandmother happened to be an avid gambler.
The customers, mostly women over 40, sat hunched over slot machines, cigarette in one hand, the other pushing a button to spin again.
Yet, for all its mom-and-pop charms (the free Hershey’s kisses, the Barry Manilow music), Dotty’s is locked in a political and legal fight for its survival against some of the most powerful foes in the state: the casino industry and its backers in local government.
Casino companies complain that Dotty’s and other slot parlors have skirted regulations for years, masquerading as taverns so they could infiltrate residential neighborhoods, where casinos are largely prohibited. The parlors occupy almost every corner of the Las Vegas basin. In an effort to shut down the Dotty’s business model, county officials imposed a temporary moratorium on gambling licenses at taverns, setting up a showdown between regulators and the popular slot chains.
“We didn’t want mom-and-pop-type casinos popping up everywhere, and there have gotten to be too many of these slot arcades,” said Steve Sisolak, a county commissioner who has led the charge against Dotty’s. “They don’t create any jobs, compared to a traditional tavern or casino. All they’re doing is skimming the cream off of the gaming revenue without offering anything to the community.”
Mr. Sisolak described the proliferation of slot parlors as a scourge that was killing jobs, driving bars and other businesses to close, robbing Nevada of tax dollars and overrunning residential areas with slot machines. Although the parlors serve food and drinks, few patrons are there for the corn dogs.
“We are redefining what a bar is,” said Mike Eide, the chief operating officer for Dotty’s in Nevada.
“We designed a bar for older women, which was a clientele nobody wanted. It’s probably not a place I would go, but I’m not going to dictate what kind of bar they go to.”
Mr. Eide said that the company was beloved by Las Vegas residents, and that it was only “the big local casinos that complain.”
One regular customer, Jennifer Santos, 39, said she did not worry about being followed to her car at Dotty’s the way she did when she hit a jackpot at a casino.
“You don’t get bothered by drunken men,” Ms. Santos, an administrative assistant, said of Dotty’s. “It’s a friendlier atmosphere. You can get on a first-name basis with the staff. A casino is a lot bigger, and you don’t know anyone.”
In Nevada, most slot parlors are licensed as taverns, which allows them up to 15 slot machines, but only if gambling is “incidental” to the business. State law does not define “incidental,” which has made it very difficult to regulate the gambling there. After tangling with regulators three years ago, a majority of the parlors were forced to start offering food and alcohol.
On a recent weekday, Ms. Santos was among half a dozen customers rooted at their machines in a Jackpot Joanie’s parlor. No one ordered any food or drinks — or spoke much to anyone else — in nearly an hour. Several patrons did help themselves to free Goldfish crackers. The dining tables were abandoned except for a caregiver who sat waiting for her client, an older woman with a walker, to finish playing.
A lone employee kept watch over the entire place. With nobody ordering drinks, he tracked how much each customer was betting, and those who bet enough were offered free drinks.
Such scenes are the heart of the problem, Mr. Sisolak said. With only one employee on site at a time, he said, the slot parlors could operate at a fraction of the cost of a traditional tavern, enabling them to offer lower prices and better odds, making it harder for traditional bars to compete.
“A regular tavern has three bartenders, cooks, busboys,” he said. “These places have none of that.”
Mr. Eide did not dispute that most of Dotty’s revenue came from gambling. But he said the same was true of most area taverns, many of which were buoyed by their slot machines through the recession.
If taverns could make no more than 49 percent of their revenue from gambling — the limit in Oregon, for example — it would put “90-something percent of taverns in the state out of business,” he said.
Las Vegas’s residential areas were already flush with slot machines before Dotty’s arrived. Duck into a grocery store, a 7-Eleven or a sports bar, and you are likely to find local residents hunkered over video slots.
But the explosion of slot parlors has subtly reshaped neighborhoods here. Bars, restaurants and laundries closed during the recession, and many were replaced by slot parlors, which significantly raised the number of slot machines within walking distance. Since 2010, slot parlors here have more than doubled, according to county officials.
Bars with slot machines and video lotteries have changed neighborhoods around the country as well.
Dotty’s, for instance, has encountered similar, if unexpected, resistance from Portland, Ore., to Bloomington, Ill.
On Hayden Island in the Columbia River, a part of Portland close to Vancouver, Wash., residents complained that video lottery bars had driven almost all of the restaurants and stores out of business on one strip now known as “lottery row.” The concentration of gambling has attracted visitors from Washington, they said, but fueled a rise in drug use, prostitution and other crimes.
“The strip mall is no longer a strip mall,” said Jeff Geisler, chairman of the Hayden Island Neighborhood Network, which campaigned to shut down the video lottery bars. “There’s no dry cleaner, no beautician; none of the normal businesses are left. What you have is a minicasino, and it’s a blight on the neighborhood.”
Last year, legislators in Oregon considered a bill that would have imposed tighter restrictions on bars offering video lotteries.
Here in Las Vegas, some patrons of Dotty’s said the convenience had led them to play more frequently. On a recent Monday, Greg Loomis worked a series of odd jobs, walking dogs and gardening for a friend, so he would have cash to play the slots that night with his partner, Debi Eakin, who is unemployed. As they pulled up to a Dotty’s, she asked if he had any money.
“I make $25 a day, plus all the food I can eat,” Mr. Loomis, 61, said. “Sometimes I save it up, sometimes I come in and play it. Stick it in a machine and hope you hit something.”
Within a few minutes, they had exhausted their funds for the night. “Most of it I give to her,” he said. “It’s never enough.”
Monday, April 28, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Tolman: Spineless NIMBY! What a Disappointment!
Folks, Can we stop electing spineless clowns who have failed to conduct their Due Diligence, ignored the disasterous experience of other communities, other states and are delusional enough to believe Massachusetts is DIFFERENT?
Atlantic City is the Poster Child for Predatory Gambling!
Solely my words!
Atlantic City is the Poster Child for Predatory Gambling!
Solely my words!
From: Alex Bloom <alex@warrentolman.com>
Date: April 15, 2014, 6:00:02 PM EDT
To: ......
Subject: Warren Tolman statement
Date: April 15, 2014, 6:00:02 PM EDT
To: ......
Subject: Warren Tolman statement
Hi .....,
I'm sending along the following statement from Warren Tolman regarding casinos:"The decision of whether the question will be on the ballot is in the hands of the SJC and the next Attorney General has no role in this decision. But if it is on the ballot I will vote against repeal. I support the Legislature's decision to allow individual towns and cities like Springfield and Plainville to decide if they want a casino in their backyard. The people in these communities want the jobs and economic development that will be created.
If casinos go forward in Massachusetts, the real issues for the next Attorney General are to enforce casino agreements and to be an advocate for consumers and taxpayers. I will ensure that agreements with host communities and surrounding communities are strictly enforced. I will be the leader on whom Massachusetts residents can depend so that casino operators are adhering to their agreements with regards to traffic mitigation, compulsive gambling, work rules, the impact on local economies, consumer bankruptcy and other issues. Finally, I will continue to be a watchdog on ethics and political corruption." -- Warren Tolman
Thanks,Alex
--
Alex BloomCommunications and Scheduling215-872-8664
Friday, March 21, 2014
Protect ALL Massachusetts Communities - Not Just the NIMBY ones!
When people have the FACTS, they OPPOSE Predatory Gambling!
Please support REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL - IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT ALL MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNITIES!
Opponents of casino gambling gather at a July rally sponsored by at the Council of Churches of Western Massachusetts at Court Square in Springfield. Anti-casino activists hoping to bring a ballot question repealing the Massachusetts Expanded Gaming Law to the voters in November have filed the first brief in the case which is to be heard in front of the State Supreme Judicial Court in May. (Dave Roback / The Republican file)
BOSTON ̵ Anti-casino activists hoping to convince the State Supreme Judicial Court to allow a ballot question repealing the Massachusetts Expanded Gaming Law to go before the voters in November have filed the first brief in the case.
Boston attorneys Thomas O. Bean and H. Reed Witherby, both former employees of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, are arguing that current Attorney General Martha Coakley was incorrect when she concluded in September that the ballot question's passage would amount to an illegal taking of private property from casino companies and their partners.
"The facts and the law are clearly on the side of the people – they are entitled to vote," Bean said in a press release announcing the filing of the legal brief. "We believe this brief lays out the foundations of a strong case for the Justices. We look forward to the Court hearing this case in early May and deciding it swiftly so the campaign can formally commence."
The state's expanded gaming bill was signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2011, allowing for up to three resort casinos in various regions of the commonwealth, as well as one slots parlor.
If the court approves the ballot question, which already earned enough signatures to proceed, the casino companies vying for the commonwealth's valuable licenses will likely kick off a public relations campaign to try and boost support for casino gaming.
At the same time, the anti-casino faction will likely do the same, resulting in a PR battle similar to those waged in each municipality that has voted on hosting a casino.
Earlier this week, a survey of 500 likely voters, conducted by the MassINC Polling Group for WBUR in Boston, concluded that just 46 percent of Bay State residents now say they support casinos in Massachusetts, while 43 percent oppose them.
Previous statewide polls showed support for casinos in Massachusetts had been on the rise to an overwhelming peak in the fall of last year, and falling ever since.
The $800 million MGM Springfield project is the only proposed casino in Western Massachusetts which was approved by the voters. MGM got its green light from the city's residents in a July vote which went 58 to 42 percent, in the casino's favor.
In addition to the projects that died on the vine, voters in West Springfield voted down a proposed Hard Rock International casino in 2013 and voters in Palmer dashed Mohegan Sun's hopes of building a casino in that town with a vocal anti-casino group working to get out the vote.
The attorneys working to get the ballot question approved by the court, in the 143-page brief, argued that:
- The government has a legal obligation to oversee the welfare of the people and the people have a right to change laws. Granting the people the right to vote on casinos protects the power of the state to govern and protect the public welfare.
- When companies, like casino developers, participate in a heavily regulated industry, they are aware that the laws can change, the brief argued. Knowing the laws surrounding the industry can change is a risk that developers weighed when they decided to invest in casinos. This is further proven by the fact that the industry itself is proposing changes.
- The initiative petition law is built on the presumption that the people have the right to a vote, with very few exceptions. The right of the people to vote is especially pertinent, the team argued, in situations where a proposed change could affect the moral fabric and culture of the Commonwealth.
Both sides of the lawsuit to decide the fate of the ballot question have requested that the state Supreme Judicial Court hear the case's arguments at its May sitting and issue a decision by July 9.
Opponents of casino gambling gather at a July rally sponsored by at the Council of Churches of Western Massachusetts at Court Square in Springfield. Anti-casino activists hoping to bring a ballot question repealing the Massachusetts Expanded Gaming Law to the voters in November have filed the first brief in the case which is to be heard in front of the State Supreme Judicial Court in May. (Dave Roback / The Republican file)
Boston attorneys Thomas O. Bean and H. Reed Witherby, both former employees of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, are arguing that current Attorney General Martha Coakley was incorrect when she concluded in September that the ballot question's passage would amount to an illegal taking of private property from casino companies and their partners.
"The facts and the law are clearly on the side of the people – they are entitled to vote," Bean said in a press release announcing the filing of the legal brief. "We believe this brief lays out the foundations of a strong case for the Justices. We look forward to the Court hearing this case in early May and deciding it swiftly so the campaign can formally commence."
The state's expanded gaming bill was signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2011, allowing for up to three resort casinos in various regions of the commonwealth, as well as one slots parlor.
If the court approves the ballot question, which already earned enough signatures to proceed, the casino companies vying for the commonwealth's valuable licenses will likely kick off a public relations campaign to try and boost support for casino gaming.
At the same time, the anti-casino faction will likely do the same, resulting in a PR battle similar to those waged in each municipality that has voted on hosting a casino.
Earlier this week, a survey of 500 likely voters, conducted by the MassINC Polling Group for WBUR in Boston, concluded that just 46 percent of Bay State residents now say they support casinos in Massachusetts, while 43 percent oppose them.
Previous statewide polls showed support for casinos in Massachusetts had been on the rise to an overwhelming peak in the fall of last year, and falling ever since.
The $800 million MGM Springfield project is the only proposed casino in Western Massachusetts which was approved by the voters. MGM got its green light from the city's residents in a July vote which went 58 to 42 percent, in the casino's favor.
In addition to the projects that died on the vine, voters in West Springfield voted down a proposed Hard Rock International casino in 2013 and voters in Palmer dashed Mohegan Sun's hopes of building a casino in that town with a vocal anti-casino group working to get out the vote.
The attorneys working to get the ballot question approved by the court, in the 143-page brief, argued that:
- The government has a legal obligation to oversee the welfare of the people and the people have a right to change laws. Granting the people the right to vote on casinos protects the power of the state to govern and protect the public welfare.
- When companies, like casino developers, participate in a heavily regulated industry, they are aware that the laws can change, the brief argued. Knowing the laws surrounding the industry can change is a risk that developers weighed when they decided to invest in casinos. This is further proven by the fact that the industry itself is proposing changes.
- The initiative petition law is built on the presumption that the people have the right to a vote, with very few exceptions. The right of the people to vote is especially pertinent, the team argued, in situations where a proposed change could affect the moral fabric and culture of the Commonwealth.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
The LOSERS
Bill Kearney
Massachusetts ‘GAMING’ Future
Many of those who supported casino gambling in our state and those in other casino states always end up like those gambling in casinos, LOSERS.
Pittsburgh Tribune - March 4, 2014 - Mon Valley fire companies scramble to raise cash, blame casinos...
With spring looming, area fire departments are planning fundraisers to help offset operating costs.And fire officials say the task is more difficult than ever.
“All I can do is complain a little,” said Mike Wassilchalk, financial secretary of the North Belle Vernon Fire Department. “The state has hurt us ever since they put in gambling and took away smoking, which killed our bingo.”
Wassilchalk said North Belle Vernon's bingo events used to attract 300 to 350 people, filling both floors of the social hall. Now, they're lucky to get 70 to 80 people.
“People are trying to get more money through gambling and the casinos,” Wassilchalk said. “Now they want higher stakes. We can only give away up to $4,000 per night. We're limited, the casinos aren't.”
North Belle Vernon isn't alone.
Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmonvalley/yourmonvalleymore/5698409-74/fire-department-wassilchalk#ixzz2vVkQkseuSee More
Many of those who supported casino gambling in our state and those in other casino states always end up like those gambling in casinos, LOSERS.
Pittsburgh Tribune - March 4, 2014 - Mon Valley fire companies scramble to raise cash, blame casinos...
With spring looming, area fire departments are planning fundraisers to help offset operating costs.And fire officials say the task is more difficult than ever.
“All I can do is complain a little,” said Mike Wassilchalk, financial secretary of the North Belle Vernon Fire Department. “The state has hurt us ever since they put in gambling and took away smoking, which killed our bingo.”
Wassilchalk said North Belle Vernon's bingo events used to attract 300 to 350 people, filling both floors of the social hall. Now, they're lucky to get 70 to 80 people.
“People are trying to get more money through gambling and the casinos,” Wassilchalk said. “Now they want higher stakes. We can only give away up to $4,000 per night. We're limited, the casinos aren't.”
North Belle Vernon isn't alone.
Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmonvalley/yourmonvalleymore/5698409-74/fire-department-wassilchalk#ixzz2vVkQkseuSee More
Friday, February 14, 2014
Fall River City Councilors: Hold an open mind on gambling proposition
Dear City Councilors:
I am asking you to hold an open mind on the
current proposal for a gambling casino in Fall River until the proposal is in
and has been analyzed carefully. I write as an individual, but I am treasurer
of Citizens for the Common Good, a group opposed to casino
gambling.
Several proposals for gambling have taken
place here. Both have failed. The first was a proposal for gambling boats up
and down the Taunton River, about 15 or so years ago. A more serious proposal
was that of the Aquinnah tribe to purchase land in the industrial park for a
bingo hall which promised to lead to a casino as soon as the law changed. This
failed after significant debate because the City Council (wisely in my
judgement) refused to release the land for sale to the tribe, and voters in a
referendum failed to override the city council vote.
We now have a proposal for a $750,000
investment by Foxwoods. Multiple hotels, restaurants and convention centers,
with 3000 to 5,000 jobs. Certainly the proposed benefits are widely touted. But
do we want such a thing? Certainly we need carefully to examine the pros and
cons, not just figure out the best site, send an application to Boston and lobby
with the governor and gambling commission.
Gambling
is a poor deal for Fall River. We must remember continually that the purpose of
the gambling casino is to make a profit, to take money from the citizens of Fall
River and elsewhere, and that a gambling casino produces nothing useful or
saleable. Since it is pretty clearly established that the closer a gambling
casino is to a the more customers from that city, we will be hit the hardest.
And since it is also pretty clearly established that a very large percentage of
any gambling casino's profits come from a small proportion of customers (perhaps
addicts is the right word), we in Fall River are again hit
hard.
There
are other costs. These will come forth.
Most
of all I urge you, elected leaders of our community to study carefully this
matter. You have responsibilities as citizens and city leaders and as
members of the City Council.
Thank
you for your attention reading this.
(The
Rev.) Jim Hornsby
Friday, January 31, 2014
Degradation, Not Jobs!
Column: Casinos and slot barns bring degradation, not jobs
During my 20 years in the Massachusetts House and Senate, I listened to hundreds of hours of testimony on casinos in public hearings. I met with dozens of slot experts, both pro and con, from all over America, and I read numerous books about the gambling industry including “High Stakes: the Rising Cost of America’s Gambling Addiction” by Sam Skolnik and MIT Professor Dr. Natasha Schull’s new book, “Addiction by Design.”
I have no built-in moral bias against gambling per se. I do, however, have a built-in bias against rip-offs, and today’s gambling industry is one of the biggest rip-offs in American history. Slots are designed to make a few wealthy men even wealthier by emptying the pockets of lower income, elderly and addicted citizens.
Today, our own wonderful corner of world, the Merrimack Valley, has been thrust into this debate because of Penn National’s slot barn proposal in Tewksbury. Penn will spend millions to convince you that this is a good idea for Tewksbury and the region. I have heard it all before, and I assure you that it is not economic development. Rather it is economic and social degradation.
Casinos, and especially slot barns, degrade the local and regional economy. They do not enhance it. When local people pour their dollars down the slots they are not supporting existing or new businesses that depend on discretionary income. For Tewksbury to get its magic money, local citizens must gamble and lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Aside from the very short-term construction jobs, the actual number of jobs is always over estimated, and the wages are pathetic.
Gambling companies claim to help problem gamblers. To the contrary, they do everything possible to keep them gambling as long and as fast as possible. The industry has fought every proposal across America to minimize addiction, whether limits on ATM withdrawals or limits on free booze. Slot barns do not make money from the casual gambler who cuts his or her losses at $50. Their profits come from those who can’t stop. This is their business model, not subject to change.
Make no mistake, these facilities are not merely looking to attract current gamblers away from Connecticut. They are looking for a whole new group of slot players — your neighbors — who start out visiting once a month, and end up visiting several nights a week because they are so close to home.
Whatever deal is on the table today will change tomorrow. Casinos all over the Northeast are already heavily in debt. When the absurd market saturation begins in Massachusetts, estimated profits will head down hill and so will the promised revenue and jobs.
If children’s jewelry and toys arrive from overseas with lead content, our government bans them because of potential harm to our children. We have dozens of agencies and private organizations designed to protect consumers from harmful products.
Now, we have a product which everyone agrees will harm thousands of our neighbors, destroy families, and cause significant more theft, embezzlement and DUIs. This product is called the modern slot machine, designed with algorithms to give potential addicts the illusion of winning. Instead of controlling it, state and local governments have partnered with it and promoted it in their own delusion of “free money.” What other industry offers mitigation money as an up-front admission that it will cause problems in the community?
Every resident of Tewksbury and this region has a stake in this issue. Many communities have “just said no” because they learned quickly that the costs far outweigh the benefits. One such community, Foxboro, did considerable research and made a film titled “Preserving the Character of Foxboro.” It is worth 20 minutes of your time to Google this video and watch it on YouTube. My hope is that Tewksbury, like Foxboro and so many other communities, will look beyond the hype and smell this big rat for what it is.
Sue Tucker, a former Democratic state senator, writes from Andover.
http://www.eagletribune.com/opinion/x937527618/Column-Casinos-and-slot-barns-bring-degradation-not-jobs
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: East Boston and Revere Community Members Unite On City Line
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contacts: Joe Catricala (781-727-6099) &
Celeste Myers (617-913-3332)
East Boston and Revere Community Members Unite
On City Line to Oppose Mohegan Sun Casino at Suffolk Downs
Neighboring community groups to hold joint
press conference on the Revere/Boston city line in advance of Mohegan Sun's
presentation to Massachusetts Gaming Commission
BOSTON, MA (January 21, 2014) - Today Don't
Gamble on Revere, a registered municipal ballot question committee organized to
stop a casino at Suffolk Downs, and No Eastie Casino, will hold a joint press
conference and public demonstration at 3pm on the Revere/East Boston city line
to denounce the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's disregard for residents' clear
"no" vote from 8,513 residents of Revere and East Boston in referendums on Nov.
5 and highlight the contents of a comment letter to be submitted to the
Commission (MGC) in advance of its January 22 meeting with Mohegan
Sun.
"A casino at Suffolk Downs is a casino at
Suffolk Downs, and shifting this development a few feet over the city line into
Revere doesn't change anything," said Matt Cameron, No Eastie Casino's volunteer
legal counsel and an East Boston resident. "As anyone who is familiar with this
unique site must recognize, the city of Boston is now being forced to host a
guest that we have already dis-invited."
"As knowledge of traffic, pollution, crime,
and numerous other social problems due to casinos come to light, Revere
opposition to a casino at Suffolk Downs is growing," said Joseph Catricala,
spokesperson for Don't Gamble on Revere. "The lack of a clear host community
agreement to mitigate these impacts makes us doubt that the City of Revere and
Suffolk Downs truly have Revere's interests in mind. We are very concerned a
casino will bleed our community dry."
In advance of the press
conference, No Eastie Casino and Don't Gamble on Revere will submit a joint
letter to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission registering their disapproval of
the gaming application process and noting that more time is needed for Boston's
new administration to make an informed decision.
"Mohegan Sun has filed an
incomplete application with missing and outdated information, and is now trying
to keep critical details relating to the site plan and their proposed land use
confidential.
This development will forever change the character and futures of
East Boston and Revere, and we deserve to see everything that has already been
made available to the Gaming Commission. " Cameron said.
For details on the press
conference location, please contact Joe Catricala at 781-727-6099 or Celeste
Myers at 617-913-3332.
About Don't Gamble on
Revere
Don't Gamble on Revere is a group
of citizens concerned about the future of Revere. We know that Revere has come a
long way over the years and we don't want to lose all of the progress that we
have made. We are an official municipal ballot question committee opposed to the
casino at Suffolk Downs and a united all-volunteer force standing against the
proposed casino in Revere.
About No Eastie
Casino
No Eastie Casino is a grassroots
effort led by local, all-volunteer residents opposed to the casino at Suffolk
Downs. Our goal is to build a strong base of East Boston residents that
represents the full diversity of our community; shares a common vision for a
vibrant, healthy, family-friendly future for East Boston; and is united against
a casino at Suffolk Downs.
****
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