"Gambling, by any name, is a tax on suckers" by Tom Cosgrove | February 15, 2010
WE’VE BECOME all too familiar, of late, with political doublespeak.
During the Bush years, congressional Republicans attempted to gut the Clean Air Act with the “Clear Skies Act.’’ Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken to calling earmarks “legislatively directed spending.’’ And we all know the true meaning of “enhanced interrogation techniques.’’
Now, with talk of casinos again in the air, Massachusetts is facing another troubling bit of rebranding. “Gambling,’’ it seems, has become “gaming.’’ The slot machine, in this conception, is something akin to checkers. Roulette is a game of marbles. And blackjack? Well, that’s just Go Fish for grown-ups!
It’s a particularly insidious bit of word play given the impacts of these “games.’’ In Iowa, the legalization of casino gambling nearly tripled the number of problem gamblers. In Minnesota, the rise of Indian casinos pushed the number of Gamblers Anonymous chapters from one to 49.
Casinos mean sharp increases in bankruptcies and domestic violence. Addiction leads to higher crime and suicide rates. The children of gambling addicts are more likely to suffer from physical abuse and more likely to turn to tobacco, drugs, and alcohol.
Still, advocates argue, whatever the downside, “gaming’’ means gleaming “new revenue’’ for the state.
“New revenue,’’ though, is just casino-speak for a new tax: a sucker tax on those willing to plunk down cash on tables tilted sharply toward the pit bosses. A sucker tax on those willing to sit at slot machines ergonomically designed to keep players in thrall of the lights and levers for hours at a time - complex algorithms creating the illusion of near-victory as wallets empty.
Surely, though, “gaming’’ means “jobs’’ and “economic development’’ for host states. Right? Well, not so much.
Decades of research finds minimal job growth in the communities hosting casinos - and often none at all. The economic benefits, moreover, are more than offset by the costs of problem gambling, divorce, and bankruptcy.
Indeed, the money the casinos pour into any given state seems to benefit state legislators more than anyone else - flooding political systems with a steady stream of cash that, inevitably, has a corrupting influence.
Just what Massachusetts needs: more monied corruption.
Two former West Virginia Senate presidents were sentenced to prison for taking money from gambling interests. Nineteen politicians and lobbyists in Arizona were caught on tape engaged in gambling-related bribery. A long-time speaker of the House in Missouri resigned amid charges that he demanded a casino company direct $16 million to friends and associates in order to get a license to operate.
And it’s not just the pols accepting cash. Don’t forget about the public relations consultants and lobbyists, who get paid handsome sums to turn “gambling’’ into “gaming.’’ To transform a sucker tax into “new revenue.’’ To overhype the “jobs’’ and “economic development’’ promised by the out-of-state casino operators.
Money, our politics has taught us, can distort language. Can change the frame of a debate.
Like a newspaper?
And with Beacon Hill taking up gambling again, we can’t let that happen here. Because “gaming,’’ for too many, is just a pretty word for ruin.
--more--"Well, pretty much a done deal around here even if we don't want them here.
"Western Mass. is best bet for casino" by Brian Lees | November 26, 2009
AS THE COMMONWEALTH moves closer to a rational, long-overdue expansion of legal gambling, the Patrick administration and the Legislature should not forget about Western Massachusetts.
After decades of dipping our collective toes in the water, it appears the state may make the dive, and with good reason. Poll after poll have shown a significant majority of Massachusetts residents want to see the state expand gambling. Increasing unemployment and plummeting state tax revenues have dramatically underscored the need to add gambling taxes to our revenue mix.
According to the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass-Dartmouth, residents of Massachusetts spent nearly $1 billion at the Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine gambling facilities in 2008 and a total of $10 billion since those states began casino and slot parlor gambling. That translates into a loss of billions in tax payments that went to the treasuries of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine and not to the roads, bridges, schools, and public safety needs of Massachusetts. Legalized gambling would allow us way to keep our hard-earned dollars in this state - not in the coffers of our neighbors to the south - and as a badly needed source of jobs, economic development, and tax revenues.
Any plan that creates casino licenses to compete with Connecticut and Rhode Island needs to be sure that one of those licenses goes to a developer committed to building in one of the four counties that make up Western Massachusetts - Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin. Nowhere in Massachusetts would the construction of a resort casino do so much good; nowhere is a resort casino and the jobs, spin-off business, and revenues it would create more badly needed.
Western Massachusetts needs jobs - the unemployment rate in Hampden County is at 10.3 percent and that of Springfield, the region’s largest city and the one hardest hit statewide by the recession, is near 13 percent.
A broad coalition of elected officials, community groups, business associations and labor leaders is asking that the four counties that comprise Western Massachusetts are not ignored in the final decision on casino siting.
The construction industry, hard-hit by the economic downturn, would see the creation of 1,000 to 1,500 high paying building jobs for each resort casino sited, according to estimates from the Massachusetts Coalition for Jobs and Growth. Casinos would not just create jobs during construction but permanently afterward: Connecticut and Rhode Island have more than 18,000 full-time jobs connected directly to their gaming facilities. And the Massachusetts Coalition estimates that spin-off businesses surrounding and serving new resort casinos could add 3,000 additional full-time jobs.
A world-class destination resort creates the kind of growth that any region would want and is particularly needed in the four counties of Western Massachusetts.
The presence of casinos in Connecticut has spurred the growth of new shopping facilities, new hotel and motel construction and jobs and a host of retail and service businesses.
Any successful suitor for a Western Massachusetts casino license can expect to be told that both the hiring, and the vendor contracts, must be local - and that will add thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue to the region.
Western Massachusetts, with its parks, museums, restaurants, inns, and tourist attractions is a perfect fit for a resort casino to be built as a destination for out of state travelers. Many times when decisions are made in Boston, the long-term view ends at Route 495 or, at most, at the middle of the state. With all that is at stake when the Legislature decides this year where casinos need to be, they should not ignore the region that needs it the most - Western Massachusetts.
Brian Lees is the clerk magistrate of Hampden Superior Court and former state senator from East Longmeadow.--more--"
I think he should recuse himself from the "debate."
"Loser-friendly casinos" by Leslie Bernal | April 12, 2010
Casinos and lotteries — the most effective something-for-nothing scheme ever devised.
What other commercial venture besides a casino makes its money from the heavy financial losses of its clients?
Goldman Sachs and Wall Street.
What other entity besides the Lottery is exempt from truth-in-advertising laws so it can deceptively dangle the prospect of life-changing riches?
Newspapers.
And what other business would still be operating today if its core product was designed to get every user “to play to extinction’’ — until all their money is gone — by using technology that has been labeled a “high-tech version of loaded dice’’?
The war business.
Casinos and lotteries are the most predatory business in America today. The business model is based on people who are addicted or heavily in debt, which explains why Harrah’s found that 90 percent of its gambling profits come from the financial losses of 10 percent of its visitors, according to Christina Binkley’s book, “Winner Takes All.’’
And look who owns Harrah's, Bay-Staters.
I don't want them here, do you?
*********
To make so much money from so few people, gambling operators rely on such practices as issuing loans to drunk patrons or using casino staff to act as “hosts’’ to lure out-of-control gamblers back into the casino after they have left. The Lottery pushes $20 scratch tickets and speeds up its Keno games to every four minutes so people will lose more money at higher wagering amounts at faster speeds than ever before.
To keep the focus away from the real questions about how their business works, gambling interests have spent $12 million in Massachusetts promoting a fictional “jobs, revenues, and inevitability’’ narrative over the last decade....
Yet we allow casino operators to tout polling numbers as genuine evidence of public support, despite their incomparable spending advantage. The latest Globe poll showed casinos clinging to support from 52 percent of those polled. In the modern annals of political history, is there any other individual or group that has spent so much for so long with so little to show for it?
I'm sure given time I could come up with some. Iraq and Afghanistan immediately come to mind, Vietnam.... unless you consider millions of dead people something to "show."
Even the prodigious spending of gambling interests, however, cannot hide the most revealing truth of all: this is a product or service that the people who own it and promote it do not use.
Yeah, same business model as a successful drug dealer.
Nearly every leader of the three constituencies who advocate for casinos and the Lottery — gambling operators, labor union officials, and political officeholders — has publicly acknowledged they rarely lose their own money in casinos or on Lottery tickets.
Yet they still push the “jobs’’ message....
I call it lying.
A vote for casinos is not a vote for jobs. A vote for casinos is a vote for a something-for-nothing scheme that veils the most cut-throat business in the country. But above all else, a vote for casinos is a vote about who we are as a people.
Too late.
Nothing was going to stop them this time.
That's why Sal DiMasi was taken down.
And how interesting that you haven't heard the "what about the children" argument from the pro-gambling, agenda-pushing paper and politicians.
"Colleges urged to fight gambling like drugs and alcohol; Task force says only 22% have formal policies" by Oskar Garcia, Associated Press | September 30, 2009
LAS VEGAS - Colleges and universities should take more steps to curb problem gambling by piggybacking outreach efforts onto campaigns against alcohol and drug abuse, a national gambling task force said yesterday.
When they are awash in ESPN?
The Task Force on College Gambling Policies said in a report that schools should treat gambling as a health issue, and establish policies to restrict wagers on campuses and treat students who develop addictions....
Oh, I've been around them my whole life and I agree they are a sick lot; however, we have something (or did) called freedom in this country.
I'm just wondering when does war become a health issue? When do the politicians start dealing with those problems?
“It is important, we believe, for schools to send a clear, unified message about acceptable behaviors,’’ said Christine Reilly, a task force member and executive director of the Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders in Beverly, Mass.
Does the kid have to salute, or....??
“It’s very common for schools to have different rules for alcohol use . . . and for gambling, and so we think this is an issue that colleges should think about,’’ Reilly said.
Has a point. I knew a kid who got into super-big trouble and his parents had to bail him out to the tune of thousands.
Among the 10 recommendations outlined in the report, the task force said universities should establish clear, written gambling policies that comply with laws, actively campaign against problem gambling, and help treat students if they develop gambling disorders.
“If a student presents himself to a university health service with a physical problem such as kidney disease or a fractured hip, the college will bend over backward to assist the student,’’ said Peter Emerson, the task force’s chairman. “Addiction is in a different category.’’
Task force members said colleges should survey their campuses to gauge gambling activities and find out what types of betting are occurring.
I'll give you a clue: Saturday afternoons in the fall in a big field about 100 yards long. But seeing as that is a huge revenue generator for schools....
Reilly said nationwide data are not recent enough to determine how online gambling - which is technically illegal though still accessible for many - and states that have recently allowed gambling affect student gambling habits.
The American Gaming Association said in its 2009 annual report that 37 states had some type of casino in 2008, including commercial casinos, Indian casinos, racetracks, card rooms, and electronic gambling devices. The industry group said commercial casinos took in $32.54 billion in gambling revenue last year.
Americans LITERALLY THROWING their money away.
The National Center for Responsible Gaming is the affiliated charity of the American Gaming Association, and is funded by contributions from commercial and American Indian casinos, casino equipment manufacturers and others.
--more--"
Related:
- Boston Globe Says Everyone is a Winner at Casinos
- State House Pulling Out All Stops For Slots
- Gamblers Dealing Mass. Democrats Dollar$
- DeLeo and His Dad
- Casino Comparisons: Connecticut's Foxwoods Failure
- Casino Comparisons: Rhode Island's Red Ink
- Casino Comparisons: The Maine Message
- Casino Comparisons: Out of Luck in Ohio
- Casino Comparisons: California Crash
- Casino Comparisons: All In in Iowa
- Casino Comparisons: Hawaiian Hiatus
- Wampanoags Welch Out on Casino Deal
- Milford Makes Its Move
- The Palmer Protests
- Last Race at Raynham
- Wonderland Loses Its Luster
Also see: Around New England: Quick Spin of the Wheel in Connecticut
