Sunday, May 19, 2013

Sunday Globe Specials: Calling the Casinos

We already know what they are $howing:

"Mass. gambling foes aim for a referendum" by Liz Kowalczyk  |  Globe Staff, March 09, 2013

FRAMINGHAM — Gambling opponents from across Massachusetts mapped out plans in a church basement Saturday to repeal the 2011 state law allowing resort casinos.

The first significant step for the group is to gather more than 70,000 signatures from registered voters by late November of this year. If the signature drive is successful, they probably will ask voters to repeal the casino law in a statewide ballot question in November 2014.

 I'll sign.

The anticasino group, called Repeal the Casino Deal, includes activists who are fighting specific casinos in their own communities; a national antigovernment-sponsored gambling organization called Stop Predatory Gambling; a former state senator; and a Hampshire College architecture professor who wrote a book on gambling in the United States.

“This was rammed through without a democratic process,’’ Robert Goodman, author of “The Luck Business: The Devastating Consequences and Broken Promises of American’s Gambling Explosion,” said of the state law during Saturday’s strategy session. “Whether you are for it or against it, let’s get it on the ballot.’’

Getting the question before voters — and persuading them to back a repeal — will be a steep climb that requires considerable work and money.

 And we know who has the money.

The 2011 casino law authorized up to three resort casinos in Massachusetts — no more than one in each of three regions of the state — and one slots parlor that can be built in any region. Opponents argued passionately that casinos promote addiction and prey on the poor.

But in the end, the Legislature and Governor Deval Patrick decided casinos would create thousands of jobs and bring tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue to the state.

 That last part is all they care about: the pot of tax loot they see at the end of the roulette wheel.

Eleven developers, including three in Greater Boston, have applied to the state gambling commission for the casino and the slots parlor licenses. The bulk of the $4.4 million in applications fees collected by the state pays for the commission to investigate each developer, to weed out any company with shaky finances, or with people of questionable character in key positions.

 It's the casino business, 'fer crying out loud.

Developers must win approval from their host communities in a voter referendum to complete their applications for a casino license. The state gambling commission will award licenses through a competitive process.

 That may be tough in some places.

The statewide ballot initiative would give opponents a second shot at keeping out casinos.

 I'm hopeful, but every time I slide that ballot in the optical counter I can't help but think rigged.

Opponents may have several factors working in their favor: The economy has improved since the Legislature debated the 2011 casino law, and a number of casinos nationwide are struggling financially.

 What, what, what?

They include Revel AC Inc., in Atlantic City, N.J., which received significant government support in the form of tax rebates that helped it raise construction funds....

 What?

State Senator Stan Rosenberg, a Northampton Democrat who favors the gambling law, agreed that “a lot of money will be spent’’ to defeat the repeal effort and that most polls show the public supports giving people the option of gambling.

 He's mine, but I never vote for him.

Rosenberg said he could not predict the outcome of a referendum, but it is possible that some developers will have already begun construction in November 2014. If the repeal measure passes, he said, “that would be quite an interesting mess.’’

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 And if the ballot box won't work:

"Casino opponents take to East Boston streets in protest" by Kathy McCabe  |  Globe Staff, March 24, 2013

East Boston residents opposed to a Las Vegas-style casino proposed for Suffolk Downs brought their fight to Maverick Square on Saturday.

About 40 people who withstood a brisk wind, many holding CasiNO! signs, said the $1 billion project proposed by Caesars Entertainment would increase traffic and take customers away from local restaurants and shops.

“As I look around here today at all of these hardy souls, I know that each of you represents hundreds, if not thousands of people . . . that know, truly, that East Boston is a place for much better things than a casino,” said Celeste Myers, 41, co-chairwoman of No Eastie Casino, speaking into a bullhorn, shortly after 11 a.m.

Pedro Noe Morales, a longtime resident, said Hispanic business owners also fear the development would result in higher commercial rents.

“It is time for Latinos to rise up to fight back against this development and people who don’t care about us,” said Morales, holding his 2-year-old son, Eli, in his arms....

 Considering the grandiose scales of the complexes, it looks like it is designed for the ever-enriched elite. Can't imagine it will help downtown, although we are all dependent on the king's grace these days.

“We are particularly mad about the fact that they [Suffolk Downs] have ignored us for so long.” said Morales, a graduate student in theology at Harvard University.

 It fades after about five years.

Reacting swiftly to Saturday’s protest, Suffolk Downs chief operating officer Chip Tuttle said he mailed a letter to residents of East Boston and Revere.

“We have always made an effort to respect different points of view, share our plans as they are developed, and listen to our neighbors,” Tuttle wrote in the letter, which he e-mailed to the Globe. “Suffolk Downs believes in an open dialogue that includes ample opportunity for everyone to ask questions and let us know what they think.”

Suffolk Downs and Caesars Entertainment have applied for one of three resort casino licenses that will be awarded by the state’s Gambling Commission. They are vying for the one license available for Greater Boston. Other applicants are Wynn Resorts,which proposes a development for the Everett waterfront, and Crossroads Massachusetts, which proposes a resort casino in Milford.

Suffolk Downs supporters, led by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, have touted the potential for thousands of new jobs and tax revenues from the resort’s hotel, shops, and restaurants. The project also would include $40 million for road and traffic improvements for congested Route 1A, the state highway that leads to Suffolk Downs.

Project materials are published in Spanish and in English on the developer’s website, www.friendsofsuffolkdowns.com, as well as in printed materials, such as newspapers and direct mailings to homes and businesses, Tuttle’s letter stated.

State law requires casino developers to negotiate an agreement with host communities to address traffic, job opportunities, and other impacts of the development. Once an agreement is reached, the community has 60 to 90 days to hold a ballot referendum. Voters’ approval is required for a resort casino license to be awarded, according to the law.

Tuttle said Suffolk Downs still is negotiating with officials in Boston and Revere. Suffolk Downs recently held a Spanish-language meeting on the project and will hold a bilingual meeting about its traffic plan Wednesday at the racetrack.

“We really are making a good faith effort to reach out to people,” Tuttle said in a phone interview.

Still, there are skeptics.

“I assume the traffic will be horrendous, no matter how many overpasses they build,” said the Rev. Don Nanstad, 68, pastor of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, off Maverick Square, who said he was attending his first anti-casino event.

 They created an activist.

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The only question at this point is location:

"Mass. studying pros, cons of city vs. rural casinos" by Mark Arsenault  |  Globe Staff, March 03, 2013

A gambling oasis in the woods, luring visitors willing to drive for the resort experience? Or a new addition to the urban landscape, expanding the tourist experience with slot machines and blackjack tables?

In awarding development rights for casino projects, the state gambling commission has a mind-boggling number of decisions to make over the next 12 months, but perhaps none as fundamental as this: Rural or urban?

In Greater Boston and in Western Massachusetts, the two regions with active bidding for commercial casino licenses, the commission probably will have clear choices among city projects and rural or suburban alternatives.

With the late addition of Foxwoods as a partner in a Milford casino project, the commission has a viable suburban entry to compare with the Boston-area proposals at Suffolk Downs, off busy Route 1A in East Boston and Revere, and a Wynn Resorts project on vacant industrial land in densely populated Everett.

And in Western Mass., two offerings in downtown Springfield and another across the Connecticut River in West Springfield will compete with a casino proposed in Palmer, a rural village community of about 12,000 people.

There is little consensus in the industry over which model is more successful. Each can make gobs of money, yet neither is immune to swings in the economy or the burdens of too much debt.

Casino consultant Gary Green, a former executive for Donald Trump’s company, prefers the rural alternative.

“Everything you could possibly want is in a city, but then everything you want to avoid is there, too,” such as traffic and street crime, he said. Rural casinos tend to be more profitable, he said, increasing the amount of revenue the state collects in taxes to pay for public programs or to reduce other taxes.

“The real secret [to casino profitability] is to get people to stay in the seat longer, and when they win to have them pump the money back through,” he said. “In the rural environment, I’m more likely to say, ‘Well I drove all the way out here and I did really well on this machine so I think I’ll stay a little bit longer.’ ”

But Jacob Miklojcik, a casino expert and president of Michigan Consultants, favors city casinos. “I prefer urban only because of job creation,” he said. “That is where the [unemployed] are. What a casino can do . . . is provide a lot of jobs for people without college educations. In a city or urban areas, if developers can make a promise to provide the jobs locally, that’s what matters.”

Miklojcik said the push for “destination resorts” in an attempt to draw large numbers of out-of-state tourists “is way, way overdone.

“The only thing that matters in [ensuring casino] revenue is convenience and cleanliness,” he said. “Everything else is nonsense.”

The rural business model has been proven in New England, pioneered two decades ago by Foxwoods in southeastern Connecticut. Nearby Mohegan Sun followed the rural model, creating a self-contained resort that provides a full array of dining, shopping, and entertainment.

Before the emergence of these tribal gambling halls and the spread of the standalone casino, gamblers’ only choice was to travel to the two major resort gambling outposts of Nevada and Atlantic City.

Since then, a number of cities embraced casinos as a path to economic development, typically steering them toward fallow plots of land near the closest interstate. Now the urban casino is undergoing a modern makeover, with big cities such as Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh turning to casinos to revive struggling downtown neighborhoods.

A problem with the urban casino, said Las Vegas casino consultant Andrew Klebanow, is “we just haven’t seen it done right yet.” With few exceptions, most are designed as “islands” that happen to be within the city limits, but are not connected to the neighborhoods around them: Customers arrive, park in a garage, walk inside, and don’t step out until it’s time to drive home.

He said Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati, which opens Monday, may be different. The $400 million casino, developed by Rock Gaming in partnership with Caesars Entertainment, was built downtown and designed with the restaurants on the outside, facing the streets, to encourage foot traffic.

“I think that’s the next great effort to do this thing right,” said Klebanow. “It’s a porous building — there are multiple entrance and egress points — so it allows pedestrians to walk in and out.”

Rock Gaming and Caesars also opened a downtown casino in Cleveland in 2012.

Matthew P. Cullen, Rock’s president and chief operating officer, said in a Globe interview that a gambling business, done correctly, can benefit a downtown urban area. “It shouldn’t be done out in the sticks somewhere so that it pulls everybody away from the things happening in the city,” he said. “It should be an augmentation of those things.”

Cullen believes urban casinos are attractive to a new, younger crowd that prefers a gambling outlet that is part of a larger entertainment district.

“It’s a demographic trend that more and more people want to be in the city and to react with it,” he said. “They don’t want to go off in a field and park for four hours, or to do anything for four hours. They want to be engaged and activated and have a lot of choices . . . We think we’re ahead of that trend and we’re going to benefit from it.”

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