"Not every excuse for official secrecy is nefarious; some officials don’t feel comfortable expressing unvarnished opinions in a public setting, and may pull their punches if they can’t hide behind the cloak of privacy."
Yeah, right.
Go tell it to the president not bloggers, Globe.
Related: Propagandists to be Protected
Also see: This Post Fills the Slot
I've decided not to play:
"Penn National vows to fight casino repeal efforts" by Mark Arsenault and Ellen Ishkanian | Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent March 01, 2014
Within minutes of officially snagging the state’s first gambling license Friday, Penn National Gaming vowed to vigorously fight efforts to repeal the state casino law, which opponents hope to put to a popular vote in November.
Top executives from Penn, who have extensive experience with ballot campaigns, said Friday that they would launch a public campaign if a proposed repeal of the casino law qualifies for the ballot.
“We will defend this,” said Eric Schippers, a senior vice president. “We view it as a simple education campaign to help people understand the jobs that are going to be created, what these facilities will mean in terms of economic development, what they’ll mean in terms of the monies that will be repatriated back to Massachusetts.”
*********
Whether state voters will have the opportunity to consider a repeal of the casino law is still an open question. Members of the Repeal the Casino Deal campaign are seeking a ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court to allow the question on the November ballot. The case is expected to be argued in May and a decision is expected this summer.
*********
Casino repeal chairman John Ribeiro, in response, blasted the wealthy casino company for planning “to crush volunteer activists” that threaten casino profits.
“Voters know we can do better than this, and we’re confident [that] Goliath, despite this big roar, can and will be taken down when the people have a right to vote,” Ribeiro said in a statement.
Fresh off their victory, Penn officials on Friday posed with the gambling commission for pictures, and then went to Plainridge to celebrate with track workers and supporters.
Penn chief executive Timothy Wilmott and his team walked into a raucous ovation from a crowd of horsemen, grooms, drivers, and other employees, who did not know until the commission voted Thursday whether they would keep their jobs.
“This has been one heck of a week; my stomach was in knots,” Wilmott said.
Penn’s win guarantees live harness racing will continue at the track. The 2014 season begins in April.
Without live racing in Plainville, “I would have had to move to Pennsylvania or Maine,” said horse trainer and harness race driver Steven Nason. “I’m not sure where I would have gone.”
It was a sentiment that echoed throughout the group.
“We would have no other choice but to go to another state and find work,” said Richard Flanders, a race official.
The mood was different at Raynham Park, where disappointed employees were trying to be as upbeat as track owner George Carney, 85....
See: Plainville celebrating, Raynham somber after slots decision
--more--"
Related: Casino foes file court papers aimed at repeal
Also see:
Walsh seeks greater say on casinos in Everett, Revere
Walsh is granted a casino hearing
Check, call, or raise.
"Support for casinos dwindles, poll finds" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff March 20, 2014
Anti-casino political campaigns across the state during the past year have eroded public support for casino gambling in Massachusetts, a potentially dangerous turn for the industry ahead of a possible campaign this fall to repeal the state casino law, political and casino specialists said Wednesday.
Forty-six percent of likely voters approve of locating casinos in Massachusetts, while 43 percent disapprove, according to a new WBUR survey conducted by MassINC Polling Group. The poll, released Wednesday, shows a significant drop in support for the gambling industry in just the past two months.
In a January survey, MassINC found that 53 percent of registered voters approved of casinos in the state, while 39 percent disapproved. Other statewide surveys dating to at least 2009 showed much stronger support for the industry, with generally 60 percent or more in favor of casinos.
Support may also have fallen because of high-profile defeats for the industry in municipal referendums and publicity stemming from lawsuits on the licensing process, as well as the lack of tangible benefits so far from the state’s fledgling casino industry.
“People are tired of hearing about it and not seeing it,” said Carl Jenkins, managing director at the financial firm Duff & Phelps, who has studied the state’s gambling market.
The polling trend suggests that a proposed repeal of the state casino law may have a real chance of passing, if it qualifies for the November ballot. Casino opponents have asked the Supreme Judicial Court to overrule the state attorney general’s decision that it was unconstitutional and should be kept off the ballot. The court is expected to decide this summer. Casino supporters, including several gambling companies that want to build in Massachusetts, are opposing the repeal.
John Ribeiro, chairman of the casino repeal effort, said in a statement Wednesday that the drop in support suggests “Massachusetts voters are intelligent, and when presented with the data and facts that casinos do not bring the economic revitalization that they falsely promise, voters stand against the casino culture.”
Despite the possibility of repeal, the state gambling commission is pushing ahead in its licensing process. The commission last month chose Penn National Gaming to build the state’s sole slot parlor, in Plainville. The commission plans to award resort casino licenses for Western Massachusetts in May and in the Boston region in May or June.
Penn has pledged to wage a political campaign against the repeal if the issue makes the ballot. By November, the company probably will have construction workers employed at its Plainville site, which could be a powerful argument to retain the law.
“Some of the promises will start to come to fruition, at least in terms of construction jobs and spending,” said Jenkins. “That may change the conversation and the attitudes.”
Boston College casino expert Richard McGowan said some voters may have been turned off by the results of the political process for approving casinos. Economically distressed cities, such as Springfield, Everett, and Revere, have said yes to resort casinos, while more affluent suburbs have rejected the industry.
“People are wondering about the fairness of this,” McGowan said. “In other words, it looks like poor communities are being stuck with it and wealthier communities are getting out of it. People are starting to wonder, ‘Is this really what this is all about?’ ”
The new poll suggests that people with a lower level of education — high-school or less — approve of building casinos by an overwhelming 61 percent to 32 percent.
However, people with advanced degrees — who are unlikely to be interested in most casino jobs — strongly oppose the expansion of the gambling industry, 60 percent to 28 percent.
The survey also suggests casinos are least popular in heavily populated Greater Boston, where traffic is a daily frustration for many drivers. Forty-eight percent of voters in Boston and the inner suburbs disapprove of adding casinos; 40 percent approve....
Springfield political strategist Anthony Cignoli said the shift in public opinion — from generally supporting casinos to more of an even split — has been palpable in his recent study of the electorate.
Cignoli believes numerous municipal campaigns enabled casino opponents to spread an unflattering perspective of the industry, and some people who originally supported the industry in their home towns have become opponents after losing local referendums. “In some places there is a jealousy factor,” he said....
--more--"
"R.I. braces for revenue loss from Mass. casinos" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff March 14, 2014
LINCOLN, R.I. — The decision to award Massachusetts’ slot parlor license to Plainridge Racecourse left officials in Rhode Island as cold as the state’s famous Del’s lemonade, and facing a budget disaster they can do little to stop.
The Plainville harness racing track is just 20 miles by car from Twin River Casino in Lincoln, a cash cow that pours about $300 million a year into the Rhode Island state treasury.
Were they not bailed out a while back?
About half of that money comes from Massachusetts residents, many of whom now drive past the Plainville site on the way to Rhode Island — and probably will not want to do that when they have a choice.
“It was the worst-case scenario,” said Gary Sasse, Rhode Island’s former director of administration and revenue, who would have preferred if the slots license had gone to a Leominster proposal in north-central Massachusetts.
Rhode Island’s dilemma is a relatively recent side effect of the gambling industry’s relentless US expansion. New casinos are now much more likely to steal customers from existing casinos than they were in the past.
“If you take Interstate 95 from Rhode Island down to Maryland, the market really hasn’t grown over the past couple of years,” casino consultant Frank Fantini said. “It’s just been a shifting of revenue.”
*****************
And the competition is only going to get tougher for Rhode Island....
Casino expansion in Massachusetts is expected to cost Rhode Island....
The anticipated loss is going to have a significant impact on the ability of the state to finance its services, Sasse said.
Once gambling customers are lost to newer properties it is extremely difficult to get them back, specialists say.
Part of the problem is that casinos generally offer similar games, so day-trip gamblers tend to default to the closest, most convenient casino, said Mark W. Nichols, a professor and casino expert at the University of Nevada Reno.
“It’s tough for casinos to respond to increased competition that has a locational advantage,” Nichols said. “They will try with marketing to differentiate themselves, but if you’re a casino 10 miles from a population, you have a huge advantage over a casino that’s 30 or 40 miles away.”
Nowhere is the effect of competition more dramatic than in Atlantic City, the modern casino industry’s East Coast beachhead, which opened for gambling in 1978. Atlantic City was a whopping $5.2 billion gambling market in 2006, but casino expansion in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and elsewhere has ravaged the city’s bottom line. It was a $2.9 billion market last year, according to the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The decline continues despite an improving economy.
A more relevant harbinger for Rhode Island may be the southeastern Indiana market, which historically relied heavily on business from Ohioans.
In March 2013, a casino opened in downtown Cincinnati, undercutting profits at the casinos over the border. Last month revenue at three properties in southeastern Indiana was down more than 30 percent, compared with February 2013.
“You’re going to have a lot of states relying on their own citizens for gambling revenue and the tax revenue it generates,” Nichols said. “Because the days where you can get it from other states are — by and large — over.”
Twin River’s vast parking lot was busy this week with what looked to be an equal number of cars registered in Massachusetts and Rhode Island....
I'm glad the Globe is investigating such important things.
--more--"
Related: N.H. senator pushing revised casino bill
It's not the golden goose you are being $old, 'er, told.
