Massachusetts’ top political leaders are lining up behind a push for resort-style casinos as the state searches for new revenues in the face of continued grim fiscal forecasts.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo said last Friday that he’s “expanded his thinking” and now supports the construction of resort casinos. DeLeo had previously backed slot machines at the state’s horse and dog tracks, two of which are in his district.
In a speech to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts last Friday, DeLeo said the expanded gaming issue would come up during the current legislative session. The Winthrop Democrat said he doesn’t see gaming as a panacea to all the state’s fiscal problems, but as “one more tool that can help our state prosper.”
“I also view gaming as an additional industry that could help support our statewide economy and build on the travel and tourism sector,” DeLeo said, adding the state also “will explore the idea of using gaming proceeds to invest in other industries.”
Gov. Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray, both Democrats, also said last Friday that they support casinos. Patrick had previously proposed licensing three resort-style casinos, a move that was quashed by former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi.
Murray, speaking before the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce Breakfast, said that “if we are going to approve gaming, we should explore the option of resort-style destination casinos.”
“The reality is that hundreds of millions of dollars are going to Connecticut casinos from Massachusetts residents every year. We need to explore ways how we can capture that revenue,” she said in prepared remarks released by her office. “In addition to retaining the revenue, it will create jobs and get people back to work.”
Critics say gambling is addictive and casinos in other states are no longer producing the revenues they once did.
Kathleen Norbut, president of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts, which opposes expanding gambling, called it “bizarre” that DeLeo would call for casinos when gambling facilities in other states are struggling.
“He’s running after a train that left the station 10 years ago, and has crashed,” she said.
State Sen. Susan Tucker, D-Andover, a longtime gambling opponent, also said she was confused why any state lawmaker would support new casinos at a time when existing casinos are laying off workers.
She called proposals to build resort casinos “reverse Robin Hood,” because they would take money from those with gambling addictions in poor communities and give it to rich developers.
“We can’t gamble our way out of the recession,” Tucker said. “Building casinos, slot machines and more racing tracks moves Massachusetts in the wrong direction.”
Patrick, speaking with reporters after a cabinet meeting near his vacation home in the Berkshire Mountains, said he and the other leaders had not had any substantive conversation on the issue, but he was happy he wasn’t going to be broaching the issue alone.
“There is an opportunity for us to have a thoughtful plan this time, a plan we’ve all involved ourselves in, rather than my having put the bogey down and everybody else reacting to it,” he said.
He said the only degree of uniformity “is our shared interest in expanded gaming in some form, but what form that takes, and over what period of time, and what of the multiple interests are served, are big and open questions.”
Asked if he were more optimistic a bill would pass this time, he replied, “It really depends on what’s in the bill. I’m not going to support a casino bill just because it’s expanded gaming.”
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is also pursuing plans to build a casino in Middleborough.
Pro-gambling groups have ramped up their lobbying efforts in Massachusetts, a recent review of state lobbying records by The Associated Press found.
In 2005, companies and groups pushing legalized gambling spent $764,500 on lobbyists to press their message on Beacon Hill.
During the first six months of 2009, those same interests surpassed that total, pouring $777,983 into lobbying.
In the past four and a half years, pro-gambling groups — including casino developers, the state’s racetracks, poker player groups and gambling technology firms — have spent more than $5 million on lobbying in Massachusetts.
AP reporters Mark Pratt, Russell Contreras and Glen Johnson contributed to this report.
(Associated Press)
