 |
|
 |
|
News
Contact Gov. Patrick today on predatory gambling
Tuesday July 13, 2010 - 01:23 AM
Our friends at United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts (USS Mass) put out a call today to contact Governor Patrick on expanded predatory gambling. Click below for the full message and contact information.
Action Alert!
Contact Governor Deval Patrick Today
Urge him to veto any gambling bill that does not have an
independent cost/benefit analysis!
In December 2009, a coalition group of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts met with Governor Deval Patrick. Shortly afterward, the Governor notified both the Speaker of the House DeLeo and the Senate President Murray, and was joined in support by the Attorney General, the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and numerous others calling for an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis of Casino Gambling in the Commonwealth.
The Legislature has moved toward legalizing Class III gambling in the state, passing proposals which include the introduction of at least three major casinos and thousands of highly-addictive and economically-destructive slot machines.
Today, it is vital that all opponents of expanded gambling in the Commonwealth contact the Governor and urge him to use his authority to appoint an independent commission to examine the full range of costs or to veto any expanded gambling legislation.
The House of Representatives followed a path that made a mockery of the democratic process. The bill presented in the House was negotiated in secret, was released on April 1 without any public hearing, consultation with opponents or inclusion of key regional planning recommendations. The bill was rammed through the House only two weeks later and sensible protections for citizens, taxpayers and host regions were rejected under the Speaker's direction.
Equally troubling to us is that House proponents relied on distorted and biased information to justify the bill's passage. Despite a widespread call, including the Governor's, for a thoughtful analysis of both the benefits and costs, the only information that was presented was an "updated report" of benefits-only performed by Spectrum Gaming and paid for by the bill's chief proponent, the Speaker of the House. The Spectrum Gaming analysis created in 2008 does not support racinos as an economic multiplier but, interestingly, this observation was omitted from the Speaker's report.
The Senate President promised a "clean slate", yet held a single, hastily arranged public hearing at which racetrack owners, lobbyists and gambling interests were heard first and permited to speak at length, while opponents who had signed in before them were pushed to the end of the day - forcing many to leave before being heard - or were gaveled if they exceeded the 3 minute time limit. At this hearing, certain senators proclaimed that the singular "message" of this issue was "jobs", proving that they hadn't yet heard our message at all. And one senator even insisted there was no need for a public hearing - that there had been one in the past - neglecting to realize that the people of Fall River, so recently targeted for a casino location, had yet to be heard.
The Senate also followed the lead of the House by producing it's own "study" which, despite costing $80,000 of precious taxpayer dollars, studied only the benefits of casinos and was meant, in the words of the Senate's chief casino proponent, to "justify" the bill. This study was performed by a firm with deep ties to the casino industry and only carries through the deeply flawed analysis of the Spectrum report.
These studies do not make good on the Governor's 2009 request for a "fresh, independent and transparent analysis of the benefits and costs of expanded gaming." Without properly analyzing the serious costs to the state which even proponents say will happen, this bill cannot become law.
On Thursday, July 8, members of the legislature, the public and the media were shut out of viewing the conduct of the "Conference Committee" assigned to resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions of the proposed Casino Legislation.
There are major flaws in each version of the proposed legislation that require an open and transparent discussion, as well as the costs and impacts that are undetermined.
To date, unfortunately, there has been zero assessment of, among others, the following costs:
Potential costs to create and maintain public regulatory agencies to manage the selection and diligence process for and licensing of facilities, and the regulation and oversight of expanded gambling, and to interpret and enforce new and existing laws, rules and regulations to control and counteract the dangers of gambling activity (personnel, equipment, court, corrections, law enforcement, new Attorney General's Office division, new State Police department)
Expenses incurred by local and abutting communities in terms of expanded demands for services, loss of housing values, increased crime, traffic, education, housing, medical, district courts and lost revenue for local businesses.
The potential loss of revenue to the state Lottery or the diminution of real financial gains to the Commonwealth if gambling revenues are transferred as a fiscal substitution through "holding the Lottery harmless."
The financial impact of tens of thousands of new problem and compulsive gamblers, whose addicted behaviors have been documented to dramatically increase with proximity to gambling venues and create a rise in personal crime, embezzlement, child and spousal abuse, co-addictive behaviors, all of which demand new expenses from the taxpayers and which provoke new suffering among families.
The dangers of market saturation, given that gambling revenues have dropped around the country, and that the creation of new gambling in Massachusetts is likely to provoke the expansion of gambling in Rhode Island and New Hampshire and expansion of existing gambling venues in the Northeast.
The effects of the special interest influence over Beacon Hill already made manifest by the millions of dollars in casino monies that flooded Beacon Hill in the years since you first expressed a willingness to consider expanded gambling.
The undermining of public confidence in the political process when senior leaders are seen to be promoting special interest legislation for individuals and facilities in their districts and without properly analyzing costs and benefits, to the detriment of the Commonwealth as a whole
The effect that the introduction of Class III gambling in Massachusetts will have towards removing existing state legal barriers to the establishment of additional tribal casinos by federally recognized Native American tribes. Each tribal facility could multiply all the effects of expanded gambling with even fewer public protection guarantees and less revenues to the state to offset the costly business and social impacts while enjoying significant competitive advantages.
USS-Mass believes that the Governor has a special responsibility to ensure that decisions are made in the light of the collective national experience, the best legal and regulatory practices, and the best independently gathered information. That process should undeniably include all the costs and consequences, predictable and unintended but inevitable, that the people of the Commonwealth would incur.
We are even more certain that a decision by the Governor to sign a law that authorized this action without the most scrupulous protections in place in advance and a thorough review of the potential consequences would be a mistake and an action which ours and future generations will regret.
Please contact the Governor today and ask your family, friends and co-workers to do the same.
Governor Deval Patrick
Massachusetts State House
Office of the Governor
Room 280
Boston, MA 02133
617 725-4005
888 870-7770
Fax: 617.727.9725
Online Contact Form HERE
|
|
