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Casinos in MA: [Most] Bets Are Off

by Bill Dusty

With the State House’s vote last week that sent Governor Deval Patrick’s casino gambling initiative into hibernation, the issue will remain in a holding pattern for the remainder of the year. Other alternatives, such as slot machine licensing at race tracks, will probably be explored in the meantime. And the Governor still plans to go forward with a $189,000 study on gambling.

Meanwhile, accusations of unsavory goings-on flared from both sides as each tries to position themselves as the injured party. Patrick declared that House Speaker Salvatore Dimasi was against casino gambling from the beginning, saying, “the fix was in pretty early.” The Governor decried DiMasi’s legislative tactics, complaining that the Speaker never allowed proper debate on the casino issue and its alternatives. DiMasi’s side punched back with charges of the Governor’s folks planting unfavorable newspaper stories about the Speaker going on golfing trips with casino backers to butter them up with another initiative.

It wasn’t pretty. But it all ended with a vote to table discussion of casino resorts in Massachusetts at least until next January.

The reasons for the defeat of the casino bill were many and varied. Many legislators were opposed to the idea of casino resorts outright. Others were opposed to some of the details in the proposed bill, such as State Representative Todd Smola’s (R-Palmer) opposition to the proposal because Worcester county would have competed for the same license as Western Massachusetts. Still, the idea of casino gambling in Massachusetts never really caught fire with the general population in the way that casino backers had hoped. It seems the only real pressure that state representatives felt from either side of the issue was from the leaders of those opposing sides themselves, Patrick and DiMasi, and their lobbyists.

The biggest loser in the debate was perhaps organized labor, where the AFL-CIO had endorsed the casino plan that promised up to 20,000 jobs. But details about just how much the state would benefit economically in the long run were hotly debated. Both sides could point to studies that supported their points of view.

As for Governor Patrick, he hasn’t had much luck with presenting budgets to the State House. This year’s budget relied significantly on factoring in at least some of the $600 million in licensing fees promised by the opening of resort casinos in the state. That money is now no longer a part of the equation. Last year, the newly-elected governor did a boo-boo when he plowed headstrong into an initiative to cut funding for the state’s anti-gang task forces for cities and towns in favor of funding the hiring a few hundred more police officers state-wide. The idea was unpopular from the get-go – virtually every police chief and police commissioner in the state was against the idea – and was quickly dumped when put up to a vote in the legislature.

Deval Patrick lost much of his liberal, populist appeal this past year as he has come out looking like yet another political hack using the governorship as a stepping stone to greater things. And there should be little doubt in anyone’s mind, if Barack Obama does win the U.S. Presidency, his good buddy Deval will soon be purchasing airline tickets to Washington D.C.

And so what of the future of gambling in Massachusetts? As mentioned earlier, resort casinos are out until at least next year. But House Speaker DiMasi has raised the idea of allowing debate this year on slot machine licensing at race tracks as an alternative. But why restrict slot machines to only the state’s four race tracks? If the State is so bent on expanding gambling, shouldn’t slot machines be explored as way to increase the business of other existing venues, too? Try to picture Tower Square in downtown Springfield with slot machines and Keno kiosks sprinkled throughout its empty halls. That would certainly fill up a few vacant parking spaces downtown like no amount of stylish restaurants could do.

Just tossing ideas in the air.

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Posted by Bill Dusty on Mar 25th, 2008 and filed under Politics, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.