Courtesy of: http://www.boston.com/
By Ray Henry
Associated Press Writer
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Harrah's Entertainment must overcome a fundamental challenge before building a casino in Rhode Island: historically, voters don't like gambling.
The industry's largest gaming company is spending more than $650,000 on advertising in the next two months to persuade residents in the nation's smallest state, according to television station records. Public opinion counts because Rhode Islanders will vote in November on whether to amend the state constitution so Harrah's and the Narragansett Indian Tribe can build a casino in West Warwick.
Advertising isn't an obstacle for a Fortune 500 firm that reported $236.4 million in earnings last year.
"We're going to spend what it takes to bring Rhode Islanders the information they're looking for," said Jonathan Romano, a spokesman for a Harrah's-sponsored casino group.
One anti-casino group, Save Our State, has promised a smaller media campaign in the future.
"Harrah's has something we don't have, which is unlimited resources," SOS director Tim Costa said. "We have to be prudent in our spending habits."
Political analysts says Harrah's is following a strategy used by gambling companies in other states. It's downplaying its own involvement in the casino while highlighting a local partner. And it's offering voters a trade-off in return for a casino, in this case, property tax relief.
"Basically, they tantalize you with, 'If you really want to fix the public schools or want a computer in every classroom, what you need is casinos on the river or whatever,'" said Robert Blendon, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
National polls show voters are typically adverse to gambling, and that remains true in Puritan-influenced New England, he said.
"There has to be something to overcome their natural resistance to gambling," Blendon said.
Casino backers are hoping the amendment's promise of property tax relief will be attractive to voters. The ballot question promises taxes on casino revenue will be dedicated to reducing property taxes, although the amendment doesn't set a casino tax rate or say how property tax relief would be accomplished.
The ballot question's language mentions the Narragansett Indian Tribe but not Harrah's.
Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas never uses Harrah's name during a radio advertisement that the company funded. The ad emphasizes that casino profits could alleviate Indian poverty.
But tax breaks are a more effective advertising tool than social justice arguments, Blendon said. More voters pay taxes than follow centuries-old history, tragic or not.
An April survey of 364 people by Rhode Island College showed how property tax promises could swing the vote. Participants were about evenly split when asked whether the constitution should be amended for Harrah's and the Narragansetts.
But when told casino revenue would be earmarked for property tax relief, 55 percent said they favored the proposal and 33 percent were opposed. The margin of error was 5 percentage points.
Public opinion may have shifted since then.
A June poll conducted by Brown University found voters are almost evenly split on whether the proposed casino will lower taxes. Forty-three percent said they believe it would, compared with 47 percent who believed it wouldn't. But the poll of 719 voters had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, which means the difference in opinion isn't significant.
"Voters are not buying it," said Darrell West, the Brown University professor who supervised the poll.
Neither poll asked whether the constitution should be amended to aid the Narragansetts for past injustices.
"If I were advising the opponents, I'd say certainly stress the importance of the constitutional language and the private parties," said Victor Profughi, director of Rhode Island College's Bureau of Government Research and Services.
"And if I were the adviser to the Narragansett Indians, I'd tell them, 'Hey, you know the buttons you want to press are property tax relief and the way the Narragansett Indians have been treated by Rhode Island society."
Colonial wars devastated the Narragansetts, who lost much of their land during the following centuries. Rhode Island authorities even detribalized the Narragansetts after a suspect land deal in the 1880s.
Even if casino critics aren't flooding the airwaves, they're hitting back publicly. Gov. Don Carcieri plays up Harrah's role in the deal. Carcieri frequently denounces the proposed amendment as a "sweetheart deal" for a Las Vegas firm that sends Rhode Island dollars out of state.
Save Our State, run by Carcieri's former campaign director, is pressuring the Narragansetts to release their entire contract with Harrah's.
"This has never happened in the history of our state, that we're going to amend our constitution for a business deal for Harrah's," Carcieri said at a news conference last week. "This is not a casino going to be owned or operated by the Narragansetts. They're going to get a small piece of this."
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