Casino news source: Sun Coast Today - http://www.southcoasttoday.com
It's Casino Groundhog Day in Masssachusetts
Thursday September 20, 2007
Like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day," Massachusetts residents are doomed every year to wake up to a headline announcing that casino gambling is coming soon.
But as in Mr. Murray's clever movie, the casino gambling debate never ends in Massachusetts. It just comes back, once a year, every year, without anything ever changing.
Two years ago, when Sal DiMasi replaced Tom Finneran as house speaker, Mr. DiMasi was thought to be more open to casinos than the incorrigible Mr. Finneran. He wasn't.
Last year, when the Senate passed a compromise bill allowing slot machines at the state's four race tracks, the House was supposed to follow suit and finally jump on the gambling bandwagon too.
It didn't.
This year, casino proponents argue that with a sitting Democratic governor on board, it's certainly only a matter of time before casinos really do come to the Land of the Puritans.
Bill Murray would advise us not to count on it.
Some brief chats with members of the SouthCoast Democratic legislative delegation show why.
Despite all the breathless headlines about Gov. Deval Patrick's study recommending government-licensed casinos in three separate areas of the state, even Mr. Patrick's own supporters remain divided.
Sure, longtime local legislative casino proponents Bob Koczera and Steve Canessa continue to predict the tide is turning their way — in their eyes, it's just a matter of time. But they're by no means the majority local opinion.
Reps. Koczera and Canessa argue that with the rise in popularity of the Connecticut casinos, the public is more accepting of "gaming" (the cleaned-up word Madison Avenue has given to gambling). And then they point out the obvious and depressing truth: The state is hopelessly stuck between dogged public resistance to new taxes and road and bridge infrastuctures that are crumbling with every daily commute.
"I think more people are for it," this time, said Dartmouth's John Quinn.
Rep. Quinn says he changed his mind because the latest casino plan would replace any losses to the Lottery with the state licensing fees. He also notes that casinos are now so prolific that Massachusetts money needs only to travel just over the state line to the Twin River slot paradise at Rhode Island's former Lincoln Park.
You might think those arguments would convince someone like Mike Rodrigues of Westport, who was one of Deval Patrick's first and most vocal supporters on SouthCoast. They don't.
"This is an issue we'll agree to disagree on," Rep. Rodrigues said of himself and the governor.
The Westport rep even disputes that the state is pressed for revenues for the roads and bridges.
"We've got new growth; the revenues are growing," he says of the balance between state spending and revenue. Mike is sincere, but his logic is incomprehensible ... unless you want to wait until 2050 to fix most of the roads and bridges.
Perhaps Tony Cabral and Bill Straus have their fingers to the political wind best. They're not jumping on the gambling bandwagon and they're not jumping off it. Like Bill Murray, they're just playing the groundhog loop over again one more time.
"I'm thoughtful in terms of where I'm going to be," says Rep. Cabral, saying that he'd only support a well-regulated casino, especially if it were operated by Native Americans.
But the most likely Native American tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag, isn't guaranteed a casino under the governor's plan and is facing serious problems with the FBI.
Rep. Straus says he's not yet convinced there is an economic plus to casinos, but 10 minutes later allows that he could be swayed.
"It may be possible if both tribes reach some agreement with the governor, we'll be part of the bidding process," he says of the Legislature.
Rep. Straus's comments home in on the fact that the big problem for Massachusetts is figuring out a way to tax and regulate Indian-run casinos, without opening the door to so many gaming houses that they keep each other from being successful. No one wants to imagine Massachusetts as a New England Nevada.
Meanwhile, an earnest, but ever-diminishing numbers of casino opponents, continue to chant, "Never, ever. Never, ever. Never, ever, ever."
The difficulty of finding the right casino formula for Massacahusetts is enough to give the best Groundhog Day fan a headache.
Bill Murray's character eventually found the best way to deal with repetition hell was to do something good for the world, even though there was no apparent reward for doing it.
In Massachusetts, we should be so lucky to figure such a happy way out of Casino Groundhog Day. |
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