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Save Our State, the group opposed to a proposed West Warwick casino, yesterday criticized Harrah's Entertainment for "preying on" college students in a recent job posting.
Harrah's and its partner, the Narragansett Indian Tribe, are seeking four or five students on each college or university campus to work part-time to "educate and register student voters and mobilize them to vote in November." Several ads have been posted online over the last month on the Web site, craigslist.org.
As part of the posting, Harrah's gives reasons "why many students are supporting the Narragansett Indians."
One reason: "The resort casino will be an amazing new place for Rhode Island college students to have fun when they're taking a break from studying."
Harrah's also says the casino would create jobs ideal for college graduates, including some in communications and business management.
Former Gov. Lincoln C. Almond, chairman of Save Our State, said it is "a disgrace" to target students who he said "are very susceptible to become problem gamblers."
"Gambling by college students is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous activities, and should be of great concern to all parents," Almond said in a statement. "Harrah's is preying on our young adults, most of whom are experiencing economic and social freedom for the first time. Parents should be able to send their children off to school with the knowledge they will be safe from predators."
The jobs would pay $12 an hour with "substantial performance-based bonuses."
(Harrah's is also seeking part-time neighborhood canvassers.)
Save Our State has received $1 million -- the bulk of its money -- from Lincoln Park and Newport Grand. Harrah's and the tribe question how Almond can take that money.
"If Mr. Almond believes what he says then he should have championed closing Newport Grand and Lincoln Park, not taking their money and trying to stop a $1-billion economic development project," tribe Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas said in a statement.
As part of its criticism, Save Our State cited a recent essay on college problem gambling by the president of Bemidji State University, in Minnesota.
Jon Quistgaard wrote in the St. Paul Pioneer Press that a Minnesota Department of Human Services study at the university found that more than a third of the students said they know someone with a gambling problem and 1 out of 20 borrowed money to gamble or pay gambling debts.
This is not the first time Harrah's has sought college students. In May 2005, it was recruiting "organizers and persuasion operatives" on campuses.
"A quality education should include a diverse course load, and Casino 101 is not one of them," Almond said. "It's unconscionable that Harrah's would choose to target college students who should be studying and not focusing on the roll of the dice or the craps table."
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