UPDATE

April, 2010. The expanded gambling market called for under legislation proposed by Speaker Robert DeLeo would require $5 million in costs to cover new state regulatory and enforcement expenses, but the industry would pick up the tab, according to a DeLeo aide. [SHNS]

April, 2010. Speaker Robert DeLeo's casino and racetrack slot machine proposal secured its second significant vote of approval of the week on Tuesday, with a batch of lawmakers reversing their anti-gambling votes of two years ago. [SHNS]

April, 2010. Legislation authorizing a pair of resort casinos and racetrack slot machines won committee approval Monday on a 12-2 vote, with most Senate members of the Committee on Economic Development Committee opting not to cast votes on the House bill.  Here's how the vote, which sends the bill along in the process with a favorable recommendation,  broke down: YEAS: Voting for the bill were Reps. Brian Dempsey, John Scibak, Robert Koczera, Christine Canavan, Robert Nyman, Robert Rice, Stephen DiNatale, Michael Brady, Ann Margaret Ferrante, Richard Ross, Paul Frost and Sen. Bruce Tarr;  NAYS: Voting against the bill were Sen. Susan Tucker and Rep. Denis Guyer. [SHNS]

April, 2010. House Speaker Robert DeLeo unveiled a plan Thursday to build two resort casinos and allow up to 750 slot machines at each of the state's four existing race tracks. The bill requires a $500 million private investment from each of the resort casinos and $75 million from each of the race tracks and would deliver $260 million in upfront licensing fees to the state, he said. DeLeo said his bill, which could come up for a vote in the House in the second week of April, will raise as much as $1.7 billion a year in additional revenue and create 15,000 jobs. [Full Article Boston Globe]

Racetrack slot machine revenues would be taxed at 40 percent and casino revenues at 25 percent under Speaker Robert DeLeo's legislation. One-hundred percent of slot machine receipts would fund local aid accounts until casinos go live, then 30 percent of the overall gambling intake - casinos and tracks - would go to local aid. [SHNS]

April, 2010. According to a report released today by the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Bay State residents spent an estimated $968 million at casinos and slot-machine "racinos" in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine, up 5.3 percent from 2008. Both sides of the casino debate see significance in this new report saying Massachusetts residents boosted their spending at New England casinos and slot parlors in 2009 even as overall spending on gaming continued to decline. [Enterprise News]

February, 2010. The clash over casino gambling in Massachusetts is drawing a torrent of lobbying dollars to Beacon Hill. The amount spent by firms, unions and interest groups hoping to influence the gambling debate has grown from just over $800,000 in 2006 to more than $2 million in 2009, according to an Associated Press review of records filed with the secretary of state's office. [Full Article]

February, 2010. House Speaker Robert DeLeo said a bill sanctioning expanded gambling in Massachusetts is likely to be released in a "two- or three-week period" and that the House would likely debate it in late March or early April. DeLeo said the House doesn't intend to include gambling revenue in its budget, noting that even if the bill passes the House, it must clear the Senate and win the governor's approval.

Senate President Therese Murray agreed that gambling revenue shouldn't be included in the budget. "It wouldn't be a wise thing to do," she said, adding that a "regulatory authority" to police new gambling enterprises couldn't be set up in time. [SHNS]

February, 2010. House budget chief Charles Murphy appeared to begin laying political cover Thursday for lawmakers to switch their votes in favor of expanded gambling, signaling his own shift as the Legislature prepares to tackle casino and slot machine legislation. "In addition to providing much needed revenue for the state, destination gaming proponents tout the potential for thousands of good-paying, permanent jobs in construction, lodging, transportation, and food service, among other industries," said Murphy, who also voted in 2003 to snuff a legislative effort to sanction slot machines at the state's four racetracks. [SHNS]

February, 2010. New Revenue: Casinos. The United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts group said that the claim of $200 million in new tax revenue would require 40,000 new gamblers every day, and that to match current Lottery revenues, citizens would need to gamble and lose 11 times more money. Instead of funding cities and towns, new gambling ventures would go to out-of-state developers as the Lottery would lose more than 10 percent of its revenue, USS-Mass said.

Supporters of gambling proposals underscored support for adequate funds to prevent and treat individuals with problem gambling habits, in a set of policy recommendations issued by industry leaders Tuesday. [SHNS]

November 8th, 2009.
Former Gov. Michael Dukakis slammed casino gambling Tuesday as "lousy" and said lawmakers would be better off repealing "worthless" tax incentives he says could be redirected to boost the state economy. "We have enough addiction in our society. We don't need 100,000 more gambling addicts to add to the problem." Dukakis said repealing "all or some" of about $2 billion in longstanding tax breaks could help "put people to work and create the foundation for a healthy future economy. [SHNS full article]

February 3, 2009. A duo of pro-gambling studies boosted the odds of casinos in the Bay State yesterday and fueled renewed interest by newly elected House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Gov. Deval Patrick. DeLeo, who said he’s sympathetic to slots at financially struggling racetracks, said the debate on gaming could come as early as April and a vote on a new bill legalizing three casinos could happen this year.

...However, gambling critics have threatened to put a repeal of any casino legislation on the state ballot, said casino foe Rep. Daniel E. Bosley (D-North Adams).“In this economy you have to be careful when you count casino revenue because I’ve met with a number of groups who said, ‘If this ever does pass we’ll put it on the ballot,’ ” Bosley said. [Hillary Chabot - Boston Herald Full Article]

March 2008.  The House of Representatives voted against allowing casinos in Massachusetts. 

January 2008. Governor Patrick released his budget which includes a proposal for using $124 million in casino licensing revenues to make up for the gap between the level of lottery payments made to cities and towns in FY08 and the lottery revenue expected to be available in FY09.

BACKGROUND

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Middleborough won federal recognition in 2007 and immediately began plans to build a resort casino, complete with golf course. The plan included applying to place 539 acres in Middleborough into federal trust, effectively granting them sovereignty over new land. This process often takes years to get through the Department of Interior. Also, a casino built on such property would be governed by the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, with the federal secretary of the Interior serving as the final authority on negotiations.

Governor Deval Patrick has since submitted a 125-page objection to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs for several reasons, including: loss of control over traffic, public safety, and zoning; reduced casino revenue for the state; reduced value of any future state licenses for casinos; and lack of labor and environmental protection provisions.

Last September, Governor Patrick submitted a proposal for state-licensing of three resort-style casinos, with a bidding preference to Indian tribes in Massachusetts. His emphasis is on creating new jobs that pay living wages, and he estimates that the proposal will create 20,000 permanent jobs. These new jobs would be part of approximately $2 billion in economic activity stimulated by the casinos along with 30,000 construction jobs and all the services that would support those workers and future customers. Governor Patrick estimates that the casinos would generate $400 million a year in revenue for the state. He has indicated that the new revenue would be spent on transportation infrastructure and property tax credits.

Some questions remain about potential social costs (e.g. increase gambling addiction), when the region will reach market saturation (i.e. there are several proposed casinos in neighboring states), and how extensive will the "substitution effect" be (i.e. people and industry simply changing where they eat, etc. rather than spending new dollars).

Mashpee Wampanoag tribal leaders have said they would pursue a casino license under the governor's proposed legislation, but given the political uncertainty of the proposal, which has not yet been taken up in the House, the tribe is continuing to pursue the federal trust option.

Currently, 34 of the 50 states have legalized gambling; those states derive somewhere between .05 and .75 of one percent of their total state revenue from casinos.

SAMPLE ARGUMENTS

OPPOSING

• March 3, 2009. A year after the state Legislature rejected a proposal to build three Las Vegas-style casinos in the Bay State, predatory gambling proponents are reviving the ill-advised idea. Surely we can shore up the state budget without creating thousands of additional gambling addicts, without destroying thousands of families.[Boston Globe by Tom Cosgrove]
• Casinos do not solve budget problems. For example, New Jersey has 17 casinos and still had a fiscal crisis in 2006.
• Revenue estimates are too high because they do not take into account the new casinos that will be built in New Hampshire and Rhode Island if MA builds. Furthermore, Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island pay higher taxes in part because they need to make up for the unmet revenue needs that were promised by their casinos.
• Casinos lower a region's standard of living by attracting lots of low wage casino jobs and merely act as a jobs transfer and not a job creator.
• One out of every 20 people (5%) would become a problem gambler as a result of this initiative. That's 250,000 people, not including the family members and friends of those addicted who will also experience negative consequences. This is in addition to the approximately 250,000 people already suffering from gambling addiction in the Commonwealth.
• Our safety net structures will be strained even further as addiction leads to child neglect, crime, distressed families, suicide and bankruptcy.
• Resort casinos would suck the life out of small businesses and restaurants.
• Casinos in rural areas leave a huge carbon footprint as hundreds of people will drive to get there and are anti-“smart growth.”

For additional information see:

Mass Council of Churches
Casino Facts
Casino Free Mass

SUPPORTING

• 
  
  The casino resorts proposal addresses current budget difficulties, including the need for critical transportation upkeep.
• The resorts are required to build any new infrastructure needed.
• The Governor’s proposal guarantees a regular annual revenue stream to the host and surrounding communities—before any proceeds to the state—to cover the cost of public safety and other ongoing impacts.
• The proposal dedicates 2.5% of state gaming revenues to prevent and treat compulsive gambling, as well as drug and alcohol abuse and other related public health concerns, the largest such allocation anywhere in the country.
• The casino resort plan will generate $2 billion annually in new economic activity and net operating revenue to the state of $400 million each year plus $600-$900 million in initial licensing fees.
• The proposal would create more than 20,000 jobs with a living wage (in several sectors) and 30,000 construction jobs which in turn will generate another $50-80 million in new tax revenue.
• AFL-CIO, Massachusetts Teachers Association, UNITE HERE and Teamsters Local 25 have all endorsed the proposal.

For additional information see:

Governor of Massachusetts’ Budget
Press Release from the Office of the Governor
Massachusetts Coalition for Jobs and Growth