Four North Shore leaders back creating resort casinos

4 North area legislative leaders back creating resort casinos
By John Laidler
Globe Correspondent
April 30, 2009

As debate over expanded legalized gambling resurfaces on Beacon Hill, four area municipal leaders are joining in a renewed effort to build support for resort casinos.

Mayors Thomas G. Ambrosino of Revere, Kimberley L. Driscoll of Salem, Carolyn A. Kirk of Gloucester, and Chelsea City Manager Jay Ash are part of the Massachusetts Coalition for Jobs and Growth, a newly revived group of local officials, unions, and businesses advocating for licensing three resort-style casinos.

The four local officials and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino recently sent a letter to municipal officials statewide to urge their backing. In the letter, sent on behalf of the coalition, the resort casinos were called “a critical and much-needed fiscal and economic development initiative that will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new local aid to be distributed to our struggling cities and towns.”

Last year, the House soundly defeated a proposal by Governor Deval Patrick allowing three casinos. But a number of developments, including the state’s fi nancial crisis and the departure of former House speaker and casino foe Salvatore DiMasi, appear to have boosted the prospects of expanded gambling.

“Certainly, the timing is no accident,” Driscoll said of the decision to send the letter. “Given what’s happening with the economy and local aid, I think myself and a number of other local officials see expanded gaming as an opportunity for new jobs and new revenues for the Commonwealth. That can hopefully make up for some of the lost local aid.

“Resort casinos in my opinion is clearly the model that delivers the most amount of jobs and the best-paying jobs and that sustains the revenues the Commonwealth needs,” Driscoll added.

“I’m a strong supporter of expanded gaming,” Ambrosino said. “I think it’s a great revenue source and it comes at no cost to the Commonwealth. And we are losing out on revenue to Connecticut and Rhode Island, which have expanded gaming. I’m hoping the Legislature will give this another serious look this fall, and it sounds like that’s exactly what’s going to occur.”

Ambrosino hopes that Suffolk Downs, which straddles Revere in neighboring East Boston, be “seriously considered” for any casino licenses that might become available.

But at least some local leaders are not convinced casinos make sense.

Woburn Mayor Thomas L. McLaughlin said he could not comment on the letter because he had not seen it, but added “I have a lot of concerns about casino gambling.”

Contending that the original plan offered by the governor “seemed overly ambitious,” McLaughlin said, “I think we need to see more accurate information about the pluses and minuses of casino gambling before people can make informed decisions about such a significant culture change here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

Lynn Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. said he has a long history of supporting slot machines at the state’s racetracks, noting that the communities hosting them have experience with the “spinoffs - positive and negative - that come with gambling.” He said it would also boost an industry that has been hard hit by competition from the state lottery. As for casinos, “Personally I don’t know enough about where they would be, how much money they would generate . . . all the spinoffs of it” to embrace them now, Clancy said.

In their letter, the leaders advocating resort-style casinos pointed to studies showing such casinos would bring nearly $500 million in new tax revenues, 10,000 construction jobs, and more than 20,000 casino-related jobs. They also noted that since 2003, Massachusetts residents have spent more than $1 billion annually at Connecticut casinos and Rhode Island slot parlors.

“In good times and bad times, I think expanded gaming makes sense in Massachusetts,” Ash said. “All around us - in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut, and New York - there are gaming venues that are designed to attract Massachusetts residents and Massachusetts dollars.”

Ash said what makes the idea of casinos most appealing is the jobs they can offer.

“Unemployment in the construction trade is running 25 percent. This is a terrific way to create a stimulus to put people to work right away that doesn’t require any state or federal subsidy,” Ash said, adding that casinos also would create permanent good-paying jobs.

“Twenty years ago, it might have been debatable if casinos were the right thing for Massachusetts,” Ash said. “It seems there is less discussion [now] about whether there is a moral issue and more about trying to keep what is going out of state.”