Repeal the casino law? Yes, but not completely
RENDERING/COURTESY
Construction has already begun on the Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, which will be the site of the only slots parlor permitted under the 2011 gambling-expansion law.
When the Legislature pushed through the 2011 bill that expanded casino gambling in Massachusetts, it did so under the backdrop of an economy still struggling to its feet following a devastating recession. The big concern was jobs, and grabbing a piece of the Northeast casino market would mean fewer Bay State residents collecting unemployment, and would add another revenue source for the commonwealth as well as for cities and towns.
Nearly three years later, the Massachusetts economy is in better shape. The Bay State unemployment rate has fallen from 7 percent at the time the law was passed to 5.5 percent today. That has occurred without one slots lever being pulled or a roulette wheel having been spun. The casino industry is not exactly thriving in the Northeast, especially with more states having jumped into the business. Just last week, a Washington Post article addressed the “epic bust” of gambling in Atlantic City after the closing of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. Meanwhile, the owners of Connecticut's Foxwoods Resort Casino said recently that they're in talks with senior lenders after failing to meet certain financial covenants following its 2013 capital restructuring. This month, Foxwoods said its revenue fell in August.
In five weeks, Bay State voters will go to the polls, and one of their decisions — Question 3 on the ballot — will be whether to overturn the 2011 gambling expansion law. While we endorse a “yes” vote, we feel it is not right to nullify some of what the state gaming commission has already done, namely issuing a license for a slots parlor in Plainville, where construction has begun. (The commission wisely said it intends to issue a license for a resort casino in Springfield should voters reject the referendum. More recently, it issued a license for another resort casino in Everett.) The slots parlor will already be limited in its gambling offerings, and it will be located at the Plainridge Racecourse, placing slots and harness racing at the same site, an efficient concentration of legalized gambling.
However, that's where the buck should stop.
The state's political culture has long been viewed as being antibusiness. While the 2011 gambling-expansion law was, in part, an endorsement of more business and more jobs, is that the kind of economic growth we want? We don't think so. Massachusetts is better off by investing in industries that take advantage of the best it has to offer: its leadership role in cutting-edge innovation in a number of growth industries, along with an educated workforce — in short, its human capital. Unlike states whose economies depend on one or two industries, Massachusetts depends on the talented and highly educated people who power all kinds of endeavors.
In that vein, it's more appropriate that voters — and not the Legislature — decide the future of casino gambling. If it's what the people vote for, who can argue with that?
The power of our democracy is to be able to hash out these issues in public and put them to a vote of the citizens. There is no shame in changing course on an issue of such high importance.
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