In the U.S., whenever a State opens its doors to casino
gambling, it's like a whole new market has taken off.
Everybody knows how much Americans like to gamble. With one
of the largest gambling Mecca's in the world, not to mention
an insatiable thirst to gamble on the internet at online
casinos, Americans are a highly valuable commodity to the
gambling industry as a whole. These days, it seems like
nobody knows this better than Massachusetts Governor, Deval
Patrick.
The Democratic governor has gambling back on the
forefront of his agenda, vamping up efforts to draw more
supporters for his gambling bill that calls for permitting
three large casinos to open their doors in Massachusetts -
one in the Boston area, one in southeastern Massachusetts,
and one in the central- western portion of the State. So far
this year, Patrick has held several sessions with his
advisors and is planning meetings with members of the State
House to foster even more support.
One key supporter of Deval's legislation is Boston
Democrat, Brian Wallace, who said that labor unions strongly
favor bringing casinos to Massachusetts and thereby creating
some 30,000 construction jobs and approximately 20,000
permanent jobs. In fact, labor unions and the gambling
industry are already discussing the possibilities of forming
a coalition to help pay for a media advertising blitz that
would aim to educate the public on the benefits of
regulating gambling Massachusetts.
And although there is opposition to the legislation from
many old school Representatives, whose primary argument is
that casinos would depredate the intellectual and cultural
character of Massachusetts (because we all know how stupid
and unrefined casino gamblers are), the bottom line is that
Massachusetts citizens already spend approximately $900
million a year at neighboring casinos in Connecticut
(Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods). Furthermore, the Mashpee
Wampanoag Tribe have applied for federal permission to use
reservation land to open a casino of their own. And with
reelections coming up, if the people of Massachusetts make
their voices heard, Deval will have a very good chance of
getting his way.
Originally published:
January,
2008 | Categories:
Gambling
