Mass. Slots Bill Rejected
After hours of contentious debate, the Massachusetts House dealt a devastating blow to the state’s racing industry on Wednesday evening, voting 100-55 to kill a bill allowing the installation of 2,000 slot machines at each of the state’s four racetracks.
“The Massachusetts House of Representatives is killing the industry,†said representative David Flynn. “We’re strangling the tracks.”
The debate on the bill, which was passed by the Senate last fall, lasted for nearly six hours, as several legislators on both sides of the issue addressed the chamber, including representative Dan Bosley, a longtime expanded gaming opponent, and representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein, whose district includes Suffolk Downs and Wonderland dog track. Bosley opened the debate by lambasting the claims that slots would either save jobs or bring in substantial revenue to the state, and said that if that the bill, “doesn’t bring back our money from Connecticut, if it doesn’t save the jobs it is purporting to save, we shouldn’t do it,” while Reinstein held up photos of Wonderland workers who could find themselves unemployed without slots. “This legislature cannot afford to throw away thousands of jobs and millions of dollars,” she said. “If you vote [against the bill], you are voting against local aid, you are voting against working class families.”
Before House speaker Sal DiMasi came out against the bill last Friday, slots supporters estimated that they had enough votes to pass the bill, although not enough to override a veto from governor Mitt Romney. Flynn, whose district includes the Raynham dog track, blamed DiMasi’s “arm-twisting” for the loss of support.
After the slots bill was rejected, the legislature voted 141-13 to renew the state’s simulcasting law through the end of the year. Three of the state’s racetracks, including Suffolk Downs, have been closed since last Saturday, when simulcasting legislation expired. Suffolk plans to reopen Friday afternoon for simulcasting.
More: Lowell Sun racing correspondent Paul Daley finds fault with the legislators and the track owners for the bill’s defeat. “Believe me, there’s enough blame to be shared by both sides.”
