DiMasi Cashes In?
The Boston Globe picks up today on the story, reported by the Boston Herald yesterday, that Massachusetts House speaker Sal DiMasi has accepted nearly $4,000 in donations from gaming lobbyists and companies such as Harrah’s and GTech since 2002, including $500 from Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman. Bay state slots supporters blame DiMasi for killing slots legislation just a couple of weeks ago with his statements about the “social cost” of gaming and apparent lack of concern for the state’s racing industry, and the Herald insinuates in a follow-up article that the contributions from Harrah’s and other out-of-state gaming companies, fearful of competition between Rhode Island casinos and Massachusetts slots, may have influenced the speaker. Such an argument though ignores a few inconvenient facts, like that Harrah’s would love to build a casino in the state — the company has been angling for years to do something with Suffolk Downs. Rather than a case of DiMasi and other anti-slots lawmakers cashing in, this may well be one of “politics as usual,” a non-story of lobbyists covering all their bases and politicians accepting all contributions without question. I’m sure a study would reveal similar gaming company contributions to influential pro-slots legislators. If the slots vote had gone the other way, would the Herald now be running articles suggesting that Senator president Robert Travaglini had sold out for $500 from a casino operator?
