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State Issues Archive

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?

Posted in State Issues on April 21, 2006

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.”

Posted in State Issues on April 5, 2006

Simulcasting Expires

Because state lawmakers couldn’t agree on how long to extend the Massachusetts simulcasting law and track owners couldn’t agree on the number of races each was allowed to show, the legislature adjourned Friday without renewing the simulcasting law, which means simulcasting expired in the state at midnight Friday. Up to 80 employees may be laid off from Suffolk Downs, which will be closed at least through Monday, and Massachusetts racing fans won’t be able to bet on Saturday’s Florida Derby at either Suffolk or Plainridge.

Slots and simulcasting are closely linked in the state right now, and some slots supporters think that the simulcasting shutdown will put pressure on House members to vote yes when the slots bill comes up for debate on Wednesday. Revere representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein sees just such a political silver lining in the situation:

”It’s going to bring more people to the State House to show people that they need to be employed,” Reinstein said. ”There’s no other way to do that than to have them out of work.

”I never hoped it would come to this, but, now that it has, I want everyone at the State House,” she continued.

Suffolk spokesman Chip Tuttle said the Florida Derby is usually a big day, with more than $1 million wagered, and expressed concern for workers:

”There are lots of employees who live paycheck to paycheck, and the idea that they’re going to be out of work for four or five or six days, with no certainty of when they come back to work, is disturbing,” he said. ”They’re very disappointed.”

When House speaker Sal DiMasi called Massachusetts racing a “dying industry” he was right. Look at the the revenue numbers for 2002-2004: Every source of handle is in decline. And when union representative Louis Ciarlone asserts that the industry isn’t dying, “it’s an industry that’s being killed,” he’s right too. Until the simulcasting bill is renewed by the legislature, significant dollars will be lost by tracks that can ill afford to lose any money. But there’s plenty of blame to go around. As this latest snafu illustrates so well, the state’s racing industry is doomed as much by the track owners as it is by the lawmakers.

Posted in State Issues on March 31, 2006