Massachusetts stealth attack...

[just play]

I think we (Massachusetts) are the biggest gambling state in United States.

I wonder how I would find that out?

[just play]

I mean in scratch tickets and numbers draws.

[jetset]

IT AIN'T OVER UNTIL THE GOVERNOR SINGS (Update)

Massachusetts chief ploughs ahead with $189 000 casino study despite recent House defeat

The Boston Globe reports that Governor Deval Patrick is pushing forward with a $189 000 casino study, even though his plan for bringing casino-style gambling to the state is dead in the water until at least next January following a debate by the state legislature (see previous InfoPowa reports) .

Responding to questions about the study, Daniel O'Connell, state economic development secretary, released a statement this week saying that his office will allow Spectrum Gaming of New Jersey to complete its work.

Spectrum has spent about a month on the three-month contract, but the company has yet to bill the state for any of its work. O'Connell said the administration was sticking with the contract based on questions from lawmakers during the casino debate, which ended when the House killed Patrick's bill for three resort-style land casinos last week. The Patrick bill also contained a clause making Internet gambling in the state a felony.

"We have been encouraged by our colleagues in the Legislature to obtain a credible and objective analysis of the impact of expanded gambling in the Commonwealth," the statement said. "We believe the outcome of this analysis will prove valuable for future public policy decisions."

But one legislative leader said yesterday that the study will be stale by the time the issue reaches the Legislature in its next session, which begins in January, and recommended that the contract be terminated to save money.

"The administration should pay the consultants for the time already put into the study and be done with it," said state Representative Daniel E. Bosley, co-chairman of the committee that made a negative recommendation on the casino plan last week. "If the governor files his casino bill again next year, the study will be almost a year old at that time."

State legislators had earlier defeated the governor's casino plan by 108 to 46.

[jetset]

MASSACHUSETTS CASINO BID MAY MAKE A COMEBACK

Governor Deval Patrick does not give up easily....

The furore in the Massachusetts Legislature earlier this year, which ended in the defeat of a proposal by Governor Deval Patrick to introduce three large land casinos to the state to improve tax revenues, could be on the cards again according to a report in the Boston Globe this week.

Online gambling observers will be watching developments closely, as the original proposal included a deeply buried clause banning online gambling in the New England state.

Patrick told a Brookline Chamber of Commerce audience that he may yet resurrect the proposal, adding that he wasn't basing his statement on the possible departure of House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a major gambling opponent, but on a confluence of other factors.

The governor cited an unyielding need for property tax relief; the possibility of slot machines at the state's racetracks and ongoing efforts by the Wampanoag Indians to build their own casino, opining that these factors will re-ignite the casino debate.

"There's a lot of interest in it, and issues that die in one session don't die a permanent death. They tend to come back over time," the governor said later.

Under one scenario, Patrick said, casino gambling supporters might try to expand the slot machine bill to include the resort-style casinos proposed by the governor. Patrick projected that his plan for three casinos would generate at least $600 million in licensing fees, $400 million in annual tax revenues and 20 000 permanent jobs.

Speaker DiMasi led the effort to kill the governor's casino plan earlier this year (see previous InfoPowa reports). The Boston Democrat argued the revenues would be offset by social and economic costs, including lost business at traditional tourist destinations.

More recently, though, potential successors to the House Speaker's chair have been jockeying for position as DiMasi faced allegations of ethical lapses. The Globe reports that DiMasi has said he's not leaving, and Patrick answered a flat "no" when asked whether his comments in Brookline were rooted in a suspicion the speaker would soon depart.