Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen recently visited “Vegas-by-the-Sea” and found nothing good to say about Atlantic City’s casino experiment. In the time-honored tradition of journalists everywhere, Cullen tapped the consummate local expert, a taxi driver, for his view on the Bay State’s gaming proposition. “You say Massachusetts is gonna have casinos?” the cabbie said. “You people are nuts.”
Atlantic City is the poster child for casino excess. In 1976, New Jersey voters decided to allow casinos in the sleepy seaside town known in the Delaware Valley for attracting generations of Philadelphians seeking relief from the sweltering summer heat.
Nearly 40 years ago, casino supporters argued that gaming would lead to a renaissance for the city (New Jersey still calls the move “a unique tool of urban redevelopment for Atlantic City”) and produce thousands of local jobs. Anyone who has ever taken a stroll off the city’s famed boardwalk knows that the renaissance never materialized.
Atlantic City is the principal victim of the glut of casinos in the Northeast. A new study by the University of Nevada Las Vegas finds that the region has had more casino openings than anywhere else in the US.
Today the city is shedding thousands of jobs.Two of its 13 casinos closed this year. Another, the multi-billion dollar Revel, the boardwalk’s most expensive property, filed for bankruptcy and may close if a buyer cannot be found by the end of August. More than 3,000 Revel employees would lose their jobs.
In a letter to the editor in the South Jersey Times, Warren Massey, the former chairman of the Atlantic City Housing Authority, had this to say:
Since casinos came to town and became the one and only game in town, we who reside here knew it was a very bad idea to allow the casinos to become all-encompassing venues. Businesses that existed for many years were run out of town…. Those at the forefront of this debacle should be exposed for their greed, incompetence and neglect. They neglected to do what’s right for Atlantic City and the thousands of employees who have lost their livelihood due to the callous nature of this insidious business.
Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian is touting non-gaming revenue options including retail and expanded convention space as the next big thing. “Atlantic City is undergoing a massive economic transition,” Guardian told the Philadelphia Business Journal. “We know it is painful for those who are losing their casino jobs.”
What do the gaming happenings in Atlantic City mean for the Bay State? They are a heads up, demonstrating how competition in a neighboring state can put a major dent in what appears to be a lucrative sure thing.
Though Cullen highlights the Connecticut casinos’ role in Atlantic City’s current plight, the root of the problem was much closer to home: The advent of casinos in Philadelphia and elsewhere in Pennsylvania finally spelled doom for Atlantic City. The Keystone State is now the second biggest casino market after Nevada.
Like Pennsylvania, the Bay State wants to keep its gamblers and their dollars at home. Licensing casinos was one way to meet that goal. But Massachusetts is facing competition it hadn’t banked on three years ago when lawmakers sanctioned casino gaming.
The Empire State is striking back. This week, the New York State Gaming Commission received 17 bids for the state’s four casino licenses, including four bids for a license in Rensselaer in the greater Albany area. A casino across the border in New York could potentially draw Massachusetts patrons away from Springfield and its MGM Resorts International casino- especially those Berkshire County residents who have a stronger affinity for Albany and its environs than they do for the greater Springfield region.
Springfield may not be betting the house on the Berkshires, but the winner of the Rensselaer casino license will certainly figure out ways to pull Massachusetts folks across the state line.
Atlantic City officials know that the New York casinos will further erode their market share and they are planning accordingly. In casinos, as in baseball, Massachusetts will have to consider how it counters the New York threat.
— GABRIELLE GURLEY
BEACON HILL
Robert Mulligan, the former chief justice for administration and management at the Trial Court, is the key witness for prosecutors trying to put former Probation commissioner John O’Brien in jail. Mulligan is articulate, has a good memory, and spent years in bureaucratic battles with O’Brien, CommonWealth reports. Peter Gelzinis says Mulligan’s disgust for O’Brien is palpable.
Edward Ryan , the former legislative liaison at the Probation Department, is shaky on the stand but sticks by his story that Probation jobs were leveraged to help Rep. Robert DeLeo win the speaker’s job, CommonWealth reports.
The Massachusetts Senate approves a $76 million economic development bill, which includes $10 million for “transformative development” in the state’s Gateway Cities, State House News reports.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch says he will consider using eminent domain if the city is unable to agree with any of the nine homeowners whose houses are being eyed for purchase and demolition to make way for a sports field and additional parking for North Quincy High School.
An expert hired by Hingham officials in their lawsuit against the private water supplier Aquarion trying to force the sale of the water system has estimated its value at $58.6 million, less than one-third of the $184 million value the company placed on it.
Hingham selectmen have adopted a code of conduct for town employees as well as visitors to Town Hall after concerns over recent behavior by some members of the public toward workers and officials.
CASINOS
Casino support is growing in Massachusetts, with proponents topping opponents by a 56-38 percent margin, according to a poll by WBUR and the MassINC Polling Group.
Wynn Enterprises says it will offer hiring preference to workers at the Suffolk Downs racetrack if the track closes, but some say the pledge is nothing more than what a casino operator is already required to do under the state gaming law, CommonWealth reports.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Keller@Large says both sides of the debate over the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision regarding health coverage of birth control are guilty of “idiocy” in their rhetoric over the ruling, which he deemed “narrowly focused.” The Wall Street Journal sees Chief Justice John Roberts trying to seek out middle ground with the court’s liberals, while the New York Times sees Roberts’s efforts papering over a wide ideological rift.
ELECTIONS
Scot Lehigh brings his straight-talk gubernatorial race scorecard to the pending legislation to overhaul state campaign finance laws. Asking the three Democratic candidates and independent Evan Falchuk about the carve-out that allows unions to give $15,000 in an election cycle, 30 times more than individuals, Lehigh gives props to Don Berwick and Falchuk for saying the loophole should go, credits Steve Grossman with at least answering the question (he’d keep the union exception) even if it’s the “wrong” answer. Martha Coakley wins with the dodge-and-weave award for failing to give a clear answer.
The Clintons know how to raise money. Yup.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
A compromise may be near on Beacon Hill over legislation limiting the use of noncompete agreements by Massachusetts employers.
The quasi-public agency overseeing the mixed-use development at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Base fired the lead developer of the stalled project in a dispute of an unpaid $375,000 bill to the state even though the money does not appear to be due until next year.
EDUCATION
Public school principals in Washington, DC, go door to door to woo back students who defected to charters, the Washington Post reports.
A Boston program is helping homeless teens and young adults finish high school.
HEALTH CARE
Concern in Lynn grows over a plan by Partners HealthCare System to add psychiatric services to Union Hospital and shift Union hospital beds to Salem Hospital, the Item reports. Competitors of Partners met with the Patriot Ledger editorial board to argue the takeover of South Shore Hospital would hurt consumers.
Massachusetts ranks low nationally in the per capita prescription of all forms of opioid painkillers, while making the top 10 for prescription of long-acting forms of pain drugs.
State courts routinely fail to notify the state board overseeing Massachusetts physicians, as required, when a doctor is facing criminal charges, according to report released by state Auditor Suzanne Bump.
Worcester County residents will have to drive a ways to visit a medical marijuana dispensary because only one was approved in that area, the Telegram & Gazette reports. Karen van Unen, the state official overseeing the state’s medical marijuana licensing, sits down with Jim Braude of Broadside.
TRANSPORTATION
Officials say the number of riders using the new Lynn-to-Boston ferry is steadily rising, hitting 700 a day recently, the Item reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Globe columnist Derrick Jackson frets that imported Canadian hydro will undermine Massachusetts wind power, but he never mentions why — because it’s cheaper.
FOOTBALL
Franklin Foer says American soccer has finally arrived. Dan Shaughnessy grumpily harumphed something or other about all this, but we’re not sure what. Everyone, except perhaps sad Dan, agrees that Tim Howard is the man.