Rolling the Dice

Coverage of casino licensing and the gambling referendum

The Download: Cracking down on gambling

By CommonWealth Staff Current Affairs, Massachusetts Legislature, Municipal Government 0 Comments Apr 8, 2011

As everyone knows, slot machines and casino gambling haven’t been approved by the Massachusetts Legislature. But what most people don’t know is that devices that closely resemble slot machines have been popping up in small shops across the state for the past few years, sidestepping the legal ban by masquerading as sweepstakes. Some of the(...)

Mohl on Broadside with Jim Braude

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Jul 23, 2010

Friday, July 23, 2010 Here is a link to CommonWealth editor Bruce Mohl’s appearance on Broadside to talk about the gambling impasse on Beacon Hill. The host of Broadside, a New England Cable News show, is Jim Braude.

In gambling showdown, greed is king

By Michael Jonas 0 Comments Jul 22, 2010

By Michael Jonas News that things are getting testy among legislators trying to reach agreement on an expanding gambling bill is hardly surprising. When it comes to jockeying for position in the big-money, high-stakes world of legalized gambling, the long knives are drawn quickly, and the nastiest fights often occur among those who are ostensibly all(...)

Slots don’t cure all deficits

By CommonWealth Staff Taxes and Budget Issues 0 Comments May 19, 2010

By Alison Lobron The bright lights of casinos have entranced Beacon Hill for years, but a new report from the American Gaming Association offers a stark reminder that glittering slot machines do not cure all budget deficits. The AGA, a trade group that represents Big Gambling’s interests, issued its annual survey of the industry and(...)

Phil Primack: Casino chorus sings from shaky data

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Apr 18, 2009

By Phil Primack They’re playing your song again, Clyde. Every time casino gambling tunes up on Beacon Hill, the background beat is almost always the same: If we ka-ching it in Massachusetts, we’ll recapture all that money being gambled away by Bay Staters elsewhere in New England. “To see that over $900 million leaves the(...)

Casino culture

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Mar 27, 2008

Despite last week’s burying of Gov. Deval Patrick’s casino bill, don’t look for the gambling industry to go quietly into the good night. The Boston Herald reports today that casino interests are keeping a steady eye on the Bay State for fresh opportunities to take another run at legalizing casino gambling. "Politics is patience and(...)

Gaming the casino job numbers

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Mar 2, 2008

Today’s Boston Sunday Globe features a front-page story by Sean Murphy questioning the Patrick administration’s claim that 30,000 construction jobs would be created if the governor’s proposal for three casinos were approved. The Globe story calls Patrick’s jobs estimate "excessively optimistic," and backs up that contention with plenty of evidence from similar projects that generated(...)

Arlington bets on casino revenue

By CommonWealth Staff Municipal Government 0 Comments Jan 31, 2008

Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposed budget for fiscal 2009 includes revenue from casino licensing fees, even though casino gambling has not yet been approved by the Legislature (see Boston Globe story by Frank Phillips). Now town goverments may follow Patrick’s lead, if a story by Shauna Stavely in the Arlington Advocate is any indication. Stavely reports(...)

Megabucks

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Oct 7, 2007

The Sunday New York Times has a story and interactive map on state lotteries. Massachusetts is singled out as having "the highest lottery spending per resident, at $699, and the highest portion of lottery sales that go to prizes, at 72 percent." At $4.5 billion, the Bay State is second only to New York in(...)