2 replies to this topic

[Lowerdeck]

Recently there was a proposal to build several casinos in Massachusetts, help raise revenues for the state.  One would have been in Middleboro, another likely at the Suffolk Downs race track in East Boston.  A third would be somewhere in central or western Massachusetts, Palmer being thrown around as a likely site.  (Why would I see Springfield as being a more suitable choice?)

Anyway, do you support the Patrick plan ... or casino gambling development in the Commonwealth at all?

[The Voice of Reason]

Lowerdeck, on Apr 6 2008, 07:15 PM, said:

Recently there was a proposal to build several casinos in Massachusetts, help raise revenues for the state. One would have been in Middleboro, another likely at the Suffolk Downs race track in East Boston. A third would be somewhere in central or western Massachusetts, Palmer being thrown around as a likely site. (Why would I see Springfield as being a more suitable choice?)

Anyway, do you support the Patrick plan ... or casino gambling development in the Commonwealth at all?

I say its a bad plan.  But even more so I am not sure Mass should have Casinos.  
It seems everyone wants in on this gambling trend, and to be honest its over blown all ready.  With Foxwoods and the Sun in CT do you really need more Casinos in Mass?  They are ugly as hell and they take away from the downtowns of near by Norwich and New London.  There are so many Casinos all ready that they are all begining to struggle.  

If there are to be any casinos in Mass they should be used as a tool to help Western mass, and be built in Downtown Springfield or Worcester if anywhere.

[Lowerdeck]

I argued pretty much similar in the topic regarding slots in Maryland ... the fact that there are so many gambling options everywhere is hurting the industry as a whole.  Between Twin River to the north/east and whatever is sprouting up in New York to the south/west ... the Connecticut casinos are hurting and now have to build bigger and do bigger things in order to draw people back.  New Hampshire has legalized poker to a limited extent, its venture into the gambling scene.

Massachusetts really doesn't need to venture into the scene.  It won't bring the economic help it would have 10-20 years ago, before everyone else got in on the act.  At this point the negatives would outweigh the positives.  And in a possibly partisan statement for Connecticut, it would detract what's already around here (Foxwoods/Mohegan Sun) from being a regional tourist attraction.