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Boston Governor wants to play actively on casino bill decision

Posted on July 4th, 2010

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Governor Deval Patrick expressed his desire to have a more active role on the final negotiation of the expanded casino bill in the state. Clock is ticking on the bill as formal sessions of the Legislature will close by the end of July and before that a final bill must be set.

Talks are still in play in making a compromise between amendments from the Senate and the House. “I want to see what sort of compromise the House and Senate start to move to and I’m going to put down my own marker about some of the things that I’m looking for in the final bill” Governor Patrick said. A 25 – 15 vote was reached Thursday night among the Senate, in the bill are 3 casinos to be constructed that also includes one casino that is the sole casino among the 4 counties in West Massachusetts.

Democratic Senator Stephen Buoniconti believes the governor will play a significant role in the final draft of the casino bill. He also explained that it is important for the Senate to have approved the casino bill with a 2/3 majority vote. He continued that if Governor Patrick will veto the plan to put slot machines at horse tracks, it will also be difficult to override the veto in the senate. He says with security, “The chance of overriding anything is highly unlikely.” The House of Representatives approved a version of the casino bill that allows 2 casinos and 750 slots to be placed on the states’ 2 horse race tracks and 2 former dog tracks House Speaker Robert DeLeo is one of the strong supporters of this version.

The Senate placed its votes against the amendments for slots on tracks. Governor Patrick is also against the installation of slot machines on the track, according to him this is not an income generating move and will not produce quality paying jobs to locals, either. Buoniconti said the bill is “high stakes” with the speaker of the house being a high supporter of the slots in race tracks. “We made a stand against it on our side” said the senator. Governor Patrick intends to be involved directly on the compromised version of casino bill.

Senator Stanley Rosenberg said a final casino bill is to be submitted to the governor’s office by the middle of the month. Governor Patrick cleared that the state can only have 3 casinos, and the proposal is very right on the maximum numbers. “They should be spread around to take advantage of differences in the tourist trade” said Patrick. His office filed a similar bill on 2007 but was defeated after a year since the next House speaker was strongly anti casino. He also supports the casinos for the potential income and employment opportunities the casinos offer the state and the people.

Earlier in the process, opposition groups such as United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts were very vocal on their stand to stop the casino bill in the state. They say the proposal undermines the many negative social impacts the bill will have on the state. Later on, these groups conceded after seeing stronger forces behind the move to approve the casino bill.

This casino bill, after its approval, will make way for a proposed $500 -$600 million casino project in Palmer. This is being proposed by The Mohegan Sun. The Mohegan Sun is a premiere resort and casino entertainment facility created in 1996 by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut. It housed different leisure activities like dining, hotel accommodations, retail shopping, live entertainment and sporting events and boasts of three world-class casinos.