Before coming to the Phoenix, N4N once wrote an analysis of the Massachusetts lottery (which produces $900 million a year in state revenue) showing how the per-capita play ranged from about $300 to $500 in working class communities, and from about $20 to $50 in affluent suburbs. While the results were eye-popping, it's not exactly a shocker that gambling tends to be a regressive source of revenue.
Now, though, with the casino wars heating up in Massachusetts, elected officials readily acknowledge a reality once voiced only by opponents:
"With that potential economic generator, we cannot reject the casino industry out of hand," [Bay State Governor Deval] Patrick [tells the Boston Globe]. He presented the initiative as an alternative to raising taxes [my emphasis].
Back in Rhode Island, Patrick's desire to go forward with three casinos presents a big dilemma, since gambling is our third-largest source of state revenue. So we find our elected officials very much platying defense after voters last year rejected plans for the Harrah's-Narragansett casino.
Writing in the ProJo, Paul Grimaldi reports that Speaker Bill Murphy says lawmakers will study in January whether Rhode Island should add table games at its two video lottery parlors. Meanwhile, Jeff Neal, spokesman for Governor Carcieri -- who has presided over a major increase of gambling in Rhode Island -- says that the governor believes the state had sufficient gambling when he came into office.
Gambling interests have long tried to convince politicians throughout New England that their state will come out ahead if it simply recaptures the money residents spend at casinos in Connecticut, New Jersey or Nevada, Neal pointed out.
“From a regional perspective, the casino industry has taken a divide-and-conquer approach to New England,” Neal said. “The danger is, once one New England state falls for that argument, all of the other New England states may be forced to take the same step.”
But what happens, Neal asked, when every state has a casino?
Patrick's casino plan in Massachusetts isn't a sure bet, in part because of legislative opposition. Yet the momentum for more casinos in southern New England seems to be swelling. In the absence of other forms of economic development, Rhode Island needs to have a good plan to respond -- unless it wants to take a big hit.