Opinion: Gaming brings jobs to Massachusetts

Monday, September 28, 2009  

"I have said it before, but it is important to repeat that over 90 percent of casino resort positions would be available to Massachusetts residents, many currently under- or unemployed because of the closure of textile and other factories, and because some do not have the level of education required by the bioscience industry that the state is so vigorously pursuing.

Casino employers will train all entry-level casino positions, few requiring even a high school diploma, and the state already has plenty of citizens familiar with the much greater number of non-casino jobs in hotel, restaurant, retail and entertainment positions. These employment opportunities will primarily be full-time, not like seasonal resorts, and will provide family medical and other benefits that will certainly match or exceed those of other hospitality industries.

Rep. Robert Koczera is on point supporting a casino for New Bedford. The Wampanoag effort could require a rewrite of the Indian Regulatory Act by the federal legislature before entering the fray, unless they adopt the commercial option if gaming legislation is successful.

Mohegan Sun, not a recognized tribe in Massachusetts, has chosen the only path available to them: to compete with other commercial gaming operators, pay the same taxes and up-front fees and invest the legislated amount in their resort casino facilities. Also, employers and lenders would have the protection of federal labor and lending laws that might not apply to a recognized tribe, a sovereign state, if on recognized reservation land.

Clyde Barrow of UMass seems to believe a suitable market exists in New Bedford to support a resort casino, and this location will help the state bring back much of the billion being spent by Massachusetts citizens at Connecticut and Rhode Island gaming establishments.

In addition, resort casinos would employ some 20,000 Massachusetts residents, pay hundreds of millions in taxes annually, invest $3 billion to $4 billion constructing new resort facilities, and create a major tourism draw to the state, probably on a smaller scale than Atlantic City's casino experiment, which saw its visitor counts increase from 4 million to 35 million per year within a few years of gaming's introduction in 1978."

Get the Story:
Steve Norton: Casinos would bring jobs, no diploma required (South Coast Today 9/28)