A Cry for Help

The Great Indian Casino Debate is heating up in Rhode Island. The Narragansetts, "advised" by the major gambling venture Harrah's, are renewing their call to be allowed to build a resort casino in West Warwick. Backers of the project talk about tons of new jobs, millions in new revenues for the state and ending the RI wallet sucking going on just over the border at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Opponents question whether the economic benefits are worth the social ills traditionally associated with gambling (and if you've ever known someone with a gambling problem, then you probably know what they're talking about).

As of last September, a poll showed Rhode Islanders supporting building the West Warwick casino 51%-35%. Among the 35% are Governor Carcieri, who spoke out against the casino today, and yours truly. My inner elitist says what the hell does that 51% know?! They're just fooled by the glitzy promises of overflowing coffers (lower taxes? HA!) and, very important to RIers, a shorter drive to the fun and excitement of watching your money go bye-bye. A buh bye. At least my inner elitist is informed by experience this time, as I've seen things go not exactly according to plan with the casino here in New Orleans (operated by, what do you know, Harrah's!) Em sent me this link showing that Jim Taricani is on the ball: Did Harrah's Break Promises In New Orleans?

Economic development at all costs is not a winning formula for RI. I always say that if you really want to increase Gross State Product, get Textron to build a giant bomb, have GTECH raffle it off to Hollywood and let them blow up Coventry. Imagine all the construction jobs created to rebuild! We'd be stupid not to do it! Just like in New Orleans, if, after the casino is up and running, Harrah's doesn't think its deal is lucrative enough, it can threaten to close up shop. "You wouldn't want to lose all the jobs we provide, would you? Then cut us a better deal." Meanwhile, Lincoln Park and Newport Grand go belly up, not being able to compete with a glitzy subsidized monster casino (Harrah's, the Wal-Mart of gaming?) So not only do taxpayers not get the promised piles of cash from Harrah's, but the sizable revenues from our other two gaming facilities dries up. Someone's getting the short end of the stick, and it's not the corporation that moves its profits out of the state.

So I'm hoping the casino bill dies in the Lege. A lot of people think we should vote for whether or not the Narragansetts get their way, which I'd be all for if people could get the whole story and not just a nice ad campaign full of dollar signs and promises. Unfortunately, that's what we'll get, and people will vote accordingly. As Fat Mike says, majority rules don't work in mental institutions (free MP3 here).

This entry was posted on Friday, May 14th, 2004 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.