Expanded gambling a-go-go
Folks wanting to get some quotes from gambling opponents besides Rep. Daniel Bosley (D-North Adams) could try looking at Ed Mason’s article in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune today:
“‘There’s an aura that they’re coming and just deal with it,’ [Sen. Susan] Tucker [(D-Andover)] said. ‘That’s the most dangerous thing now. People have this notion that they’re coming, and it’s not true. The Legislature has to decide to go down the casino road. It’s not inevitable.’”
In the second graph, Mason pretty much sums it up: “But the outcome is anything but guaranteed. Gov. Deval Patrick is undeclared, the House speaker has voted against expanded gaming in the past, and many local lawmakers are still feeling their way around the high-stakes issue.”
For another reporter, the whole affair has the distinct feeling of deja vu. A former Boston Herald reporter, who covered expanded gambling efforts for the paper in the 1990s, throws this onto his former employer’s op-ed page:
“Maybe the current Wampanoag proposal really does have legs, especially with a governor seeking any brass ring to help him honor his pledge of greater local aid. But for all the Middleboro headlines, the facts remain that no slots will jingle unless the state and the tribe agree to a compact and the Legislature legalizes casino-style gambling. That’s what croaked the earlier sure-to-happen Wampanoag deal, which makes gambling wars veterans amused by how current coverage tends to ignore such previous history.”
And for those who missed it, Globe columnist Joan Vennochi’s piece on Saturday, where she once again gets her hands on an e-mail, and an interesting one at that.