Why Legalizing Casinos is Not a Solution for Our State

Legalizing casinos will:

1) Deepen Our State’s Budget Problems

Not one state in the country has ever solved its budget problems with gambling revenues. Even New Jersey, with its 17 casinos, had to shut down its state government last year due to a budget crisis.[1]

2) Dramatically Increase the Tax Burden on Non-Gamblers

Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island all have casino gambling and all have higher taxes than Massachusetts.[2] Under the ruse of property tax relief, Pennsylvania passed a bill to legalize slots two years ago and today their Governor is calling for a major increase in the sales tax rate.[3] These states pay higher taxes in part because they need to make up for the unmet revenue needs that were promised by the casinos - every $1 in gambling taxes costs $3.[4] Non-gamblers pay for the massive social costs that the casino gambling industry brings along with it. The industry certainly doesn’t pay the bill.

3) Detract From Our State’s Economy

Casinos don’t bring an economic multiplier effect to a region.[5] It’s why cities like Atlantic City and Detroit and states like Louisiana and Mississippi are still languishing, despite their heavy concentration of casinos. If casinos were good economic development like proponents say they are, then why would The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Business Journal, two of the most pro-business newspapers in the country, both editorialize against them?[6] In large part because they lower a region’s standard of living by attracting lots of low wage casino jobs and merely act as a jobs transfer and not a job creator.

4) Change the Quality of Life in Our Communities

The national leader of the casino industry lobby, Frank Fahrenkopf, said he'd oppose a casino where he lived. If he doesn’t want one in his region, why would we? http://www.youtube.com/watch? FqIX3N58xas    

5) Hurt Our State’s Families

Gambling addiction to slot machines is all about speed…the faster you play, the more likely you will play out-of-control and be more reckless with your money as you lose it in the machine. Today’s slots are meticulously designed computers, generating precise profits, deliberately creating a false sense of “near wins” and regular small payoffs that create an illusion of sporting chance. They are the most addictive form of gambling ever devised.[7]

Anyone comforted by the idea that casino gambling is voluntary should spend a day with the casino staffs that target people based on how fast they play a slot machine and track prospects' and players' observed worth, define their predicted value, and systematically maximize individual "share of wallet" through targeted and customized promotional messages, limited-time cash offers, and carefully tracked time-to-response and spending analysis. This predatory marketing explains why for people who live within 50 miles of a casino, at least 1 out of every 20 people becomes a gambling addict.[8] But while these problem gamblers are very lucrative for the industry, their addiction leads to crime, distressed families, suicide and bankruptcy.[9] Non-gamblers are left paying the tab for these costs through higher taxes.

With 16 percent of adults leaving the state to gamble in the past year (that also means 84% did not), advocates argue that legalization would "recapture" lost revenue from these gamblers and generate $350 million in income to the state from slots alone.[10]

On the surface, that appears to represent only a $475 annual loss per player. But industry executives will tell you that 85 percent of their revenue comes from 20 percent of the players.[11] For the state to make its $350 million on slots after payouts, 147,000 gamblers - about 3 percent of the entire adult population - have to lose a total of $496 million. That's an average annual loss of $3,374 apiece.

Adding slots to Massachusetts' revenue mix is equal to raising taxes on the average player by 62 percent.[12] It’s a massive tax increase pitched as entertainment.

The bottom line is whether you are a gambler or a non-gambler, we all will be paying a lot more in taxes if casinos are legalized and with even less funding for government services to show for it.

For more information, please contact

 the Office of State Senator Sue Tucker at (617) 722-1612.