Is a gambling casino a good idea for anyone?
Is a gambling casino a good idea for anyone?
06/18/2004
To the editor:
The experience of Connecticut as the home of two full-scale casinos shows that a casino in Rhode Island will do far more damage to the state and its residents than any illusory benefit from tax receipts.
Unfortunately this experience has been ignored in the debate over whether a casino should be allowed in Rhode Island.
Both the claim by casino promoters that Connecticut's treasury is being enriched by the millions of dollars gambled away at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun and that residents and businesses in the communities that host these casinos are happy to have them fail under even the most cursory examination.
The 25 percent tax on slot machine revenue imposed by Con-necticut - the same percentage Harrah's wants to pay in Rhode Island -- brings Connecticut about $400 million a year This sounds like a lot of money compared to the $200 million Rhode Island collects from its 60 percent tax on video slot machines in Lincoln and Newport.
But in fact, on a per capita basis, Rhode Island collects more from Lincoln Park and Newport Grand than Connecticut collects from Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Per capita revenue in Rhode Island is $186.00 compared to only $115.00 in Con-necticut. So if gambling revenue is the objective, we're already doing 60% better than Connecticut which should end the argument that we're losing out on millions of gambling dollars flowing out of state.
More telling than this discrepancy in per capita revenue, is the effect of the Connecticut casinos on the communities in which they are located. Despite the claims of casino promoters about the benefits to West Warwick and its surrounding communities, the people who live with the casinos in Connecticut agree with the view of a local official that "casinos may be nice to visit, but they're not nice to live near." Because of Rhode Island's small size, of course, we all would be living near a West Warwick casino - or one located anywhere else in the state.
Increased traffic, increased demand for emergency safety and medical services, increased crime and increased need for affordable housing, schools and other municipal services have driven up public expenditures far higher than any increased revenue from Connecticut's casino taxes.
Traffic and the litter that accompanies it have increased by some 300 percent on the state and local roads serving the Connecticut casinos. On Route 2 alone, traffic jumped from about 8,800 vehicles daily in 1988 to about 27,000 in 1996. This has since declined to 24,000 per day, only because casino visitors and employees have learned to use small local roads - not a great solution for those who live on these roads.
The increased demand for emergency services has been equally dramatic. In North Stonington, emergency 911 calls have risen 40 percent and the town's ambulance service, once voluntary, is now largely a town expense.
Emergency medical calls in Preston have gone from 205 in 1988 to 955 in 1996, and continue to increase, forcing the ex-penditure of nearly $680,000 to buy more ambulances and fire trucks. The dramatic increase in demand has made it difficult to recruit and retain people to man the volunteer fire department.
Crime statistics are equally revealing. State Police Troop E, responsible for the areas in which Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are located, must contend with the highest drunk driving rate in the state. North Stonington has closed two houses of prostitution. Ledyard reported a 300 percent increase in its crime rate during 1990-98 at the same time the New London area crime rate dropped by more than 10 percent.
Yearly expenditures by the 21 towns in New London County jumped by $58 million more than they would have without the casinos, reported the South-eastern Connecticut Council of Governments. These costs, off-set by only $14 million from a state fund maintained by slot machine revenues, were re-quired to educate the children of casino workers, deal with increased traffic and provide other municipal services.
Increased taxes and debt made up the difference between the extra $58 million cost and the $14 million received from state taxes on the casinos.
The new jobs created by the casinos, and touted by Harrah's and its high-paid lobbyists as a benefit to Rhode Island, are mostly low-wage service jobs that put an extra burden on local communities lacking housing the workers can afford. To accommodate Connecticut casino workers, single family residences have been converted into multi-family rental units, resulting in a near epidemic of housing code violations and the practice of "hot bunking," in which casino employees working different shifts share beds.
Beyond the negative impact on the budgets in the communities that host the casinos and on the quality of life of the people who live near them is the severe problem of gambling addiction that even the casinos themselves acknowledge, but do little to alleviate.
Some 52 percent of the people phoning a Helpline of the Con-necticut Council on Problem Gambling in 2002 earned less than $32,000 a year - but they had losses of more than $23,000 a year and an average lifetime loss of $115,000.
The University of Connecticut Health Center found that problem gamblers who can ill afford it spend an average of $2,000 a month. Their troubles, the study reported, spill into their families, affecting the lives of eight to 10 others. Other Connecticut studies estimate that, depending on the facility and the type of gambling, up to half the state's casino patrons have severe gambling problems.
"So many (Connecticut) residents dislike the casinos that the state's legislature repealed the law that allowed them to be built," the New York Times reported after the law was changed to eliminate the possibility of a third casino.
Connecticut's experience with its two casinos and the negative economic and social impact they have had on the communities around them are clear signals of what much smaller Rhode Island could expect from a casino in the center of the state, fewer than 50 miles from its furthest point and less than an hour's drive from the Boston metro-politan area and the southeastern Massachusetts cities of Fall River and New Bedford.
Contrary to what casino proponents claim, there are only phantom benefits to the state. Instead, only harm will accompany a casino in Rhode Island while any profits go to the owner.
Richard A. Hines, Jamestown