Thursday, August 07, 2008

My Nickname for the Spectrum Casino Report:

The BS Report.

Here's some of the more asinine claims:
  • It'll create 20,000 jobs. Ha! We all know what to do with these job figures, again. Laugh hysterically!
  • Three casinos in Massachusetts may only claim as little as 43% of our citizens' casino visits anyway - but they bill that as a positive thing. More comedy!
  • A casino license is "tantamount" to a monopoly, so apparently that means we can expect casinos to work for the "public interest." Note to Spectrum Gaming: Working for the public interest and casinos just don't go together. That one's not even funny, just common sense.
In case anyone forgets about this study, let me give everyone a little refresher: Gaming is in the name of the freaking firm for a reason. There is no possible way that the Spectrum Gaming Group could give an 'independent' analysis on casinos in Massachusetts. Apparently, PolitickerMA didn't get the memo.

In Today's Other (Casino-Related) News...

When it rains, it pours. Today's been pretty sucky, on more than one level. On the casino-meme front, a tangently-related Suffolk poll conveniently rained down from the skies today. Ya, I'm sure that was an accident.

Let's ignore Suffolk's poor polling track record and the fact that other polls have been far more damning on casino support in Mass - including this one. Let's even pretend that Massachusetts voters would overwhelmingly support the idea of supporting a casino in Massachusetts. However, no matter what poll anyone looks at, that support dries up when voters are asked questions closer to home. Super majorities in this state have said they don't support a casino if it was located in their community, and casinos are also a loser whenever they're even near home. Yet, here's what Governor Patrick's casino plan looks like:


The circles represent where crime goes up, where local stores go down and where the rate of problem gamblers double. I'm sure casinos, under that plan, would be wildly popular in Pittsfield! Note to readers: there'd be even more circles in Massachusetts if casinos and slots were counted from out of state, or Lynn's Horizon's Edge casino boat that leaves from the harbor daily. Anyone want to take bets on how many people would support all those targeted strikes on Mass communities? that casino plan in a poll? Can I get an over/under on 25%?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your nickname for this report is so correct, your comments about this report is so correct!! and by the way, did I pay for this BS???

AND to the Spectrum reporters:
A man must not swallow more beliefs than he can digest!!
(Havelock Ellis)
AND
Strange how much you've go to know
Before you know how little you know.
(Anonymous)

Anonymous said...

Ryan, Nice job!
It's difficult not to be outraged about $189,000 of taxpayers' money misspent on such a bogus report.

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