Governor Rendell and the Hidden Costs of Casinos
Governor Rendell has grown increasingly isolated as a politician still openly advocating for the development of SugarHouse and Foxwoods casinos in Philadelphia. Not only has he dismissed and become increasingly hostile to the residents who oppose these developments but he has also failed to provide a solid cost/benefit analysis to back up his claims of the economic benefits of casinos.
Governor Rendell claims that casinos will bring 7,000 new jobs into the city while an independent study by Temple economics professor, Fred Murphy, shows casinos could create net job loss of 5,900 jobs. Rendell has budget only .001% of casino revenue to deal with gambling addiction when it could cost the city up to 2,000 times more to deal with the impact of those new addicts. Many of the studies done to date give no estimate for costs of things like reduction in property values, medical emergency services and other municipal costs, reduction in taxes from businesses that close due to competition with casinos and the opportunity cost of using the Delaware Riverfront for other projects.
These numbers have led many people to believe that the figures that the Governor has been using to promote casinos as a panacea for the economy are grossly overstated and misleading. For the past few weeks, Casino-Free Philadelphia has been on a campaign to create more accountability to the hidden costs of casinos. On April 10th, Casino-Free Philadelphia will be gathering at the Governor's Philadelphia office for a "debate-in," (like a sit-in) and plan to stay at Rendell's office until he agrees to a debate on the costs/benefits of casinos. Casino-Free is inviting any member of the public who wants to come observe the action to show up on April 10th.
For more information go to www.casinofreephila.org or contact Lily Cavanagh at lily@casinofreephila.org.
Thanks Nico
Thanks for posting about this, Nico. I just wanted to add the Facebook page where folks can sign up to debate-in -- http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=28498210327&ref=mf -- it should be a pretty fantastic event. If the Governor has clear numbers proving that casinos are good for the city and good for the state -- he shouldn't be afraid to bring them to the debate!
I'm interested in hearing the Governor explain how he's going to make sure that he doesn't have to give back millions of dollars to each of the different casinos when he changes the makeup of the Gaming Control Board, and how it votes:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/bumste...
According to Christopher Craig, who worked with Sen. Fumo to write the gaming law we're currently stuck with, each casino gets a refund of its $50 million licensing fee if the makeup or voting structure of the board changes. And Rendell is pushing for the board to be able to approve new licensees with a simple majority vote, rather than a supermajority. That means that casinos get a comparatively cakewalk approval from our government -- and we don't even get the taxes to pay for the different proposals he wants to put out.
Hmmmmm....
--
-----
hannah sassaman
prometheusradioproject
building radio stations = awesome
http://www.prometheusradio.org
Hannah--what's going on?
I know we're still hoping to keep casinos out of Philly, but they are operating in other cities in the state? Are there any impact analyses available yet from there?
And is there any talk in Hburg about moving forward on full-gaming legislation (with table games)?
(glad to see you posting ;)
Thanks Ray!
Thanks Ray! Casinos are operating in other cities across the state. Check out this site to see what racetrack near you is building a slots parlor -- and to see what plans the casino builders have for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia -- http://www.americancasinoguide.com/pennsylvania.shtml.
One casino making headlines is the Mt. Airy Casino Resort in Mt. Pocono (http://www.mountairycasino.com/). Both chambers of the Legislature are trying to figure out just how the Gaming Control Board could grant a casino license to someone under federal indictment -- Mr. Louis DeNaples (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/chester/20080401_GOP_proposes_Pa...) -- and now a Grand Jury is getting involved (http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5denaples.6320702apr01,0,7579201....). I'm looking forward to talking to Senator Piccola and State Representative Reichley, and other legislators pushing for accountability for DeNaples. I think that Philadelphians have an opportunity to build relationships with legislators across the state and across the aisle, when it comes to how casino companies and the Gaming Control Board disenfrancise communities, no matter where they are.
In terms of the impact analyses from casinos -- this article (http://www.noslots.com/WallStreetJournal_BadOdds.htm) from last year's Wall Street Journal -- Bad Odds, by Mark Whitehouse -- looks into Governor Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas' salivating over the economic windfalls of casinos in places like Kansas City. Economists like Ricardo Gazel of the Inter-America Development Bank (http://www.iadb.org/) chide cities for touting the benefits that casinos will bring, without marking the costs. "They look at revenues and the creation of jobs, but they don't look at the destruction of other jobs," says Gazel.
And in their paper "Casinos, Crime, and Community Costs" (http://www.terry.uga.edu/%7Edmustard/casinos.pdf) professors Earl Grinols and David Mustard found that, in a study of over 3000 counties impacted by gaming, and "taking all the costs and benefits of casinos into account... they have... concluded that the introduction of a casino ultimately incurs an average net cost of at least $97 per resident per year."
I'll have to defer to longer-term casino battlers to talk about how the racetracks, and the new slot parlors in Mt. Airy, in Chester, and beyond, are impacting those communities -- but I'm just struck by the testimony I heard at a Casino-Free Philly event a few weeks back (http://www.planphilly.com/node/2875). When Chester resident Joe found a new slot parlor 15 minutes from his house, he drowned his grief from the recent loss of his wife in the lights and sounds of the casino. Now he's $130,000 in debt -- and one strong statement as to why we need to keep casinos out of our city and every community that doesn't want them.
See some of you at the debate-in -- and stay tuned!
--
-----
hannah sassaman
prometheusradioproject
building radio stations = awesome
http://www.prometheusradio.org