Patrick to offer plan for three casinos. (Massachusetts Casino News)

[Castleman]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massach..._three_casinos/

Hopefully if this happens they'll all come with poker rooms. Poker room competition in New England would be real gooooood.

[DayTripping]

Maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I myself patronize casinos and have done so for years, but I think our country as a whole will eventually see many serious long term social problems from the fact that eventually everybody will live no more than a half hour drive away from full scale Las Vegas style casino resorts.

I also agree with the people in the article who say that casinos will damage the historical and cultural atmosphere of the state. Massachusetts should be known for Paul Revere, the Boston Tea Party, and its important role in the birth of our country. Putting a 5,000 room mega-casino built by Sheldon Anderson on the 495 corridor would almost be sacrilege.

I might get bashed for this post, but that's how I feel.

[daryn]

blah, outside 495 isn't even massachusetts as far as some are concerned. who cares what they do "out there"

[McMelchior]

[ QUOTE ]
many serious long term social problems

[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe you could expound on what kind of problems you expect?

I'm from a European country where for the last 15 years pretty much 100% of the population has lived within 30 minutes from a casino.

Within this time span there's certainly been a markable increase in the amount of serious social problems (I'm certified as a social worker in same contry, and follow the social policy close), but so far no significant part of them has been traced to the introduction of gambling.

???

[Diana Ross Fan]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I myself patronize casinos and have done so for years, but I think our country as a whole will eventually see many serious long term social problems from the fact that eventually everybody will live no more than a half hour drive away from full scale Las Vegas style casino resorts.

I also agree with the people in the article who say that casinos will damage the historical and cultural atmosphere of the state. Massachusetts should be known for Paul Revere, the Boston Tea Party, and its important role in the birth of our country. Putting a 5,000 room mega-casino built by Sheldon Anderson on the 495 corridor would almost be sacrilege.

I might get bashed for this post, but that's how I feel.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. But that's kind of like the rest of the country going against its culture. For the longest time you only saw casinos in Vegas and then Vegas and AC. Now they are everywhere.

As for culture, I have alway thought of Mass as the state of high taxes, rents and too much traffic. I think a casino will fit right in.

Does anyone know if Foxwoods/Mohogan had a major impact on CT?

[Siegmund]

The problem, in my opinion, is with the vegas/atlantic city supercasino model, not with the gambling itself. I'd much rather see states following the Washington/Montana model, with small locally operated rooms -- maybe even setting a maximum size on each casino, rather than setting a maximum number of casinos and pressuring each one to be gigantic and gaudy.

[pocketpared]

I agree. I made a good living from casinos for well over a decade and anytime during that period if there was a vote to shut down all casinos I wouldn't hesitate to vote to shut them down. I'd just find something else to do. I get a kick out of people who rush to a casinos defense when someone posts anything negative just because they play there and win money at poker. I look at the suicides, the notes on homes held by the casinos and the black hole the casino creates in the local economy. For every job a casino creates they ruin 20 lives. And now casinos have been geared to attracting whole families so they can acclimate children into believing being a future sucker is somehow right and a part of everyday life. People who like to stick up for casinos should learn some form of table game advantage play, go out and play, and learn that every patron is viewed as nothing more than a sucker to the casino. If you have an advantage, however small, the casinos treat you like a criminal.
BTW..every advantage player I personally know shares my thoughts.

[Diana Ross Fan]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree. I made a good living from casinos for well over a decade and anytime during that period if there was a vote to shut down all casinos I wouldn't hesitate to vote to shut them down. I'd just find something else to do. I get a kick out of people who rush to a casinos defense when someone posts anything negative just because they play there and win money at poker. I look at the suicides, the notes on homes held by the casinos and the black hole the casino creates in the local economy. For every job a casino creates they ruin 20 lives. And now casinos have been geared to attracting whole families so they can acclimate children into believing being a future sucker is somehow right and a part of everyday life. People who like to stick up for casinos should learn some form of table game advantage play, go out and play, and learn that every patron is viewed as nothing more than a sucker to the casino. If you have an advantage, however small, the casinos treat you like a criminal.
BTW..every advantage player I personally know shares my thoughts.

[/ QUOTE ]

We, the poker players, are kind of hood winked into supporting the enemy here. If people were allowed to open card rooms (California), play poker in bars (wild west), have home games or games at clubs w/o harassment, or hold public tournaments (as they do for chess) then we wouldn't need casinos.

But, I think the casinos enjoy having a stranglehold monopoly on poker and gambling. I also think they pressure authorities to ban other venues. So if we want to play poker then we have to support the casino.

[Mandor_TFL]

Tony Soprano agrees that casinos are bad. Let us keep all are vices safely in the hands of organized crime. Regulated bad industries are better than unregulated bad industries. ( in general ) That being said having a casino within 30 minutes of everyone is not the best way to regulate gambling. I personally thought that having gambling areas relatively rare around the country was a good idea. But as the revenue is so large for local tax bases, it will only spread further as local and state governments struggle to pay their bills.

[littlekeed]

[ QUOTE ]
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massach..._three_casinos/

Hopefully if this happens they'll all come with poker rooms. Poker room competition in New England would be real gooooood.

[/ QUOTE ]

This would absolutely ruin my chances of doing good in school (freshman at Northeastern). I actually hope they don't put one in Boston as I wouldn't be able to resist a few trips there a week. Unfortunately, the slots players would probably feel the same way.