Monday, February 12, 2007

Nothing in this world can be said to be certain, Ben Franklin noted in a
letter to a friend, except death and taxes. And, he should have noted,
there's one more thing: Every new governor of Massachusetts looks at casino
gambling as a potential source of revenue. Daniel O'Connell, the state's
secretary of housing and economic development, confirmed in an interview
with The Republican that Gov. Deval L. Patrick plans to create a commission
to study whether Massachusetts should legalize casino gambling. O'Connell
said the commission will have members from different parts of the state,
including someone from Western Massachusetts.
Here's a suggestion: Put some slot machines in Richmond. Think of all the
jobs it would create for neighboring Pittsfield, where the unemployment rate
is 5 percent. And the governor could stop in and drop a few coins in the
machines on his way to his spacious vacation home in Richmond. But first,
here's another suggestion: Check with Attorney General Martha Coakley before
doing anything. She cautions that the state might be creating an environment
for crime to prosper if it expands gambling. As the state's top law
enforcement officer, her opinion is important. "I have no moral compunction
against it," she told reporters last week. "I just think that people always
see it as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And I'm here to say, as
someone who's been a prosecutor ... the pot doesn't have as much gold in it
as people think." With the promise of huge payoffs in revenue and jobs, it
is certainly tempting. Yet it would be dangerous to mistake casinos for
economic development. For one, the jobs and revenue would come much too late
to help the governor with his deficit, which he estimates at $1 billion.
More important, giving the people of Massachusetts a place to gamble because
the state can use the revenue is no different than urging people to smoke
because the state can use the revenue from the cigarette tax. The governor
should focus his energies on what can be done to discourage businesses from
leaving Massachusetts, and what can be done to help businesses here expand.