“Instead of viewing gaming as a panacea to cure all economic ills, policymakers should view gaming as one piece of a multifaceted economic development strategy.”
—AGA President & CEO Geoff Freeman in an op-ed in USAToday urging that gaming be treated as simply one part of a redevelopment plan, not the entire plan
“While we always knew we would be out-spent by the deep-pocketed casino bosses who wrote two checks to fund the first $1.7 million their campaign, we are encouraged by the steady growth in support for stopping the casino mess.”
—David Guarino, spokesman for Massachusetts’ Repeal the Casino Deal, which is scraping for cash in its campaign to repeal the state’s casino law in November
“We wish things would have turned out differently for us. Unfortunately, as they say in poker, we were not dealt a good hand.”
—Marc Falcone, senior vice president of Ultimate Poker, which is pulling out of New Jersey after accusing its partner, Trump Taj Mahal, of multiple contract breaches
“It seems as though those respectable educated folks like Ms. Purcell are trying to protect Grenada from organized gambling, while they cannot stop illegal gambling that is very popular within society. They are afraid that casino gambling will attract rich folks and foreign prostitutes to our beautiful tri-island state. It is very important that Ms. Purcell and Mr. Noel understand that illegal local gambling and legal organized casino gambling are the same. The only difference is that the government is looking for revenue from gambling.”
?Hudson George, Caribbean News Now, slamming former politicians Joan Purcell and Lloyd Noel, who cite religious reasons for opposing gambling in Grenada
“Nobody gave us a chance. Little old Rensselaer having a casino? What, are you crazy? I was down in the dumps. You don’t give up until it’s absolutely over. When you want something hard enough you’re going to fight for it.”
?Dan Dwyer, mayor, Rensselaer, NY, on the city’s battle to bring a Class III casino to the town of fewer than 10,000 residents
“It’s really going to make our jobs very challenging. We want to do something good for communities that are starving for this type of investment. We’d love to do something to promote tourism upstate. But you have to also take into consideration what’s happening around us in the gaming industry.”
?Kevin Law, New York casino siting commission, indicating that community revitalization is not the only criteria commissioners must consider in awarding up to four licenses
“We are loud and we are forceful because we are determined.”
?Elizabeth Wade, East Greenbush, NY, speaking out against the proposed Capital View Casino
“While the increased revenue sweetens the pot for the city, it does little toward getting our folks into good paying, permanent jobs. Our citizens deserve leadership that thinks about all of us, from young graduates to more experienced workers looking for better, more diverse job offerings.”
?Mike Smith, Republican for Senate in Rhode Island, criticizing Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed’s support for expanded gaming at the Newport Grand
“I think that the idea or the glitter of it is great, but when you look at the economic realities and the competition from internet wagering, it’s clear that there’s not the amount of disposable income for all of these casinos to stay open.”
?Michael Conners, Albany County comptroller, who has “serious reservations about an economic policy dependent on gambling”
“There’s a funereal pall hanging over these last races. Hundreds of locals who work at the track are losing their jobs. Scores of seasonal racing workers used to shuttling up to Boston for the summer won’t be back.”
—Paul McMorrow, writing about the atmosphere at Suffolk Downs racetrack, which has announced its closing after the Massachusetts Gaming Commission awarded the license for the Boston metro area to Wynn Resorts
“If there is a vocal group that is anti-gaming, that has to affect regulators and everybody else, whether they admit it or are aware of it or not. It colors our presence. The idea that the citizens of Massachusetts are actually going to speak on the subject makes life simpler.”
—Steve Wynn, commenting on Question 3, an initiative that would repeal the 2011 gaming expansion law in Massachusetts
“I’m not saying we can put gaming back in the bottle in California—it’s here to stay. But basically there are going to have to be limitations put on this. We have to rein in exceptions like this.”
—Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up for California, advocating passage of Proposition 48, which would prevent a tribe, the North Fork band, from building a casino 38 miles from its original homeland.
“To reality, people are gambling online. They’re gambling on unregulated, unlicensed sites. Some of those sites are not necessarily on up and up and we would like to see it regulated in Pennsylvania so that we can get the tax revenue and we can protect our constituents and citizens from somebody’s unregulated sites that they’re going on right now.”
—William Thomas, executive director of the PA House Gaming Oversight Committee to casinocamreport on an expected push for an online gambling bill in Pennsylvania in 2015
“Of course, the federal government still says that it’s illegal, but supporters of sports wagering in New Jersey are betting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder won’t send federal troops here to enforce the ban.”
—Joan Quigley, a former New Jersey Assemblywoman writing at Philly.com on the state’s move to implement sports betting
