“I think it will enhance the game as opposed to doing anything to hurt it. Sports wagering done in a way, like Nevada, that is properly regulated will give more confidence to fans that games and fights aren’t fixed
—Lawrence Epstein, executive vice president and chief operating officer the Ultimate Fighting Championship league to ESPN
“It is most harmful to those who least can afford it and really is destructive to families. The hope and the belief is that it will be well-received and talked about quite a bit this Saturday and Sunday.”
—James Driscoll, executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, urging Catholics to vote for Question 3, the defeated initiative that would have ended casino gaming in the Bay State
“The enabling legislation to expand casino gambling in Massachusetts may be one of the best laws written about casinos in the nation.”
—Editorial, the Republican, urging a no vote on Question 3, which would have repealed the 2011 Massachusetts Expanded Gaming Act, and which was defeated
“We’ve been hanging out the window by our ankles for two or three years. But, these are the toughest people around. They are tough as nails.”
—Steve O’Toole, heading of racing at Plainridge Park Casino, where horsemen have long worried about the possible closing of the track, which will now stay open thanks to the defeat of Massachusetts Question 3
“As with any emotional debate, this one played to extremes at either end which sometimes clouded the issue. To argue that a casino alone would eradicate all of Springfield’s problems was unrealistic, but advocates were predictably prone to paint a rosy picture of the future.”
—Ron Chimelis, writing in the Republican about the passions involved on both sides in Question 3, which would have repealed the Bay State’s casino law, but which was handily defeated
“When I saw this scenario, I said, ‘This is the place.’ Las Vegas dreams big, and I dream big, also. It’s a good combination, this crazy guy coming into Las Vegas with Rock in Rio.”
?Roberto Medina, promoter who is bringing the four-day Rock in Rio fest to Vegas in 2015
“If you start having too many, then at least one of them is going to turn to squalor.”
?John Romansky, New York voter, who believes additional casinos in the state may hamper existing operations
“Caesars is certainly still interested in pursuing an IR (integrated resort) license in Japan even if the resort could not open in time for the Olympics. But the sooner the IR Promotion Bill is passed, the sooner Japan can realize the many benefits generated by an integrated resort.”
—Steven Tight, head of Caesars Entertainment international development division, on the operator’s interest in any legalized gaming market in Japan
“Why call yourself a casino until a person can walk in and bet on hockey?”
—Columnist Joe MacLeod, on the lack of a sports book at Horseshoe Baltimore in his log of a day at the casino in a piece for Baltimore City Paper titled “A Horseshoe Up My Ass: 24 Hours at Baltimore’s Shiny New Casino”
