Published: 04/02/2006
Eagle Tribune Op-Ed
Don’t believe the slot machine hype
Barbara A. L’Italien
1. Have you done any fact-checking on the press releases generated by the gambling industry?
2. Have you actually played a 21st-century slot machine, the kind that will be installed here in Massachusetts?
3. Will you be one of the people spending over $5,000 a year at the slot machines, the amount needed to be spent to reach the profit numbers gambling promoters predict?
The reality is very few state leaders and news outlets have done any fact-checking during the slots debate. They merely repeat over and over the talking points from the gambling industry’s press releases that hype slots and the wonders they will provide. “Slot machines will stop global warming” one headline might declare. “Casino executives said today slots are the only answer to the looming global warming crisis. ‘The more money people spend on slot machines, the less money they’ll have to fill their gas tank, which means they’ll be driving less, reducing the amount of deadly carbon emissions being released into the environment.’” It’s hyperbole – but not by much.
Beyond doing little fact-checking, very few of these state leaders and media types have even played a high-tech slot machine, the kind they support making legal. These new machines are computer engineered to give the player a sense that they “almost” won, creating a rush of excitement which leads the player to feed more money in the machine at a faster and faster pace. That’s why public health leaders describe slots as the most highly addictive gambling product ever invented.
And while almost none of these slot machine cheerleaders have actually played a new slot, you can be certain that they also won’t be spending any of their own personal money in the machines if they are legalized.
In the last 25 years, no important state issue has received less media scrutiny than the issue of legalizing slot machines in Massachusetts. It’s time that changed.
There are several key facts that should be splashed across the front page of every newspaper in the state. Here are two of the most important:
* Fact: The amount of jobs claimed by the racetrack industry is greatly exaggerated and the jobs that are real will not be saved by legalizing slots.
Not one news outlet has dug below the surface to confirm the outrageous number of jobs claimed by the racetrack industry. Suffolk Downs, for example, counts over 800 racehorse owners as “employees.” But even more shockingly, a review of Massachusetts Racing Commission records shows that over half of these “employees” live out of state. That means at least one out of every five jobs Suffolk claims it needs to “save” with slots is held by an out-of-stater, and that’s to say nothing about where any of the other track employees reside.
The very idea that slot machines will “save” the racetracks is totally false. The head of none other than Churchill Downs himself declared that slots are not a long-term solution to saving the jobs of racetrack workers. Why hasn’t the media told the public this story?
* Fact: A vote to legalize slots at the racetracks is a vote to legalize casinos in Massachusetts without any local community control.
Federal law requires any recognized Indian tribe be permitted access to whatever form of gambling is legal in a state. Slots are defined as Class III gambling, as are table games like blackjack. This allows tribes to build casinos, with little state control and no accountability to local zoning or environmental laws. The racetrack industry’s press releases omit this fact, and the media has done very little to educate the public on the massive impacts of Indian casinos.
So why have state leaders and media done so poorly investigating the issue of legalizing slots?
In large part it’s because many of these leaders and media figures don’t play slot machines nor do they really know people who spend a lot of money on gambling. They are part of the elite. Many can’t relate to the notion of what the financial and social impacts would mean to everyday people to have slot machines in our communities.
It’s not meant as a criticism. Rather it affirms what is true for all of us – that how we think and act is based much upon our own life experience. If you don’t have experience playing the new slot machines or don’t know people who spend a large portion of their income on gambling, it becomes very hard to relate to what’s at stake.
Slot machines will not end global warming. Nor will they save the racetracks or be a cash cow for state government. But it’s well past time for the media and government leaders at all levels to give this issue the intense review it deserves.
State Rep. Barbara A. L’Italien, D-Andover, represents the 18th Essex District
