Steven Walsh and Robert Fennell, our representatives on Beacon Hill, both voted in favor of the expanded gaming bill passed by the House last week.
They did the right thing.
Casino gambling is not panacea, and they both know this. It does not solve all of our present economic ills. They know this, two. It doesn’t pave the streets with gold. But what it will do, and they know this, is to create thousands of jobs, to cause more than $1 billion in private investment, and then when up and running, a huge revenue stream for the state treasury at a time when it can certainly use it.
That revenue stream comes back to the cities and towns – and the closer a city or town is to the casino, the better off that place will be economically.
This doesn’t mean that property values jump and taxes drop or that the downtown here comes back to life.
Rather, it means that Lynn will receive added revenue from the state to finance its many underfunded needs.
That is what this bill is about.
It is about creating jobs and inducing more business while at the same time returning more money to places like Lynn.
Three casinos and a slot parlor in this state won’t change society here at all even one bit.
We will all survive expanded gambling just as we all have survived the Lottery everyday since its inception.
No one is forced to walk into a casino anymore than residents are forced to buy a Lottery ticket.
And in the end of the casinos all fail, the state won’t have lost a dime.
It will be the businessmen who put up private money that will lose.
So this is a no win situation for the state and for our people.
Senator Tommy McGee will be voting for the Senate version of the bill at the end of the month.
This means that when the governor signs the bill into law, the Lynn delegation in its entirety will have done the right thing.