From: United to Stop Slots in Ma.
USSMASS is outraged that the Governor has accepted over $17,000 in campaign contributions from predatory gambling interests, as reported by the Boston Herald, October 18, 2010.
We expect the Governor to return those donations and stick to his earlier commitment to conduct an independent cost-benefit analysis of proposals to expand gambling.
USSMASS demands the other candidates for Governor disclose and return all contributions from Gambling Industry lobbyists, CEO’s and special interest contributers who will benefit from bringing slot machines to Ma.
It is common knowledge the Gambling Industry has spent over 5 million dollars in 2009/10 on advertisements, political contributions, labor unions and lobbyists to tout the one sided benefits of expanding gambling.
The public has a right to expect the next Governor to conduct an “independent” cost-benefit analysis, before supporting a regressive economic proposal encouraging Ma. residents to lose more and more money gambling.
Economic conditions have changed drastically in the last 3 years. Casino workers are now being laid off all over the country. The state budget deficits in Casino states (Nevada 56.6%, New Jersey 37.4%, Illinois 36.1%Connecticut 29.2% and Minnesota 26.4%) far exceed the Ma. shortfall of 8.5%.
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Definitely agree. In fact, I’d love to see MA go one step further and require every candidate to disclose what industry their corporate and lobbyist donors represent. I know you can get OCPF reports for campaign contributions, but you can’t know who’s a lobbyist or who’s acting on behalf of special interests. Just think if we had nicely laid out, easy to read graphs that gave us the real picture of where the money comes from. That would be truly amazing.