Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will testify at a legislative hearing lobbying for his casino bill that would bring three casinos to the state but ironically contains three paragraphs that would make online gambling and online poker illegal for state residents.
This legislation that was filed in October would allow for licensing three resort casinos in Western Massachusetts, Southeastern Massachusetts, and metropolitan Boston. The Patrick administration claims that each casino could generate $200 million to $300 million in licensing fees every 10 years. They also claim that another $400 million a year can be made for state coffers which would be used for tax relief and roads and bridges.
At the same time there is a section in this bill that would make online gambling illegal for any Massachusetts resident who places or receives a wager of any type using a telephone, cell phone, Internet, or local wireless networks. It also applies to anyone who knowingly installs equipment for transmitting wagers. Also in another twist these same bill specifically exempts the proposed casinos from the law.
“Why is gambling in a casino OK and gambling on the internet is not?” That is the question Massachusetts democrat Barney Frank, who is currently drumming support for his IGREA bill that would license and regulate online gambling in the USA, asked.
Jeffrey Sanchez, a Democrat from Boston, who is thinking of voting against this legislation, told the Boston Herald “It’s not an easy decision. People see Donald Trump is coming, Las Vegas is coming.”
Others that are against the idea sites multiple reasons, from not trusting the revenue figures from the Patrick administration due to no third party independent study and the lack of explanation from Patrick about how he came up with the total revenue numbers.
Those that are leaning towards approving site that Massachusetts needs new sources of revenue and point to the revenue that is leaving the state and being spent at the Connecticut casinos.
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