Regulation and Enforcement and Prosecution

I chose to torture myself today by attending Senator Karen Spilka's Gambling Lovefest forum knowing it would be one-sided, filled with gambling proponents, with little substantive information.

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To her credit, Attorney General Martha Coakley presented a framework of considerations required BEFORE any serious consideration of expanded gaming is discussed.

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The AG rapidly presented detailed information from in depth research about the regulatory costs and expenses around the country, the need to determine a regulatory body, the need for the legislature to give serious consideration to the appointment process, the qualifications of the appointments, the compensation, prevention of a "Revolving Door" policy, independence of the appointments, transparency of the process and background checks.

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Before details of the AG's comments are itemized, one scenario analyzed indicated that regulatory and enforcement authority resided with the AG's office in another state, requiring 500 to 1,000 employees.

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Of those 1,000 employees, it might be reasonable that they would encompass a wide spectrum of expertise from attorneys, law enforcement personnel to secretaries and file clerks.

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With health care costs and pension benefits, those annual costs per employee might average $100,000.

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1,000 new state employees

X $100,000 salaries, benefits, pensions

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My total cost figure is $100,000,000 for regulatory and enforcement costs.

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This seems to be one of those costs that aren't being included in this discussion that needs greater consideration.

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What I'm seeing is $100,000,000 here, $100,000,000 there and pretty soon, you're talking about real money.

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Of some of the communities that have considered the impacts a gaming facility will create, additional people will create the need for additional NEW schools, additional teachers.
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When you begin to tally the costs, the outcome isn't quite so rosy.