Hollywood Slots

Governor Deval Patrick, Massachusetts Senators Murray, Spilka, Petruccelli, Downing, Timilty, Morrissey, Tarr, Pacheco and Representatives DeLeo, Flynn, Brady, Wallace, Koutoujian, Koczera, Hill, Frost:

Are you listening?

The most significant justification to voters for allowing a gambling casino in Maine was that it would revive a dying industry: harness racing.


From Casinos No! ---



One Year Later, Hollywood Slots Fails to Deliver on its Many Promises
Maine's First Casino Adds to Unemployment, Crime, Addiction

07.01.2009 – One year after opening its new casino in Bangor, Maine with 1,000 slot machines, Hollywood Slots has failed to live up to its promises to revive both harness racing and the local economy, according to an analysis by CasinosNO!

In every category, the rosy predictions and forecasts by gambling promoters that casinos are “engines of economic growth” have not come true.

Figures for the Bangor area show that since Hollywood Slots began operation in 2005, unemployment is up, crime is up, addiction is up and retail sales are down. Furthermore, evidence of the “substitution effect" - the claims by opponents that casinos only move money from one segment of the economy to another rather than create new opportunities - is clear.

“Any objective analysis of the data would be hard pressed to show any meaningful economic or social benefit from Hollywood Slots,” said Dennis Bailey, executive director of CasinosNO!, the grassroots organization opposed to the expansion of casino gambling in Maine.


“I can’t really say ‘we told you so’ because the truth is the evidence is worse than even we thought it would be.”

An examination of the data in several categories shows the following:

Harness Racing: The most significant justification to voters for allowing a gambling casino in Maine was that it would revive a dying industry: harness racing.

While it’s certainly true that the owners of race tracks and horse breeders have received a healthy subsidy from the slots revenue - allowing them to continue their way of life - Hollywood Slots has done nothing to revive interest in the sport. Fewer and fewer people are attending or betting on harness racing events.

According to the Maine Harness Racing Commission, the “live handle," the amount of money wagered on live harness racing in Maine, has fallen consistently year after year, from $7.7 million in 2003 to $4.7 million last year.

“Saying that Hollywood Slots has revived the harness racing industry would be like saying we’ve revived the shoe industry because we’ve put all the shoe-shop employees on welfare,” Bailey said.

Unemployment: The unemployment rate in both Bangor and the Bangor Labor Market began creeping up even before the recent economic downturn and continued to rise after the opening of Hollywood Slots, from 4.6% in July 2005 to a high of 8% in March 2009, according to the Maine Department of Labor. (It now stands at 7.4%)

It should be remembered that while Penn National, the owner of Hollywood Slots, brags of creating 500 jobs in Bangor, it purchased and closed the former Miller’s Restaurant, putting close to 100 people out of work, before converting it to a temporary slots parlor. It then purchased and tore down the Holiday Inn (100+ employees) and the Penobscot Inn (75 employees) before constructing its new facility.

While Bangor’s unemployment rate is slightly below the state average, there is no indication that Hollywood Slots has had a measurable impact on employment in the Bangor area.

Retail Sales: In 2007, two years after Hollywood Slots opened its temporary facility, retail sales declined in Bangor by $13 million after several consecutive years of steady growth, according to figures compiled by the State Planning Office. While this would seem to confirm studies that show that the introduction of casinos cause a reduction of spending in other retail areas, more analysis is needed.

The collapse of the housing and construction markets in Maine and the nation has slowed retail sales in numerous markets. “But it’s safe to say that Hollywood Slots has had little or no discernable impact on retail sales in Bangor and has failed to make the area immune from the economic downturn that is affecting areas of the state that don’t have a gambling casino,” Bailey said.

Meanwhile, downtown Bangor restaurants are not seeing any benefit from Hollywood Slots. In fact, a February 2009 article in the Bangor Daily News chronicled the fate of eight restaurants that had recently closed their doors or reduced their services. (See Eatery Signs Bad Omen for Bangor, by Renee Ordway, Feb. 27, 2009)

Substitution Effect: The best evidence of the so-called “substitution effect” or cannibalization of other businesses due to the advent of slot machines is to examine how other gambling operations have fared since the introduction of Hollywood Slots. According to several accounts, charity bingo games and other games of chance have suffered as more gamblers are drawn to the lure of slot machines.

Michael Hurley, who runs a company in Bangor that provides bingo hall supplies to nonprofit organizations in eastern and northern Maine, told the Ellsworth American, “This racino is killing me.” Hurley said his business declined 20% shortly after Hollywood Slots opened in November 2005.

Similarly, the Penobscot Indians have suffered losses of up to $200,000 a year in its nearby high stakes bingo game since the opening of Hollywood Slots, reducing the state’s share of revenue from $150,000 to just $3,800.

And sales of Lottery tickets in the Bangor region have dropped nearly 20% - even when they’ve increased everywhere else in Maine - since Hollywood Slots came to the area.

“These revenue losses to the state are never deducted from the rosy figures presented by Hollywood Slots to show their contribution to Maine,” Bailey said.

Crime: In 2006, the first full year of operations at Hollywood Slots, the crime rate in Bangor increased 22% - the biggest increase of any city in Maine, according to figures compiled by the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The increase in Bangor’s crime rate came at a time when the city’s population actually declined and followed two years of steady decreases in the city’s crime rate. Part of the increase was due to a sharp rise of larceny, which includes embezzlement, from 1,304 cases in 2005 to 1,633 in 2006 - an additional larceny almost every day.

Penobscot County as a whole saw only a slight increase in crime, from 29.7 offenses per 1,000 residents to 32.3 offenses; however nearby Brewer saw its crime rate rise more than 15%. Bangor’s crime rate increased again in 2007 (although not by much) while the crime rate in Brewer showed another sharp increase (figures for 2008 are not yet available).

By comparison, the crime rates in Maine’s two largest cities, Portland and Lewiston, declined.

Bangor officials were quick to say that the increase in crime had no connection to Hollywood Slots and blamed the increase on drugs (even though numerous Maine communities have problems with drugs but saw their crime rates go down in the same period).

The increased crime rate also ran counter to predictions by the general manager of Hollywood Slots who told the Bangor Daily News in 2006 that the casino would likely cause a decrease in crime. “I have never seen gambling lead to an increase in crime,” said John Johnson.

“Unemployment creates crime. When you bring in economic development to an area, crime goes down. The slots facility is part of that.”

“Johnson was wrong on two counts,” Bailey said. “Unemployment has gone up along with crime since Hollywood Slots opened in 2005.”

Several incidents that were connected to Hollywood Slots are noteworthy. A convenience store manager from Trenton was arrested and charged with stealing $23,000 from his employer and losing it all at Hollywood Slots.

A 41-year old woman was sentenced to three years in prison for stealing $43,000 from elderly patients at a Bangor facility where she worked and gambling it away at Hollywood Slots.

A Portland apartment manager was charged with stealing $260,000 from tenants and gambling it away at Hollywood Slots and other gambling venues.

In addition, the story of a woman in her mid-50s who lost more than $100,000 at Hollywood Slots, drained her pension fund and jeopardized her marriage after becoming addicted to the slot machines found its way into Legislative debates over expanded gambling.

A decorated soldier committed suicide following a gambling binge at Hollywood Slots, an incident that led to the introduction of legislation in Congress to ban slot machines at US military installations.

Addiction: More than 100 people have voluntarily placed their names on a “self-exclusion list,” giving the management of Hollywood Slots permission to kick them out if their addiction compels them to show up to gamble.

And while the state continues to maintain that few people are calling its gambling hotline, calls from Maine to the National Gambling Addiction Hotline have soared - from just 118 in 2004 to over 1,000 last year.

“If Hollywood Slots has helped the economy, where’s the evidence,” Bailey asked. “There’s no question that some people are getting rich, but it’s not players at the casino, residents of Bangor or the state of Maine.”

A Dead Industry!

Race tracks are dead!
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Across the country, they're being bailed out with slot machines, those electronic ATM machines that enrich investors.

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In Indiana, first they got slots at tracks (racinos), then they got a state bailout.

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In Here We Go Again!, I wrote --

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Commenting on handicapped access to the track, Carney, owner of the Raynham Dog Track said -
The park has not received one complaint about handicap access, Carney said. “Most of our client base is elderly nowadays, so we have to be able to get them in there,” he said.

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Only in Massachusetts do we not see the handwriting.

Proponents at dead race tracks argue about jobs, failing to heed the Twin River's experience.

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Lincoln voters said NO to 24/7 hours of operation.

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What did they get when Rhode Island confronted the loss of gambling revenues to which the state is addicted? 24/7

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The Brockton Enterprise included this comment --

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If slots were approved, as per Flynn’s bill, the law would allow the machines to be installed after 90 days — pending approval in a town meeting vote.
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Judging from the experience in Rhode Island, no commitment, no assurance and no guarantee matters. The Massachusetts dog tracks will be closed on December 30, 2009. Slot parlors do not require as many employees.

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Those that are employed are primarily low wage workers, with no opportunity for advancement, no transferable skills.

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[Rep. Slots] Flynn has estimated the state would reap $700 million from slots in their first year and $400 million annually thereafter, but since the economy has continued slumping, he has backed off any firm figure.


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Last week, Rhode Island gambling hall and greyhound track Twin River filed for bankruptcy protection.
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The company that owns the “racino” asked the state legislature there to allow it to unload dog racing from its license obligations, calling it a money-loser, but lawmakers rejected the request, the Pawtucket Times reported.
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Regardless of the bravado of the RI legislature, the final outcome of the bankruptcy filing remains to be determined by a federal bankruptcy judge.

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Maybe we should give this some serious thought before we jump into the sinking ship of a dead industry.

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One must wonder if it was simply a misstatement to announce the Hearing for slots bill AT Raynham dog track likely in September -- AT the Raynham Dog Track?

Massachusetts Budget: Difficult Choices

MBPC offered an overview of the Conference Committee budget (click on link for the full analysis):

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Seeking to close a $5 billion budget gap, the legislative Conference Committee crafted a budget that will require sacrifices across the board. The budget includes cuts that will limit access to health care, reduce public employee benefits, and decrease funding for public education, human services, public health, public safety protection, environmental protection, and virtually every other area of state government. To avoid cutting even further into public services that affect the quality of life of people in the Commonwealth, the Conference Committee budget also includes a sales tax increase (to 6.25 percent), an expansion of the sales tax to alcohol purchases, and a modest reduction in the tax subsidies provided to movie producers. While these tax increases restore only a portion of the tax reductions of the past decade,1 they will help to strengthen the state’s long term fiscal stability.
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From Dan Bosley's Blog.
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From the community forums I attended, the sales tax increase was the most widely accepted method of closing the budget gap. (And I heard no objection to the proposed "junk food" tax that wasn't included.) There was also widespread support for moving toward a graduated state income tax which would require a constitutional amendment. As Rep. Bosley points out, a gasoline sales tax increase will more severely impact the western portion of the state that lacks alternative transportation. Maybe there's a way to tweak that during the next session to fund road repairs that were neglected during previous administrations.

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It would be anticipated that Beacon Hill will now do the hard work of much needed "reforms" before jumping on the quick fix and false hopes that slot machines will save the day. Maybe Beacon Hill might even find the time to do their homework about the "Fool's Gold" of casino gambling. Maybe Beacon Hill will allow racetracks to die a peaceful death and not duplicate the mistakes other states have already made.

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One can only hope wisdom prevails!

Reform? Where is it?

November 2008, Massachusetts voters supported a ballot question to eliminate greyhound racing in the state, effectively closing Wonderland Greyhound Racetrack in Revere and the Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park. The vote was supported statewide by 55% of voters.

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Senator Pacheco (D, Taunton) introduced legislation --
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The plan would have allowed the tracks to add 2,500 slot machines each, which could have brought in new revenue to help cities and towns offset cuts to local aid.

"You have a local aid vote before you right now," said Senator Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat and chief proponent of the proposal. "Here it is."
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Insert Big sigh!
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This isn't simple!

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Kudos to the Senate that at least wisdom prevailed .......... for now!
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Rosenberg has .... said it would take at least 12 months from the time a law was signed before the state would start reaping any revenue from slot machines.

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Rosenberg's words seem to convey that there is no reason for haste and last minute efforts to push through legislation. That also means, predatory gambling is no solution to this year's budget crisis.

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Legislators, including Senator Pacheco need to listen.

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At the Governor's Forum on Monday, which Senator Pacheco attended, voters offered suggestions.

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Senator, I think you may not have heard some of what was said because your mind is already made up.

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When I spoke up, I explained that Twin River in Rhode Island had defaulted and is on the verge of bankruptcy. Some speculate that it is a ploy on their part to increase hours and reduce their tax commitment, but that's not my place to speculate. (They are the investors who have a contract with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to develop a Mega Casino in Middleboro.)

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The State of Indiana, in an effort to save their dead race tracks, supported slot machines at the tracks and then bailed out the racinos.

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Some might say Time For A Natural Death.

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Senator, you indicated that the problem with Twin River was the economic downturn.

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Is Raynham somehow immune from that downturn?

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Senator, It's time for legislators to do the difficult work of reinventing government, streamlining the process, eliminating duplication and overlap and correcting the mistakes. It's not time to toss out flawed solutions, like Fool's Gold.

Keep up on BMG

Triple Crown of Cruelty

Although the current Massachusetts discussion about bailing out race tracks has mostly surrounded the recent ballot question that outlaws greyhound racing, ignored is horse racing.

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Since it's something I've never watched and is fading in interest among the population, I've mostly ignored it.

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Recently, I found the following articles that make me wonder why the Commonwealth would seek to preserve the tracks --

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The Triple Crown of Cruelty
posted by: Heather Moore
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Another Kentucky Derby week has ended in tragedy. Two young horses, Raspberry Kiss and Dr. Rap, were involved in a collision; Raspberry Kiss broke her hip and had to be euthanized. Soon after, Stormalogy, the projected American Turf winner, fractured his leg and was euthanized. On race day, Derby favorite, I Want Revenge, was found with an injured ankle and was scratched from the race. Projected winner Friesan Fire had part of his hoof ripped off right after the race began; yet was raced for the entire course anyway, bleeding all the way. (Not surprisingly, Friesan Fire was ridden by Gabriel Saez, the same jockey who unmercilessly whipped Eight Belles until she crossed the finish line and collapsed in last year's Derby.)

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One would think that after all the injuries and deaths that have occurred in the Derby— and in horseracing in general—horse trainers, owners, and jockeys would finally hang up their reigns and admit that the so-called sport is unsporting. Instead, they're heading to the next leg of the Triple Crown: The Preakness, which takes place this weekend in Maryland. After that, they'll travel to New York for the Belmont Stakes.

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Growing up in Baltimore, about 20 minutes from Pimlico Race Track, where the Preakness is run, I was surrounded by race-day celebrations and festivities every year. Back then, it seemed like harmless fun. But horse racing is anything but harmless. Most horses used by the racing industry are raced too young, too often, and on hard surfaces that practically guarantee breakdowns.

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Veterinarians routinely give injured and ailing horses drugs like Lasix (which controls bleeding in the lungs), phenylbutazone (an anti-inflammatory), and cortiscosteroids (for pain and inflammation) in order to keep them racing for as long as possible. While legal, these drugs can also mask pain or make a horse run faster. Eventually, the horses succumb to the pain, often collapsing right on the racetrack. While the horse racing industry has made some basic reforms since Eight Belles died— and steroids have been banned in the Triple Crown states—the use of drugs to keep ill and injured horses on the track is still legal.

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An executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium has also said that there "could be thousands" of illegal drugs used in the horse racing industry. Rick Dutrow Jr., the trainer of Big Brown, the horse who won the 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, has been fined every year since 2000 for a horse doping situation. In 2003, one of his horses tested positive for an illegal analgesic. Although Dutrow has been suspended various times, ranging from 14 to 60 days, he is still allowed to compete, for some reason. I suspect it's because the horse racing industry doesn't really care about animal welfare—it cares about attracting crowds and turning huge profits. Drugs, injuries, and death are just "business as usual."

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The owner of a filly who suffered a heart attack and died mid-race at Pimlico said of the horse's death, "I guess that's part of the game." The sentiment was echoed by a general manager of Virginia's Colonial Downs, where five horses died within eight days in 2007. “We're upset when it happens,” he said, “but it's just part of the racing game.”

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In a commentary on the industry, a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News remarked, “It is not something they talk about much in their advertising, but horses die in this sport all the time—every day, every single day.” But unlike Eight Belles and Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby champion, who was euthanized after shattering his leg in the Preakness, these horses seldom make headlines. Their battered bodies are simply hidden from public view; often shipped to slaughter.

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PETA recently erected a headstone at Churchill Downs race track (where the Kentucky Derby is held) to represent the 12,000 “racehorses" who are sent to slaughter every year. PETA also placed 263 headstones to represent the known horses who have died on the track since last year's Kentucky Derby, one headstone for the approximately 832 other horses who have died but whose names are not known, and a special memorial to Eight Belles. (For details, see here.)

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One unnecessary death is unacceptable. More than 13,000 a year is absolutely outrageous. I cannot fathom why fans still support the Triple Crown and other horse races. In baseball, the Triple Crown is awarded to a batter who leads the league in home runs, runs batted in, and batting average. Unlike the Triple Crown in horse racing, this feat is achieved without whips or drugs (ostensibly) and the player voluntarily participates in the sport. That is how all sports should be.

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If thousands and thousands of baseball or football players died every year, there would be a deafening outcry. We must not remain silent about all the horses who've suffered and died during the Triple Crown and other horse races every year. People can help stop horse racing—and horse slaughter—by refusing to patronize horse races, working to ensure that racing regulations are reformed and enforced, lobbying against the construction of new tracks, and educating others about the tragic lives that the horses lead. To learn more, read PETA’s factsheet on horse racing.

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It's time for the Triple Crown to take place in baseball only.
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Read more: animal welfare
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LINK

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The Horseracing Industry: Drugs, Deception and Death

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They weigh at least 1,000 pounds, they have legs that are supported by ankles the size of a human’s, and they’re forced to run around dirt tracks at speeds of more than 30 miles per hour while carrying people on their backs.(1)

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Racehorses are the victims of a multibillion-dollar industry that is rife with drug abuse, injuries, and race fixing, and many horses’ careers end in slaughterhouses. A New York Daily News reporter remarked, “The thoroughbred race horse is a genetic mistake. It runs too fast, its frame is too large, and its legs are far too small. As long as mankind demands that it run at high speeds under stressful conditions, horses will die at racetracks.”(2)

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The Starting GateRacehorses can cost millions of dollars and are often purchased by syndicates, which may be composed of thousands of members.(3,4)

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There are also trainers, handlers, veterinarians, and jockeys involved, so a horse is rarely able to develop any kind of bond with one person or with other horses. Racehorses travel from country to country, state to state, and racetrack to racetrack, so few horses are able to call one place “home.” Most do not end up in the well-publicized races but are instead trucked, shipped, or flown to the thousands of other races that take place all over the country every year.

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Racing to the Grave

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Horses begin training or are already racing when their skeletal systems are still growing and are unprepared to handle the pressures of running on a hard track at high speeds.(5)

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Improved medical treatment and technological advancements have done little to remedy the plight of the racehorse. One study on injuries at racetracks concluded that one horse in every 22 races suffered an injury that prevented him or her from finishing a race, while another estimates that 800 thoroughbreds die each year in North America because of injuries.(6)

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Strained tendons or hairline fractures can be tough for veterinarians to diagnose, and the damage may go from minor to irreversible at the next race or workout. Horses do not handle surgery well, as they tend to be disoriented when coming out of anesthesia, and they may fight casts or slings, possibly causing further injury. Many are euthanized in order to save the owners further veterinary fees and other expenses on horses who can’t race again.

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Given the huge investment that owning a horse requires, reported one Kentucky newspaper, “simply sending one to pasture, injured or not, is not an option all owners are willing to consider.”(7)

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Care for a single racehorse can cost as much as $50,000 per year.(8)

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When popular racehorse Barbaro suffered a shattered ankle at the beginning of the 2006 Preakness, his owners spared no expense for his medical needs, but as The New York Times reported, “[M]any in the business have noted that had Barbaro not been the winner of the Kentucky Derby, he might have been destroyed after being injured.”(9)

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Compare Barbaro’s story to that of Magic Man, who stepped into an uneven section of a track and broke both front legs during a race at Saratoga Race Course. His owner had bought him for $900,000, yet the horse hadn’t earned any money yet and—unproven on the track—wasn’t worth much as a stud, so he was euthanized.(10)

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Eight Belles suffered a similar fate when she broke both her front ankles after crossing the finish line in the 2008 Kentucky Derby.(11)

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Joseph Dirico, the owner of a filly who suffered a heart attack and died mid-race at Pimlico only days after the Preakness, said of her death, “I guess that’s part of the game.”(12)

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That sentiment was echoed by the general manager of Virginia’s Colonial Downs, where five horses died within eight days.(13)

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“We're upset when it happens,” he said, “but it's just part of the racing game."(14)

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At least six horses died at the track the year before.(15)

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Drugs and Deception“Finding an American racehorse trained on the traditional hay, oats, and water probably would be impossible,” commented one reporter.(16)

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Many racehorses become addicted to drugs when their trainers and even veterinarians give them drugs to keep them on the track when they shouldn’t be racing.

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There are trainers pumping horses full of illegal drugs every day,” says a former Churchill Downs public relations director.(17)

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“With so much money on the line, people will do anything to make their horses run faster.” Which drugs are legal varies from state to state, with Kentucky holding the reputation as the most lenient state.(18)

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The New York Sun explained that because “thoroughbreds are bred for flashy speed and to look good in the sales ring … the animal itself has become more fragile” and that “to keep the horses going,” they’re all given Lasix (which controls bleeding in the lungs), phenylbutazone (an anti-inflammatory), and cortiscosteroids (for pain and inflammation).(19)

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Those drugs, although legal, can also mask pain or make a horse run faster. Labs cannot detect all the illegal drugs out there, of which there “could be thousands,” says the executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium.(20)

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Morphine, which can keep a horse from feeling any pain from an injury, was suspected in the case of Be My Royal, who won a race while limping.(21)

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Rick Dutrow, the trainer of 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, openly admits to giving his horses Winstrol, a steroid that is illegal for equine use in 10 states, although not in the three that host the Triple Crown. Before it was banned in Pennsylvania, nearly 1,000 horses were tested for steroids and more than 60 percent tested positive. Big Brown’s veterinarian concedes that “without steroids, they’d lose some horses that can’t keep up the pace and race every three weeks or every month.”(22)

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Even the ‘Winners’ LoseFew racehorses are retired to pastures for pampering and visits from caring individuals.

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An insurance scandal cost the life of Alydar, who came in second in all three races of the 1978 Triple Crown and fathered many fast horses. After being retired from racing in order to serve as a stud at a Kentucky farm, Alydar was originally believed to have shattered his leg by kicking a stall door and was euthanized when he wasn’t able to maintain a splint.(24)

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Ten years later, an FBI investigation revealed that his leg was deliberately broken when it was tied by a rope to a pickup truck.(25)

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Ferdinand, a Derby winner and Horse of the Year in 1987, was retired to Claiborne Farms and then changed hands at least twice before being “disposed of” in Japan; a reporter covering the story concluded, “No one can say for sure when and where Ferdinand met his end, but it would seem clear he met it in a slaughterhouse.”(26)

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Exceller, a million-dollar racehorse who was inducted into the National Racing Museum’s Hall of Fame, was killed at a Swedish slaughterhouse.(27)

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Although there are currently no equine slaughterhouses in the U.S., there is still a multimillion-dollar horsemeat export industry that sends tens of thousands of horses every year to Canada, Mexico, and Japan for slaughter.(28,29)

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One Colorado State University study found that of 1,348 horses sent to slaughter, 58 were known to be former racehorses.(30)

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Most horses who are sent to those facilities are forced to endure days of transport in cramped trailers.(31)

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Usually, there is no access to water or food, and injuries are common: A University of California, Davis, study of 306 horses destined for slaughter found that 60 of them sustained injuries during transport.(32)

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While veterinarians recommend that horses be offloaded for food and water every four hours while traveling, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows horses to be shipped for 28 hours without a break.(33)

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Horses are subject to the same method of slaughter as cows, but since horses are generally not accustomed to being herded, they tend to thrash about in order to avoid the pneumatic gun that is supposed to render them unconscious before their throats are cut.(34)

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What You Can Do

In a commentary on the racing industry, a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News remarked, “It is not something they talk about much in their advertising, but horses die in this sport all the time—every day, every single day.”(35)

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Help phase out this exploitative “sport”: Refuse to patronize existing tracks, work to ensure that racing regulations are reformed and enforced, lobby against the construction of new tracks, and educate your friends and family members about the tragic lives that racehorses lead.

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References

1) Ted Miller, “Six Recent Horse Deaths at Emerald Downs Spark Concern,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 8 May 2001.

2) Bill Finley, “Sadly, No Way to Stop Deaths,” New York Daily News 10 Jun. 1993.

3) Sherry Ross, “Fans Are Buying In,” Daily News 1 Jun. 2003.

4) “The Odds Are You’ll Lose: Owning a Racehorse,” Financial Times 1 Feb. 2003.

5) Glenn Robertson Smith, “Why Racehorses Are Cracking Up,” The Age (Australia) 15 Nov. 2002.

6) Miller.

7) Tim Reynolds, “Technology Can’t Prevent Horse Injuries,” The Lexington Herald-Leader 30 Aug. 2001.

8) Andrew Beyer, “A Beyer’s Guide for Racehorses,” The Washington Post 3 Jun. 2003.

9) William C. Rhoden, “An Unknown Filly Dies, and the Crowd Just Shrugs,” The New York Times 25 May 2006.

10) Rhoden.

11) Associated Press, “Runner-Up Eight Belles Breaks Front Ankles, Euthanized on Track,” 3 May 2008.

12) Reynolds.

13) John Packett, “Track Trauma: Sesamoid Bone Injuries Are Common and a Leading Cause of Death at Colonial Downs,” Richmond Times-Dispatch 19 Jul. 2007.

14) John Packett, “Four Horses Die in Five Days at Downs,” Richmond Times-Dispatch 8 Jul. 2007.

15) Packett, “Four Horses Die in Five Days at Downs.”

16) John Scheinman, “Horses, Drugs Are Racing’s Daily Double; No Uniform Policy in Industry,” The Washington Post 27 Apr. 2003.

17) Alex Straus, “Dark Horses,” Maxim May 2002.

18) Janet Patton, “HBPA Proposes Uniform Policy on Drugs in Racing; Horsemen’s Group Targets Maze of State Rules,” The Lexington Herald-Leader 17 Oct. 2001.

19) Max Watman, “So Far, So Good for Barbaro,” The New York Sun 21 May 2006.

20) Scheinman.

21) Peat Bee, “Cut the Poppycock and Treat Drugs With Horse Sense,” The Guardian 13 Jan. 2003.

22) Bill Finley, “In Horse Racing, Test of Beefed-Up Champions,” The New York Times 2 Jun. 2008.

23) “Trainer, Vet Charged in Trotter’s Death,” Associated Press, 22 Apr. 2001.

24) Straus.

25) Skip Hollandsworth, “The Killing of Alydar,” Texas Monthly Jun. 2001.

26) Straus.

27) Barbara Bayer, “1986 Kentucky Derby Winner Ferdinand Believed to Have Been Slaughtered in Japan,” The Blood-Horse Magazine 26 Jul. 2003.

28) Allen G. Breed, “And What of the Spent Racehorse?” Associated Press, 25 Nov. 1999.

29) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Horsemeat Slaughtered/Prod Animals (Head),” 2006.

30) Gerard Shields, “Landrieu Bill Backs Horses. Senate Bill Would Ban Consumption Slaughter,” The Advocate 9 Jul. 2007.

31) K. McGee et al., “Characterizations of Horses at Auctions and in Slaughter Plants,” Colorado State University Department of Animal Sciences, 2001.

32) Todd J. Gillman, “Judge Won’t Stop Slaughterhouses; Appeal Weighed,” The Dallas Morning News 14 Mar. 2006.

33) C.L. Stull, “Responses of Horses to Trailer Design, Duration, and Floor Area During Commercial Transportation to Slaughter,” Journal of Animal Science 77 (1999): 2925-33.

34) Josh Harkinson, “Horse Flesh: Texas Struggles With What to Do with Its Overabundance of Equus caballus While Europeans Wait With Open Mouths,” Houston Press 13 Apr. 2006.

35) Kris Axtman, “Horse-Meat Sales Stir Texas Controversy,” Christian Science Monitor 28 Apr. 2003.

36) Rich Hofmann, “Racing Brings Up the Rear in Safety,” Philadelphia Daily News 23 May 2006.
http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=65
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Maybe it's time to allow the race tracks to die a quiet and reasonable death without pretending we need their business.

The Handwriting Is There

Friend and fellow blogger at Carl's Casino Quotes wrote about Indiana in A Match Made In Casinos on Thursday, February 19, 2009. In it, he included an article that is no longer archived at MSNBC about Indiana panel approves tax breaks for 3 casinos.

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The text of the full article is below, but in view of Treasurer Cahill's proposal, it would seem we need to do some fact gathering of the experiences of other states instead of continuing to accept the one-sided presentation of casino interests, including the paid casino mouth piece, Clyde Barrows.

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With all due respect, Treasurer Cahill has overstated the revenues and understated the expenses, but that's another post.

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What is striking about Indiana's experience are the similarities of the scenarios.

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The rosy scenario of a guaranteed revenue stream -

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A House [in Indiana] committee approved a bill to give temporary tax breaks to three Indiana casinos, including new ones at the state's two pari-mutuel horse tracks.

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Advocates said the casinos are struggling and

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need help to stay in business

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The same bogus argument of bailing out race tracks --

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Track officials said revenue from the slots was needed to keep their tracks and the horse racing in Indiana viable

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[a casino lobbyist said his client was] under severe financial distress and was paying high interest for loans it obtained to pay the slot licensing fees. He also said the track and the state had misjudged revenue projections from the slots.
"Quite frankly, the tracks blew it and so did the state," ....

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Indiana overstated revenues.

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Treasurer Cahill overstated revenues.

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First Indiana bailed out tracks. Then they bailed out slot parlors.

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Massachusetts is proposing slots to bail out tracks. Will we follow the same path?

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The handwriting is on the wall for all to see.

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All of this is before we discuss the impacts that aren't included, the construction jobs that are overstated, the cost of addiction (gambling's dirty little secret they don't want you to discuss) and the expenses that are understated.

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Massachusetts has been a wise trend-setter in many areas. Let's continue to be so and not follow the pack of casino lobbyists.

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By MIKE SMITH
updated 12:16 p.m. ET, Tues., Feb. 17, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS - A House committee approved a bill to give temporary tax breaks to three Indiana casinos, including new ones at the state's two pari-mutuel horse tracks.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted 17-7 Monday night for a bill to give tax breaks on wagering revenue for Blue Chip Casino on Lake Michigan, and casinos at Hoosier Park in Anderson and Indiana Live at Shelbyville. The bill now goes to the full House for consideration.
Advocates said the casinos are struggling and need help to stay in business. Critics said many other businesses in the state are facing hard times in the sagging economy, and it was not fair to single out the casinos for special favor.


The General Assembly passed legislation in 2007 allowing Hoosier Park and Indiana Live — then called Indiana Downs — 2,000 slot machines each at their pari-mutuel venues.
Track officials said revenue from the slots was needed to keep their tracks and the horse racing in Indiana viable, and they agreed to pay $250 million each over two years to get the slots, as well as spend at least $100 million each to build the new casinos. The state imposed a graduated tax on revenue from slots at the so-called "racinos," which opened last summer.
Under the bill, tax rates on the slot revenue at the tracks would be cut 5 percentage points for each of the next five years, reducing their combined annual tax liability by about $18 million per year.
John Keeler, a lobbyist for Hoosier Park, said its parent company, Centaur LLC, was under severe financial distress and was paying high interest for loans it obtained to pay the slot licensing fees. He also said the track and the state had misjudged revenue projections from the slots.
"Quite frankly, the tracks blew it and so did the state," he said.
The bill also would provide a $15 million tax deduction to Blue Chip for one year, to be phased down and out over five years. The deduction is projected to cost the state about $5 million in lost tax revenue the first year and less in subsequent years, said Democratic Rep. Scott Pelath of Michigan City, the bill's author.
Blue Chip's business has taken a hit since the opening of the Four Winds casino in Michigan, which opened in August 2007 about 10 miles from Blue Chip and is owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. Blue Chip saw its monthly revenue fall from $26.7 million in July 2007 to $16.1 million a year later — a decline of nearly 40 percent.
Ryan Soultz, a lobbyist representing Blue Chip, said the tax deductions would allow the casino to enhance its marketing efforts and draw more customers.
Several lawmakers who voted for the bill said they did so with reservations, but said casino revenue was important to the state — especially during this recession — and they wanted to keep the bill alive in some form.
Rep. Randy Borror, R-Fort Wayne, said the bill sent a wrong message to other businesses that were struggling. He was among the seven who voted against the bill.

Move On!

Voters expressed their concern that Question 1, the Income Tax Repeal would be supported by voters and those dastardly legislators would ignore it or instead find some way around it. Instead, we find local legislators chomping at the bit [pun intended] to undo Question 3.

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Fellow blogger at Carl's Casino Quotes points out the defeat of gambling in Maine and Ohio. Question 3 seems pretty close to a referendum on GAMBLING and Massachusetts voters said NO.

Prior to the vote, State Sen. Marc R. Pacheco, D-Taunton, said he fears the ballot will be decided by voters “way up in Newton somewhere or Weston,” which he says is “unfair.”

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So, who better to determine whether we, as a Commonwealth will continue to support Greyhound Racing? And the potential of future slot machines? And since those voters in Newton and Weston will absorb the social costs of GAMBLING, who better to vote on the issue? Shall we just restrict the vote to George Carney and the Mashpee Wampanoags?

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Not content to abide by the voters' mandate, Rep. Flynn added:

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A bill to introduce slots at all Massachusetts racetracks has twice failed, but state Rep. David L. Flynn, D-Bridgewater, has vowed to introduce the bill again in January.

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So, now Rep. Flynn proposes that this bill should be a three time looser?
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“It’s not doing as well as it once did, but that’s only because we haven’t allowed them to compete,” said state Sen. Marc R. Pacheco, D-Taunton.

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By 'allowing them to compete' the Senator means SLOT MACHINES - those wildly profitable devices -- profitable for the owners/investors designed and programmed to pay out periodic small amounts to keep you feeding in your coins until they're gone. The House always wins!

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As fellow blogger Bellicose Bumpkin pointed out, SCOTUS appears about to undo Indian Gaming.

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Senator, the issue isn't one of competing, but one of GAMBLING. Other states are voting NO and the Commonwealth said NO. Voters are becoming less willing to support the social costs of GAMBLING. Voters are becoming more savvy. GAMBLING is not an economic engine.

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If Senator Pacheco and Rep. Flynn devoted as much time to finding alternative businesses as they have in the past to support GAMBLING, this would be a non-issue.

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Newton and Weston have spoken. Now move on!