AUBURN — Ed Barrett led with jobs. Dennis Bailey closed with suicides.
The Lewiston city administrator and the longtime casino opponent squared off Thursday over Question 3 at an Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce breakfast, debating the pros and cons of gambling.
Voters statewide will decide Nov. 8 whether to approve a $100 million casino project in Lewiston.
Measured by applause, the capacity crowd at the Hilton Garden Inn seemed receptive to both men.
Barrett estimated that a casino developed by Great Falls Recreation and Redevelopment LLC and a to-be-named partner could bring 300 to 500 jobs with a pay range of $28,000 to $32,000. It could mean $1 million to $2 million in payments to Lewiston, with another $1.4 million to $2.8 million collected in property taxes.
Barrett, Bangor’s former city administrator, said the Hollywood Slots racino in that city has had a $200 million direct and indirect economic impact in that area, without adding a significant strain on the city's budget.
“Importantly, the culture of the community has not changed,” he said.
Lewiston-Auburn could benefit from the new development, Barrett told the crowd.
“I feel like I’m in an alternative universe,” Bailey, the CasinosNo! spokesman, said, taking the mic. “I look at a casino and see the ultimate scam. You’re fleecing people.”
Question 3 wasn’t put on the ballot by a community demanding a casino, he said. It was put on the ballot by people hoping to make money.
The house, Bailey said, never loses.
When someone hits a large jackpot, “money isn’t falling out of the sky — it’s coming from the people who play,” he said. “You took the money out of the pocket of the little old lady sitting next to you.”
Barrett and Bailey disagreed on crime statistics in Bangor pre- and post-racino, any potential positive impacts on Lewiston’s downtown and how onerous traffic would be (a traffic study would come later, Barrett said.)
Maine has a racino in Bangor and a casino being built in Oxford. On Nov. 8, voters will decide whether to allow racinos in Biddeford and Washington County and a casino in Lewiston.
When someone asked Barrett whether five gaming establishments would saturate the market, he said that was a good question. It does invite uncertainty, he said. The approach would be “wait and see.”
Bailey said Canada studied the impact of video lottery machines and connected 350 suicides a year to that gaming activity.
If a drug-maker approached the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with the pitch, “‘It’s a wonderful drug; it will cause one suicide a day,’ you think that would go on the market?” Bailey said.
kskelton@sunjournal.com
Report a correction
Fact Checking Dennis Bailey...Suicide rates.
Having just spent a long week in the finger Lakes region, we drove back along the St. Lawrence waterway which runs through the Mohawk reservation.
The road was 'littered' with both open and closed 'smoke shops' and gas station trinket shops.....but didn't have that decayed look of say Indian Island or the reser. outside Eastport.
There were many Bingo parlors of varying vintages; and one new casino filled with slot machines and 'table games'. We stopped in for a Sunday buffet brunch and had a good look at the players.
I'd guess the average age was 60; many were from Canada, including a bus-load from Montreal.
Many of the workers were non-native; but the supervisers weren't.
Crime ridden? Probably the safest place in N. New York.
Suicides? According to the American Assoc. of Suicidology's fact sheet, given the age of players their suicide rate is consistent with the findings in the U.S.---I don't know what the rates are in Canada.
Elderly Suicide Fact Sheet
• The elderly made up 12.5% of the population; they accounted for almost 15.7% of all suicides.
• The rate of suicide for the elderly for 2007 was 14.3 per 100,000.
• There was one elderly suicide every 97 minutes. There were about 14.9 elderly suicides each day, resulting in 5,421 suicides in among those 65 and older.
• Elderly white men were at the highest risk with a rate of approximately 31.1 suicides per
100,000 each year.
• White men over the age of 85, who are labeled “old-old”, were at the greatest risk of all age-gender-race groups. In 2007, the suicide rate for these men was 45.42 per 100,000. That was 2.5 times the current rate for men of all ages (18.3 per 100,000).
• 84.4% of elderly suicides were male; the rate of male suicides in late life was 7.3 times greater than for female suicides.
W
- Permalink
- Is this comment inappropriate?
Kudos AwardedAgree (1)
Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.The transfer of wealth from
The transfer of wealth from primarily non-residents to local coffers is a concept I find favorable. As for sending profits out of state, that's no different than what goes on here every day when we shop at Hannaford, Shaws, , Wal-Mart, K-Mart/Sears, etc. The casino will create many unskilled labor job opportunities, but, if you look at how many unskilled workers can't find employment since our local manufacturing base has evaporated, that's not a bad thing, either. Tops on my list of favorable factors is that taxpayers don't have to share in the risk of the venture by putting tax dollars into the project. I don't know how much we'll win from this project, but I'm comfortable with the fact that we won't end up losing anything since we will not have invested anything.
- Permalink
- Is this comment inappropriate?
Kudos AwardedDisagree (1) Agree (6)
Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.The creation of wealth?
Gambling creates no more wealth than commodities trading or the stock market. What the three have in common is the transfer of wealth from one person or entity to another. Wealth is created by creating or producing good thereby enhancing the value of a resource.
As for jobs? HA!
Profits will flow toward developers and casino owners (out of state) and the highly skilled jobs will go - at least for the first few years - to trained (read NV or NJ) people. Mainers will get to make up beds and wait table. Meanwhile local taxpayers of towns surrounding casinos will have to deal with an influx of people from out of the area who will not being paying taxes for the roads or emergency services they use.
The only winners are sitting in Vegas laughing while they wait to rake in the pot.
The solution is obvious - if Maine wants to be Nevada East - open up the whole state to gambling.
- Permalink
- Is this comment inappropriate?
Kudos AwardedAgree (1) Disagree (3)
Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Finally someone has realize
Finally someone has realize that gambling in a casino is no different than gambling on Wall Street. Yet if you win in a casino, you're taxed at normal rates and are not allowed to deduct losses. But on Wall Street, if you're a winner, you're taxed at a marginal rate, and if you lose, you can deduct all of it. Now THAT is class warfare.
- Permalink
- Is this comment inappropriate?
Kudos AwardedDisagree (3) Agree (1)
Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.