REVERE - Months after two local racetracks set the stage for a merger they hope will bring a casino to Revere, City Councilor George Rotondo wants voters to weigh in on the idea.
Rotondo proposed placing a question on the city's fall election ballot asking residents if they want casino gambling introduced at Suffolk Downs racetrack. The question would include a description in favor of the proposal touting its revenue-raising potential and an opposing view stressing the potential adverse traffic impact of a local casino as well as the addiction risk of gambling.
He is seeking colleagues' support for the plan at a time when a smaller scale proposal to add slot machines to tracks has the support of new Massachusetts House Speaker and local legislator Robert DeLeo.
Owners of Wonderland Greyhound Park and Suffolk Downs signed an agreement six months ago setting the stage for local casino development by giving Suffolk the option to purchase Wonderland.
Under the pact, both tracks will remain separately owned and operated while, according to a joint statement issued by their owners announcing the partnership, "they work collaboratively to expand the gaming and entertainment opportunities available to their patrons."
The agreement's timing and the prospect of local support for casinos is important because a referendum question approved by voters last November ends dog racing at Wonderland in 2010. The track employs 350 workers and uses only a fraction of its cavernous track complex for live racing and simulcast racing. Suffolk principal shareholder Richard Fields has pumped money into the East Boston-Revere track since acquiring it in 2007, and made the transition of the track to a resort-style casino his top goal.
Rotondo's suggestion also comes two weeks after Massachusetts residents surveyed by the State House News Service indicated they would welcome revival of Gov. Deval Patrick's plan to bring casinos to the state.
By a 57 to 38 margin, asked "Do you think Governor Patrick should or should not try again to win passage of legislation legalizing casino gambling in Massachusetts?" residents said he should. Residents consistently favor legalization of slot machines and casinos in Massachusetts, but in this poll respondents endorsed not just the idea of casinos, but the idea that Patrick should propose them again.Patrick was thwarted by the House last year in his high-profile effort to raise revenue by allowing casinos. Plans for racetrack slot machines also faltered last year. This year, he spurned the notion he might try again for casinos, but the calculation around that decision shifted dramatically several weeks ago when DeLeo replaced former Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a staunch gaming opponent.
A few weeks ago, Patrick made his lack of enthusiasm for another attempt clear: "I'm not going to file something that isn't going anywhere," he said, knowing that any proposal would fail under DiMasi. But in the wake of the change in speakers, combined with a gambling-tolerant Senate, the administration sounded a more amenable note.
Patrick's communications director, Joseph Landolfi said the poll "clearly shows the residents of Massachusetts recognize the potential, the economic and job development potential, of casino gaming. The governor's position on gaming was not about gaming per se but always about economic development and job creation."Landolfi said neither the poll nor the emergence of DeLeo will cause Patrick to fall over himself getting a new gaming bill in front of the House. "He'll be speaking with, and listening to, both the Speaker and the Senate president" about what's now possible, Landolfi said.
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