Mass. lawmakers weigh expanded gambling deal calling for 3 casinos, 2 slot parlors

Mass. lawmakers weigh 3 casinos, 2 slot parlors

BOSTON — House and Senate negotiators moved Friday to resolve their dispute over expanded gambling in Massachusetts, sitting down to work out the details of a proposal calling for the addition of three casinos, plus two slot machine parlors bid upon by the state’s four existing racetrack owners, three officials said.

“All will be illuminated in time,” said Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat who has been leading negotiations on behalf of the Senate. While refusing to confirm the details provided by the Statehouse officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the private negotiations, Rosenberg said: “There was some progress on some substance and a lot of drafting; then we took a break.”

He defended the decision to release the bill just before the Legislature adjourns for the year on Saturday, giving lawmakers and the public just hours to review it before it comes to a final vote.

“Virtually everything that will be in a final bill has been discussed ad nauseam, actually some of it for years,” Rosenberg said. “There are going to be no surprises in this.”

A plan to create both casinos and slot parlors would be a major victory for House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who has fought for slots as a way to save jobs at the four dying racetracks and to provide financially ailing cities and towns an infusion of cash.

Two of the tracks, Suffolk Downs and Wonderland, are in the Democrat’s Winthrop-based district, and DeLeo’s father formerly worked at Suffolk.

It also would be a defeat for Gov. Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray, both of whom opposed slots, leading to questions about whether such a proposal can be enacted to law.

Both leaders have said slots would undercut the licensing fees and job creation potential for the resort-style casinos. Murray also has faced a practical concern: She may not be able to muster the Senate votes to approve the bill if it contains slots.

With the Legislature set to adjourn for the year at midnight Saturday, Patrick offered to break the logjam Thursday by declaring he would support no more than one slot parlor, competitively bid upon, if the House and Senate acted upon his other remaining key legislative priorities. Two parlors, bid upon by the limited universe of four racetrack owners, would not appear to meet his requirements.

“I’m at one. Period,” he told reporters Friday at a bill signing in Cambridge.

Gambling opponents complained about even that concession, saying it betrayed Patrick’s past statements about the social costs and job concerns attached to slot parlors.

“It is beyond disappointing that this ‘different kind of leader’ would abandon such core values and core supporters to make a deal in this election year in such an obvious, old-school Beacon Hill quid pro quo,” said former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, the Democrats’ 1998 gubernatorial nominee.

Bob Massie, vice president of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts, said: “Racinos, as the governor said, are no-bid contracts in which particular private individuals will make millions of dollars off of government support and off the backs of the working class.”

Senate Republican Leader Richard Tisei, running for lieutenant governor with GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker, said the proposal offered “way too much, way too quickly.”

He and Baker favor one casino, whose operation could be examined before additional venues might be created.

“I don’t think that the revenue and jobs numbers that they’re talking about right now are really real, and we’re not going to really know until we start moving ahead with this, and that’s why it’s good to do one and see what happens,” said Tisei.

Yet the governor is under heavy pressure from labor unions to approve a bill, since they believe expanded gambling could create up to 15,000 jobs.

In addition to arguing that slot parlors could help struggling municipalities, advocates argue that placing them at racetracks would avoid possible neighborhood objections over new gambling sites.

Senate Ways and Means Chairman Steven Panagiotakos said his top goal was not the governor, but “trying to make sure we have a bill that can pass both branches of the Legislature.”