Tisei, McGee Split On Casino Bill

Sen. Richard Tisei, R-Wakefield, who represents Melrose Wards 1-5, said he voted against the Senate casino bill yesterday because of concerns over whether the market would support three casinos and the potential impact on restaurants and entertainment establishments.

The Massachusetts Senate voted Thursday night 25-15 in favor of licensing three resort-style casinos — one in western Massachusetts, one in southeastern Massachusetts and one in Greater Boston. Each casino would pay a one-time licensing fee of $75 million. Sen. Tom McGee, D-Lynn, who represents Melrose Wards 6-7, voted in favor of the bill. McGee could not be immediately reached for comment.

Two years ago, Tisei expressed support for Gov. Deval Patrick's initial casino proposal, which also included three casinos, but cast doubt on the governor's revenue projections.

On Friday, the senator said that he would prefer a "slower approach" to introducing casino gambling to Massachusetts.

"From an economic standpoint, you don't really know what the market can support and can't support," Tisei said.

As an example, he noted that both the House casino bill that passed in April — Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Melrose, voted in favor of that bill — and the Senate bill would ban smoking in Massachusetts casinos. Tisei said that a study commissioned by the Senate Ways and Means Committee said that the casinos could potentially lose close to $100 million in revenue — approximately 12 percent of projected revenue — with those smoking restrictions.

"If the whole idea is to get people to compete with (Connecticut casinos) Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, whether you like smoking or not, it's a fact that most casinos (allow smoking)," he said. "I don't think there are any casinos in the country that are smoke free. You're putting a casino in place that already is going to be at a competitive disadvantage versus Connecticut casinos."

Asked if he'd prefer the House casino bill that passed in April, which only authorizes two resort-style casino without location restrictions, but allows up to 3,000 slot machines — 750 at each of the state's two horse racing tracks and two former dog racing tracks — Tisei said the four tracks would "basically become betting parlors." The Senate bill and the governor's plan do not include slot machines.

"The whole question is about finding the right mix," he said. "Four slot parlors around plus three casinos — that's really a lot very quickly ... I couldn't tell you what's going to happen right now, but hopefully but they'll look at it in a comprehensive way."

Tisei added that legislators do not know what the impact of casinos would have on surrounding businesses, such as restaurants and entertainment venues.

"That's why I'm saying it's worth doing one, seeing what the impact is and then deciding whether we want to go forward (with more) or not," he said.

Legislators have until the end of the legislative session on July 31 to send a compromise bill to Patrick's desk.