Building and Trades Council Calls Casino Report 'Flawed'

The New Hampshire Building & Construction Trades Council is firing back following a report released last week that said casinos will not do as much for the state as has been advertised.

The report, which was released last Friday by the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, drew the ire of the state council for what the organization saw as the withholding of critical information in the report.

"The flaws inherent in the Center's analysis of expanded gambling have never been cleared," said Joe Casey, president of the NHBCTC. "Only after the report was released did the Center decide to acknowledge reality: that Massachusetts plans for gambling will cost New Hampshire at least $75 million a year if we do nothing, information that absolutely should have been included in their full report.

Casey called the gaming model used by the NHCPPS as "untested and unproven," saying that he has been waiting for elected leaders to seek out real data from real states that have similar casino gambling as being proposed in N.H.

Social costs were also a prevailing theme in the lengthy study released last week by the NHCPPS.

"If the Center is concentrated on making assumptions about social costs in New Hampshire it needs to follow through and at least demonstrate consistency in approach," said Casey. He added that no assessment of what the social impact would be on N.H. if Massachusetts implements a casino and the Granite State doesn't.

The study does have a paragraph dedicated to "unknown impacts and factors" that have not been estimated.

While the Massachusetts impact is excluded from the list of examples, other factors include the effect of expanded gambling on the N.H. tourist brand, private costs associated with pathological gambling and the benefit to the community where the facility is located in the form of increased property tax revenue.

Another frequent talking point surrounding Senate Bill 152, which would legalize expanded gambling, is job creation.

Last week's study says that many of the new jobs created by a casino would simply replace other jobs.