The debate over Massachusetts casino gambling has provoked calls a return to traditional Puritan values from opponents of flashy, big-time gaming, but area professors say the real argument boils down to nothing more than money.
Last week, Gov. Deval Patrick announced a proposal to build three resort casinos in Massachusetts, including one that would be in the Boston area.
Though Patrick said casino gambling would benefit the state by generating as many as 20,000 permanent jobs and billions of dollars in revenue, many activists have opposed the plan because they say it will lead to an increase of gambling addictions and other social ills.
Area professors have met Patrick’s proposal with a cautious response, expressing concern about finding other ways to generate revenue for the state.
“I’m sure it will create some jobs for our graduates and internships for our students,” said School of Hospitality professor Stanley Buchin. “There tends to be a positive job benefit but it needs to be handled pretty carefully.”
Buchin said the University of Nevada has one of the best hospitality programs in the nation because of its unique access to resort casinos, adding casinos could improve the quality of Boston University’s hospitality program.
While he said legalized gambling could become a burden on the state’s highway and transportation system, he questioned whether casinos would actually create many gambling problems since other gambling opportunities already exist.
“It’s that rush that gives people a thrill, but it’s also easy to get hooked on it,” he said. “[But] if someone is already hooked on gambling, then there are already outlets for that.”
BU associate psychology professor Tibor Palfai said he is concerned the new casinos will spur more gambling addictions.
“If you increase accessibility or availability of a variety of different types of addictions of food or gambling, you’re going to increase the number of people who engage in and the number of people who get addicted to it as well,” Palfai said.
Wellesley College psychology professor Paul Wink said casino gambling could lure organized crime or drug rings to the area.
“Gambling is associated with poor impulse control,” Wink said. “If you have individuals with poor impulse control in one part of their life, some of them will associate with industries that come in to capitalize on this.
“It’s then a moral dilemma if we should benefit from people in a population that is vulnerable, and a lot of people who gamble excessively are vulnerable,” he continued.
Wink said another main issue is how much revenue casinos will actually produce and the effect it will have on state taxes.
“You can either generate revenue by raising taxes, or, because people don’t like that idea, governments have been going to other sources and certainly gambling is one source,” Wink said. “The issue is – what are the alternatives? I think that people who object on moral grounds also don’t want their taxes raised.”
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