Expanded gambling could hit close to home

RANDOLPH -- The Butts and Bets convenience store on Route 28 in Randolph usually draws a steady stream of Lottery players. After making their picks, many players drift to a long counter out front to scratch their tickets or await Keno results.

Grasping a Keno ticket one recent afternoon, Beverly Callahan of Randolph said she would be happy to see slot machines at the state's racetracks.

''Then you wouldn't have to go to Foxwoods -- like I do all the time," she said, referring to the popular Native American casino in eastern Connecticut.

Callahan and others who enjoy betting may not have to wait much longer for expanded options in Massachusetts. The Legislature is expected to consider bills this spring that would allow slot machines at the state's four racetracks, two of which are south of Boston; Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park in Raynham, and Plainridge Racecourse in Plainville, which features harness racing.

All bets are still off, but after a string of defeats in the Legislature, the odds of passage of some kind of expanded gambling legislation appear stronger.

A staunch gambling foe, now-retired House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran has been replaced by Salvatore F. DiMasi of the North End.

While DiMasi last year followed the House leadership in voting against allowing slot machines at tracks, his opposition has been muted this year, and he has indicated a willingness to let lawmakers decide key issues, rather than dictate outcomes in the style of his predecessors. Governor Mitt Romney has supported slot machines -- a category that includes various gaming devices, including video poker -- as a source of new revenue for the cash-strapped state.

Gambling backers also can cite a recent University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth study that concluded the state could capture $100 million now going annually to Rhode Island, where two betting venues, the Lincoln Park dog track and the Newport Grand casino, also offer slot machines.

''I think the votes are there unless leadership says no," said state Representative David L. Flynn, a Bridgewater Democrat whose district is home to the Raynham-Taunton track. ''I see a heightened interest in slots, not only to get the revenue, but to save the jobs that we have at the tracks."

State Representative Vinny M. deMacedo, a Plymouth Republican and an opponent of slot machines, said, ''My sense is that when you change the leadership, it clearly changes the dynamics. Ultimately, with the financial crisis we are facing, I think you are going to see people moving in the direction of expanded gambling."

Even with Finneran's opposition, the measure failed in the House by only 13 votes last year. It did not come to a vote in the Senate, which has been more supportive of expanded gambling.

Flynn, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said a vote will probably come in early spring, when the Legislature tries to craft a spending plan for the next fiscal year.

State Senator Michael W. Morrissey of Quincy is cochairman of the Legislature's Government Regulations Committee, which reviews gambling legislation. He said the key to the fate of slot machines is the state's fiscal outlook.

''If we need the money, we'll look at it," said Morrissey. ''If you are looking for new revenue, gambling is about the only place to turn."

While the state's finances are better than they were two or three years ago, they are still shaky, Morrissey said. The state has run out of one-time revenue sources that have been used in the past to balance the budget, he said.

Bills have been filed on Beacon Hill to allow different forms of gambling, including full-scale casinos with table games. Support appears strongest for limiting the expansion to adding slots at the four existing tracks -- Raynham-Taunton, Plainridge, the Wonderland dog track in Revere, and Suffolk Downs.

Raynham-Taunton officials have said they could have the machines installed and operating within weeks of approval.

''We'll get up and start making the cities and towns some money," said Gary Temple, assistant general manager for Raynham-Taunton, noting that Lottery revenues are distributed among the state's municipal governments.

Other places south of Boston where slot machines have been mentioned are the Brockton Fairgrounds, which has hosted summer thoroughbred racing, and a Route 1 site in Foxborough, where Rhode Island horseman Lou Giuliano has been lobbying for permission to build a harness track. The proposal by Giuliano, a former principal in the Plainridge operation just a few miles south on Route 1, has been rejected twice by Foxborough voters.

The biggest push on Beacon Hill for expanded gambling has come from legislators from Southeastern Massachusetts, which is home to the Raynham and Plainville tracks and is also the region targeted by the Wampanoag tribe for a Native American casino.

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill of Quincy, whose office controls the state Lottery, said he opposes slot machines because they could compete with the Lottery. He noted that the fiscal year that ended last July 1 was the Lottery's most successful, with $912 million in net revenue. In the current fiscal year, Lottery revenue is up another 6 percent.

''My job is to protect the Lottery revenue, and I'm not in favor of any expanded gaming," he said.

If slot machines are approved, Cahill said, he would want them placed under the control of the Lottery. ''It's a natural extension of what we do."

At Butts and Bets, not all Lottery players favor expanded gambling. Bob, who asked that only his first name be used, said gambling has been a personal problem. He said he has won $20,000 with Lottery tickets one day and lost $30,000 the next.

Voicing an argument offered by gambling opponents concerned about its addictive nature, Bob gave a simple reason why he would not want to visit racetracks equipped with slot machines.

''I'd lose the house."

Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com.