Patrick cool to casinos in cities

Governor Deval Patrick expressed reservations yesterday about licensing a casino in any Massachusetts city, clouding the prospects for hotly debated proposals to build resort-style gambling complexes in Boston and New Bedford.

"I have some misgivings about a casino in any city, because I think the whole point is to create a resort destination," Patrick said during an hourlong appearance on WBUR-FM, a local public radio affiliate. "And I don't think there is a city in Massachusetts that has enough space for that kind of facility, with the entertainment and the meeting venues and maybe a golf course, the restaurants, a hotel - the whole resort complex."

The statement appeared to be a shift for the governor, who opened the door to an urban casino when he announced last week that he wanted to license casinos in Southeastern Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts, and metropolitan Boston. The Patrick administration has since defined metropolitan Boston as anywhere from the city north to the New Hampshire border.

The plan he will submit to the Legislature, he said in the radio interview, will contain conditions "so that all of the concerns we have about what they look like, where they are, and how we prepare for the social impact in the community, and surrounding neighborhood impact is accounted for."

Executives at Suffolk Downs in East Boston and the Wonderland Park dog track in Revere had already emerged as likely bidders for the metropolitan Boston casino license.

Patrick's comments raised doubts about whether Suffolk Downs - which has been pushing a set of detailed plans for a casino, shops, and hotel - would be qualified to bid. But Chip Tuttle, chief operating officer of Suffolk Downs, said last night that the racetrack would fit within the governor's vision.

"With 163 acres for development, we feel Suffolk Downs is consistent with the governor's proposal for resort-style casinos and all of the economic benefits that they deliver, including over 5,600 permanent jobs, hundreds of millions in revenue, and the ability to enhance tourism in the region," he said.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino echoed Tuttle and said he would continue to back the Suffolk Downs proposal.

"We are still interested in seeing a full entertainment destination location in our city, more specifically at Suffolk Downs," Dorothy Joyce, spokeswoman for Menino, said last night. "Jobs and economic development in that area depend on it."

The possibility of building a casino in an urban area has become a flashpoint of debate for some Boston lawmakers and urban clergy who say a casino in the city would magnify social ills associated with gambling and steal business from the city's vibrant tourist industry.

A story last week in the Globe, citing administration sources, said Patrick favored New Bedford as a location for the Southeastern Massachusetts casino.

But Patrick advisers later disputed that and said the governor had not settled on any locations and had expressed no specific preferences.

Asked last night to expand on Patrick's newly expressed doubts, administration spokesman Kyle Sullivan issued a statement saying, "The governor's misgivings about a casino development located in a city center around his proposal for full-scale, destination, resort casinos. As he has stated repeatedly, his proposal does not include specific location recommendations."

Patrick also said in his radio interview that, despite the negative social impacts casinos would bring, they would provide a boost to the state's economy.

He repeated his belief that three casinos in the state would produce 20,000 new permanent jobs; yesterday he said they would create 30,000 temporary construction jobs.

"If I thought the social costs would outweigh the economic benefits, I wouldn't go down this path," Patrick said.

"I'm persuaded that with 3 to 4 percent of the people who frequent resort casinos having these kinds of problems, as serious as they are, is a cost that we can manage."

The governor compared gambling to potentially harmful drugs produced by life-sciences companies, or criminal use of guns produced by Smith & Wesson in Springfield.

"What we do is not say, 'You can't do business in Massachusetts,' " Patrick said. "What we say is, 'We're going to regulate the heck out of what you produce, in order to moderate the impact on the public.' "

In addition to his radio appearance, Patrick moved to assure six Massachusetts district attorneys who met with him yesterday that their concerns about a possible rise in casino-related crime would be heard.

"We are the custodians of public safety in our respective counties, and any increase in crime we have to deal with," said Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, president of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association.

"Whether it's embezzlement, child neglect, drunk driving, and prostitution - these are all criminal matters that have seen spikes in other jurisdictions that have casino gambling," he said.

Blodgett said the prosecutors also raised concerns about potential territorial questions if a tribal casino opens on sovereign land. "The DAs need to know where their jurisdiction begins and ends," he said.

The prosecutors also made clear that they may need additional staff - including prosecutors, police, and victim witness advocates - to handle any increase in crime.

Blodgett, who had requested a meeting with the governor earlier this week, said Patrick agreed to keep the prosecutors involved as he crafts his casino proposal and seeks to push it through the Legislature.

"I was impressed with the governor's knowledge of the issue and his immediate willingness to have us be participants," said Blodgett. "We wanted to make it clear - we're not the policymakers. We're the chief law enforcement officers in the state and are asking for the ability to take a peek over the fence.

"We're trying to anticipate what law enforcement problems there may be and want to be proactive and, to the extent we can, prepare for them."

Joining Blodgett were Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, Barnstable District Attorney Michael O'Keefe, Berkshire District Attorney David F. Capeless, and Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett.

Andrea Estes of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.