Patrick urges lawmakers to resist pressure, consider casinos

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

By Matt Viser and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick acknowledged in testimony today that the prospects were bleak for his casino proposal, but he urged lawmakers to resist pressure from legislative leaders and continue to explore the economic advantages of expanded gambling.

“I have no illusions about the plans in the House for this legislation,” Patrick said during a standing-room-only hearing at the State House, according to prepared remarks distributed by his staff. “But I am here anyway, because what you do in this committee will determine whether that full and open debate is even possible. I am simply asking that an open debate begin -- rather than end -- today.”

The testimony before the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies was part of a long-awaited hearing on Patrick’s plan to license three resort casinos. Union workers in hard hats, religious leaders, academics, environmentalists, and online poker players have converged on the State House to discuss the bill. The committee could issue a report on the bill today and send it to the full House for consideration as early as Thursday.

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi set a dire tone this morning for what was expected to be a difficult day for proponents of expanding gambling as he blasted the governor’s plan.

“Casinos will absolutely cause human damage on a grand scale,” DiMasi said during a 30-minute address at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “After six months of debate on this bill, I believe this evidence is not there, the case has not been made, and time is running out.

“Right now, my answer is no.”

Shortly after DiMasi made his strongest rebuke to date, Patrick spoke at a rally on Boston Common, trying to shore up support for his proposal. He addressed a crowd of about 200 union workers in sweat shirts and wearing yellow, blue, and brown hard hats. The governor said in his testimony before the committee that the criticism of his proposal has been spirited, acrimonious, and at times so contradictory it became absurd.

“The most amusing part for me is having the same people argue in one minute that these facilities will produce little or no revenue and few new jobs,” Patrick said, “and then in the next that they will be so successful that they will suck all the economic life out of the surrounding communities.”

While DiMasi disparaged job projections and other specifics at the chamber breakfast, he also attacked the proposal in broad, moral strokes.

“The cost of cleaning up the human devastation brought by casino gambling is too great,” DiMasi said, according to prepared remarks distributed by his staff. “The cost of creating a casino culture is too high.”

At the State House, the committee heard testimony from a wide range of lawmaker whose differing opinions clashed. Passing on Patrick's proposal won’t stop casinos from coming to Massachusetts, said Representative Thomas Calter, a Democrat from Middleborough, where the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is looking for federal approval to build a casino.

"Gaming is coming," Calter said. "The question is who is going to control it."

Representative Daniel Bosley, an ardent gambling critic who chairs the committee, pointed to the Lottery as a cautionary tale in which the state has become addicted to gaming. It began as a single daily number game and had grown into dozens of scratch tickets, Megabucks, Mega Millions, and Keno.

"We love the revenues,” said Bosley, a Democrat from North Adams, “but we hate how we get them."

Bosley's co-chair, Senator Jack Hart, also spoke about the Lottery, but the Democrat from South Boston cast it in a different light.

"We're already in the gambling industry," said Hart, who is leaning toward supporting Patrick's plan. "Do the benefits in the end outweigh the social costs?"

Meanwhile, a key Senate supporter said he may seek a binding statewide ballot question on casinos in the fall.

"It certainly would be an appropriate subject matter for a statewide referendum," said Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos of Lowell, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, adding that he believes that even casino opponents in the House might be persuaded they should give the public a chance to voice their opinion.

Panagiotakos said the issue is too important to be lost in the increasingly personal struggle that has developed between the governor and DiMasi.

Andrea Estes and Frank Phillips of the Globe staff contributed. Material from the Associated Press is included in this report.

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