On Tuesday we wrote about how Governor Deval Patrick's intellectually lazy casino job creation numbers gave ammunition to the skeptical of gambling Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. Yesterday, however, Patrick got some good news from the Chamber of Commerce, who released numbers much more helpful to his cause.
The previous criticism was related to Patrick's projection that the three proposed casinos would create 30,000 new construction jobs, while a more balanced analysis in the Globe suggested it would be closer to 5,000. The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce report puts the number at 11,500--still considerably lower than Patrick's utopian figure--but it also validated much of Patrick's argument that the initiative could offer hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for the Commonwealth.
There are many negatives associated with casinos, including the social costs of gambling addiction and the potential draining of finite entertainment dollars from previously existing businesses. However, the Herald editorial board noted that, "DiMasi and his underlings may still find cause to oppose the governor’s plan, but their argument just got a little tougher to make."
The Globe, for one, is cautiously favorable: "But the real job of lawmakers is to clear away the underbrush of the debate and determine if casinos, on balance, are a net benefit for the state. Based on the latest independent study, the answer is still yes."
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