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MA Rep is Not Giving Up (2 of 2)

So miserable a failure was Flynn’s slot machine rally this year that it never even reached the Senate. Infighting and political machinations kept the issue from ever leaving the confines of Beacon Hill. Despite that fact, however, Flynn is willing to blame the failure of the bill at least in part on some key members of the other house of the Legislature. Flynn states that some senators – specifically, Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, and Sen. Michael Morrissey, co-chairman of the Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure – dislike the idea of slot games in Massachusetts and played politics hard enough to bar his attempt. Murray adamantly denied the accusation.

Flynn cites one of the biggest advantages of his plan as being that it would get the slot machines out and generating income right away. It would take between six and eight years to get a big casino up and running, and even longer to start really feeling the potential monetary benefits of such establishments. On the other hand, the racinos could be operational in less than four months – one hundred ten days, by the representative’s calculation. Installing the gambling devices at the racetracks, however, would require minimal startup costs and would get money flowing almost instantly – Flynn mentioned figures of two hundred million in one-time licensing income and at least four hundred million annually.

In March, the House rejected the proposal of Governor Deval Patrick to license three casinos throughout the state. Based on that, Flynn is confident that the governor would approve of his plan, which he calls “a bridge to the future” – a future that “inevitably” contains casinos and slot machines.

Back to October 2008 Archive.