Connecticut Lawmakers; 105

A. What the following is a sci fi TV original. This shocking proposal for casino gambling in our state is no mere And it's not entrepreneurship. It's a very crude and calculated blueprint for private enrichment at public expense. And it's also a recipe

for fiscal and social disaster. I love it. I really do. It's about time they put something like this in not Connecticut. They should put one in heifer too. I'm Bob Douglas welcome to Connecticut lawmakers. The expansion of gambling is under serious consideration at the state capitol. But Governor Weicker in state office holders like Treasurer Frank Borgias are taking on the gambling interests. Everything from casino gambling to slot machines on the General Assembly's agenda with the outcome is still very much in doubt. The legislature's public safety committee conducted the first of two public hearings on gambling expansion this week with the tax exempt Indian casino and led you know reality. And with the owners of the state's gambling facilities wanting slot machines to compete. The promise of jobs and money is a powerful force at work as lawmakers struggle with the question of more gambling in this state.

If you look at the crime rates in the city of Atlantic City New Jersey before and after the adoption of casino gambling let me just run down some of the statistics for you. Pickpocketing there were 15 incidents of pickpocketing before. Afterwards. One thousand two hundred forty seven that's a rather large jump person actually went from one hundred fifty six to two hundred thirty one. Larceny from four hundred to seventeen hundred. Homicide homicide didn't go up too much we went from 10 to 17 rape went from 27 to 63 rapes robbery went from two hundred fifty seven to seven hundred eighty three assaults went from five hundred seventy nine. To seventeen hundred. The only thing that went down in Atlantic City. We're breaking and entering and I think that's probably because most of the people who had expected that there was going to be such a boom in Atlantic City. Most of the people left the city. Those those who after

gambling came in could afford to sell their houses at the reduced rate because property values dropped so much. There was nobody else left to break in and steal from Despite the best efforts of many people. We have a full casino operation the state of Connecticut not one dime of which is a revenue of which is going to the general fund the state of Connecticut again to address those problems 50 to 60. The bill I had last year as a companion to the repeal or was well if the Mashantucket succeed it we should seriously explore the notion of establishing regulating and developing a revenue stream from casino gambling represent nickel Yarrow had a couple of comments earlier about guarantees as to additional revenue that might result from casino gambling I think the national experience is fairly clear on that. There's no question in my mind that even on a limited basis if we were to establish and regulate casino gambling in the state of Connecticut in a structured and reasonable limited way and I went over the details of that last year with the committee

at least the revenue necessary to handle the public safety questions that are. Entailed here as well as the idea of compulsive gambling in the increase thereof caused by this intrusion would be available for the state to handle those problems. So I think the committee should seriously explore this notion. It's not one that I find all that pleasant. Again my my initial reaction last year was to do everything I could to preserve this legislature. The notion of whether or not a casino gambling should be here I failed in that effort. The vote in the house in the Senate was very clear on that point the Mashantucket were allowed to open its here. I think we have to address that problem. The only shot in the arm. The only Sharni army could gambling casino would give us is like the ones that the heroin addicts and Hartford streets depend on for their cheap quick dirty easy and ultimately death inducing fix.

And as the treasurer of the state as the former deputy mayor of the city of Hartford. As a concerned citizen and a public official I pledge to you that I will fight this proposal with everything I've got. There are so many good reasons today why in all of them. Have to do with the moral spiritual civic and economic bankruptcy implicit. In this rather sickening and unspeakable idea. First and foremost is the human suffering the human condition. That would be sure. Surely be affected from this bad plan. Try to imagine the increase in corruption in crime a gambling casino would impose on a city already reeling in agony. Think about the prostitution destitution and disease the casinos and the fringe element they attract demonstrably will bring. And the question is who needs it. Ladies and gentlemen we don't need. We are an industry that is in very sad shape. We are in even worse shape since then because of the opening of the

leg you can see you know two weeks ago. I repeat these numbers. The Connecticut parimutuel industry. Puts over two hundred million dollars per year into the economy of the state. We represent over 100 million dollars of solid investment private investment in the state. We support twenty five hundred direct jobs in this state. We are the largest tourist attraction in the state of Connecticut. No other industry comes close. To drawing as many people into its facilities as the Connecticut parimutuel industry. I would like to show you and this is in the package that we have supplied to your committee. Everybody and graphically you can see their decline since the opening of this industry and these these are an absolute dollars and in constant dollars. And it just keeps falling off the ledger. Most of these items have been beyond our control in that

they were from outside factors the opening of Atlantic City the opening of the lottery. And we do compete with our own regulators in that the lottery the division of special revenue is our competitor. We have not been allowed to retool if we were electric pulp or if we were Pratt Whitney or if we was of course. And this is what those companies are facing now with the peace dividend. So theyre losing their product. Weve lost our product we have a product available to replace. And work with our present her unusual system and thats the video machines that the Cummings report on equivocally States. I needed to bring those numbers back to where they were. The Cummings report says that the legit casino will close the parimutuel industry in this state within two years. That means no TV that means no highlight that means no dog track.

In the first two weeks. We have been impacted severely now. These numbers. Are very very enlightening. The report shows. That the Indian casino will impact the. Playing Field. By 30 to 1 a half percent. Hartford highlighted by twenty six and a half percent. Milford High Life sixteen point seven Bridgeport highlife fifteen point two. When it becomes a great greyhound track thirteen point eight. The Windsor Locks Teller Theater 23 percent. And then we haven tell the track which of course is closing on this weekend 15 percent and the state OTB branches 12 percent. Those numbers mean. Out of business. I asked Mr. Ron Carey this morning whether or not this 23 percent. Was close to what is already impacting Windsor Locks. It's close. They're off 24 percent since the Indian casino opened. No revenue to the state from the Indian Casino.

We asked support of. Video lottery terminals in the Perry mutual facilities. Built to be raised for this issue will be in front of you. We are not talking about expanding gambling we're talking about putting it in present existing facilities. These machines will save us not only save this 200 million dollars in the economy but again the comics figure and it's exactly what we said last year these machines will put 100 million dollars in new taxes. Into. The state of Connecticut. We're not saying what you should do with 100 million dollars. We can't continue to expect to look to the expansion of gambling as a painless way to raise revenue. This is a time when emotional and psychological problems related to gambling are rampant in our state. At the same time as you heard from the previous speaker the small the Department of Mental Health Family Treatment Program has been slashed only one person to serve all of the gamblers and the families statewide.

Connecticut has the highest prevalence of pathological gambling in the United States the recent the vision of special revenue sponsored survey of legalized gambling in Connecticut found the six point three percent of adults in the state have a gambling problem. That amounts as you heard a moment ago to one hundred sixty thousand adults. That's right one hundred and sixty thousand adults and only a minuscule number of these gamblers and their families are currently receiving any treatment. My own research in Connecticut on teenage gambling has demonstrated that approximately 6 percent of Connecticut high school students have a serious gambling problem. Therefore the legislature needs to give us attention to creating bills which focus on research into problem gambling and creating prevention and treatment programs instead what we see today are bills to extend legalized gambling and to legalized casinos and slot machines. Instead the legislature needs to study the social and mental health impact of the legit casino. There is already ample evidence from New Jersey about the social mental health impact of the

proliferation of casinos. While I'm not here to endorse any form of gambling there's a lesson in the actions of the Foxwoods high stakes bingo and Casino. In the sense that. This gambling operation unlike what I've seen that exists elsewhere in the state public or private this gambling operation recognize that its very existence will increase compulsive gambling problems. In response to this recognition Foxwoods is now contributing funds for prevention education programs to be carried out by the Connecticut council on compulsive gambling I'd like to see the legislator take cognizance of this example. As I said we've got to go ahead now and at this very critical moment not just be defiled in our state. Is it a gambling state. Or is it a family state. Are we going to invest in are we going to that future. Are we going to pay for what we want. Well we're going to try to lock it up.

Are we going to create real jobs. Or are we having a bunch of people sitting around dreaming and hoping for a jackpot. Remember in Oregon no matter where the house wins the players lose. You and I as governor we represent the players the the state. The franchisee. The vendor or the operator that's the house. And the bottom line as far as this government is concerned is not the paper profit of that artificial entity.

It's the quality of life for the three plus million human beings who came here to live not to gamble. Now I operate as the governor of the state of Connecticut on the assumption that most people came to this state. To earn their living to raise their families. Very frankly that's what has me up in the morning I think it does you too where you take on the world. I say very frankly to each one of you here if it's to be Las Vegas East I'm the wrong man for governor. Let's understand first what this is not about. It is not about. The Indian gambling casino. The Indian reservation of legit sovereign territory.

They have the right to determine. Their own priorities their own directions. Federal law governs that. Limiting only to the extent that whatever it is that we do in the state of Connecticut they have the right to do. Which is exactly what brought them. Into the matter of the of the casino. The biggest fact of life that oughta have you taking a close look are looking askance at the proposals before you. His own experience as a state. We've been in fantasy land for two years in the state of Connecticut and what a price we've had to pay to get out. 10 years of smoking mirror gambling in the slightest and Except not.

With a slot machine or a roulette wheel but with a budget. And there is not one of us no matter what side of the issue that we've been on wouldn't say water all over the place. We have all had the last year and even this year because of the start of success of the casino on the Mashantucket Pequot reservation and Ledyard state lawmakers gambling interests and others are looking at casinos in places like Hartford and elsewhere to compete for a view from the casino when Ledyard line Landis offers this report. The. Initial public response is overwhelming for the operators of the Foxwoods high stakes bingo and Casino in Ledyard Connecticut. The only casino on the east coast outside of Atlantic City. The casino owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Indians opened its doors in mid-February to large numbers of people coming from not only nearby Massachusetts Rhode Island and New York but from as far away as

Texas I can tell you that we are very pleased with the public's response it is larger than we anticipated by 15 or 20 percent. Whether or not it's a stain really is dependent upon us making our customers happy a lot of our business is going to be repeat business. So people had a good time and they were entertained they felt as though they had value put their or their dollars will be back in most of the people left with smiles on their faces. While not wanting to comment directly on a proposal now before a state legislative panel that would legalize slot machines Luciana says it's clear the public wants them. I don't think there's any question I'd like to have slot machines have they. They tell us they talk to us and we try and listen we try and give them alternatives we have a number of table games that are very easy to play and that and our low limit so that they are in effect you know hard tend to substitute for slot machines but people ask every day where the slot machines when you're getting them.

Up to now in Connecticut video slot machines can pay out real money instead. These people are playing for free. But if the slots were legalized and these machines can easily be converted these folks would easily trade playing for free just to get a chance to hear the sound of quarters jingling in their buckets and on SNL you got a good chance I want to know you know as a woman it's mostly a woman and you can draw a lot of people woman like at best some guys older guys like that but women are women as mostly a woman. I like it. It's fun lot of fun. Have you played this for money at the slot machines elsewhere. Yes and I landed study in Vegas seems to be women who enjoy these games. Yes small time gamblers. That's right. How about if you are playing for money. Yeah that's that will play a lot of fun. Have you played slot machines before this past. What would you think of machines were legalized.

You think women seem to be gravitate toward. Yeah what do you think. We can sit down with the others because this is ASD and this is beautiful you're just touching everything. You don't have to think. I suspected it to be a good idea. Cause this is something you know or they're just practice machines but it seems that people are looking forward to betting or playing slot machines. Management admits that slot machines are the biggest growth areas in the gaming industry. A big draw at other casino games. I think the impact would be more people playing for a longer period of time. It would be that we would split our entertainment product in a lot of ways. We've probably reduced the number of table games at least on an interim basis to provide room for either

slots or video machines. But to be honest I mean right now we're at capacity and I couldn't be more delighted. I think in the long term the lasting impact of this experiment let's call it will be helped a lot by the presence of slots. At present slots are not permitted under terms of a compact the Indians have with the state of Connecticut and some gambling sources tell Connecticut lawmakers though that the machines will become reality in six months so bad is the need for revenue up at the state capitol. And right now the state isn't getting it done from this Indian own casino. And that brings up the broader issue of legalized casino gambling. In other parts of Connecticut what would the economic impact be on this casino if Connecticut were to legalize casino gambling in other parts of the state. It would divide the market to some extent. There's plenty of capacity here so I don't think that it would be a terrible thing

in terms of our ability to survive and prosper. I think competition would be met with competition. We would just do whatever we had to do to do it. Good business. Reaction to the prospect of the possibility of more casinos in Connecticut. Got this generally favorable response from these casino patronize. I think it's a very good idea. The state obviously needs some kind of extra income coming in and I think they should try and attract more of a tourist industry going oh it's a beautiful area especially Connecticut. Why not. I love it. I really don't know. It's about time they put something like this in Connecticut in Hartford too. I think they should institute it. I mean it's big dollars for everybody for the local economy we're in a recession right now. You look it doesn't look like you're in a recession. So people have the money to spend. And there's a lot of money that the state could get. Yes I think so. I think it's too late now. It's already it's already started.

They should have done it before the ball was picked up by somebody else. People get accustomed as we were basically you know once in a while you go to another casino you get comfortable with it and you're not going to be you know I'm not going to happen. If they put it up there I think I might be dead wrong. One of the big selling points for Foxwoods is employment in this economically depressed part of the state. The biggest surprise has been the last thing nature of the business. People seem not to want to go home at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning and quite frankly we didn't want to overstep because we didn't want to suffer any layoffs and in these terrible economic times in this area. So we are very understaffed right now. We're going to respond to that by creating another 250 to 300 positions so that we can give people proper days off and proper hours and that'll take a few weeks to go through the licensing process and the

training process but we'll get there as quickly as we can. The recession is clearly not in evidence here at the Foxwoods Casino as crowds of people jammed the place 24 hours a day to play bingo blackjack roulette poker craps and chuck a lot. Just to name a few. Even without legalized slots this Indian owned casino is jumping. Whether it will remain so if Connecticut were to legalize casino gambling in other parts of the state like Hartford is still an open question that will ultimately have to be decided by the state legislature and the governor. Or Connecticut lawmakers on glamorous state lawmakers this week approved an agreement with state workers that are supposed to save about 330 million dollars this fiscal year and about 90 million dollars next year. The agreement was the one the Weicker administration finally worked out with state employee unions last year that was geared to seeking concessions and saving the state money. Republicans were upset over the financing of a

two hundred fifteen million dollar reduction in the employee's pension fund but the agreement was approved in the house on a voice vote and passed in the state Senate on a 9:36 vote with Republicans voting no. They House Republicans picked up a new members this week. Reid Crist of Peano a New Haven Alderman won a special assembly election in New Haven's ninety seventh district defeating Democrat Dan Dunn once did he know who replaces former Democrat Robert Hauser who resigned from the legislature was sworn in and introduced to House members at their Wednesday session it was the first legislative race since the income tax was enacted last year. Republican state chairman Richard Foley thinks the Peano stance against the income tax was a sign that Republicans may be on a roll. It certainly was the first real action since the income tax passed was a five to one Democratic district by registration. Oh I can write one better than two to one. Oh and we have

strong upon the income tax and there is residence in the Capitol building today those residents of the voting population over the next several months. State lawmakers from East Hartford conducted a series of informational hearings to examine the effects of proposed cutbacks announced by United Technologies Corporation. Those hearings were headed by Senate president John Larson who is seeking ways to deal with a downsizing of the state's largest private employer. I work with dislocated workers is supported for with federal funds that were granted to us through the department Connecticut Department of Labor. Last year our information center Council five thousand five hundred twenty seven dislocated workers that was 66 percent more than the year before. That's clearly a sign of the economic times but it's also an indication of what I think of that team's outstanding work in reaching out to companies and to employees who find themselves in trouble.

I'm an eternal optimist and I do believe that. If everybody works together towards a common goal all good things will good things ultimately will will happen if we all sit back and say this is an awful thing nothing can be done. It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I think I'm encouraged by what I've heard this evening. I'm encouraged by the kind of infrastructure that we have available both looking forward in terms of the kind of jobs that we want to create to the safety net that we hope however fragile lives that exist there to help workers through this very difficult time. And then on to the retraining and the employment opportunities in the future. I would point out as well that we've heard throughout this both perhaps when it was confirmed again this evening by Congressman Connolly that while frat is been downsizing and considerably we heard the heart rendering testimony that Steve gave the other evening about

hourly workers that use UTC and how they've decreased over the number of years but they've indicated and we have every reason to believe that they will remain in the Star for it and remain their core of operation will remain here as well. Obviously we're all concerned about about our future. But with everyone working together with this calling upon the various segments. Our society I think we're going to pull through this just fine and hopefully we in these turn for it will serve as a model for other communities who seek to deal with these similar problems. Finally state lawmakers paid tribute to one of their own this week. Sixty seven year old representative Benjamin designer of Meriden died Thursday of heart disease. Benny is he was best known at the state capitol was first elected to the General Assembly in 1975. A special election will be held later this year to replace the Democratic lawmaker

and for Connecticut lawmakers. I'm Bob Douglas. We do thank you for joining us.