Massachusetts and Slots- Part 1
Massachusetts is facing a multimillion dollar budget shortfall. Like most states, Massachusetts is having difficulties managing post-recession. The biggest problem with finances is that the recession stopped people from spending. The unemployment rate skyrocketing, only added to the problem. Studies are showing that most people are working hard to pay down their debt, rather than putting money into the economy. Mary Lasitter, of Cambell, Missouri said, “The recession taught us that credit can be dangerous…we relied on it like lots of people but when we needed it most, our credit card company cut ours.” Lasitter’s story is not unlike that of many Americans. They stuffed away a credit card for “emergency use only.” It may have sat in a drawer for years. Then when the recession was at its height, they took it out to use it, only to find it was closed by their credit company or its limit was slashed. Mid-recession credit card companies were taking many drastic measures to save themselves and most of those measures were detrimental to their customers. Customers quickly learned that the rules of credit were changing.
Massachusetts suffered huge unemployment rates and have still not shown notable signs of reinvigoration. The recession not only hurt people, it also hurt the state as a whole. Because of that legislators are looking to legalize and regulate gambling within the state. They see gambling as the only way to realistically put a dent into the huge deficit. Though the issue is up for sharp debate, both Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo are now supporting resort casinos similar to Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods. Their new positions come less than a year after the House rejected a proposal by Governor Deval Patrick that he claimed would “result in tens of thousands of construction jobs, over 20,000 permanent jobs and billions of dollars invested in our economy.” Before any changes could come, the Legislature would have to legalize gambling to include the one casino proposed by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe for Middleboro. The change would help the state turn around its own economy without the intense help of the federal government for stimulus plans.
Part two coming next.
Tags: legal, Massachusetts, slots
