This area already sports two of the world's largest casinos. I mean, we're talking Connecticut here, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are both just a short drive down the road (where MGM already has a lavish hotel casino). Sure, they'll be in two different states...almost. Springfield, MA sits directly on the MA/CT border, on the interstate leading from NY to the Vermont ski slopes and tourist areas. It's probably a brilliant move on some level. Springfield is a nasty, crime-ridden hell-hole, and they'll probably find plenty of cheap (desperate) labor, and plenty of drive-by suckers who'll stop in and lose some cash on their way up north. But is this really necessary? I'll now have three giant casinos each within 45 minutes or less from my home...and I live in the middle of nowhere. After all, CT & MA could fit in the trunk of a Texas Cadillac.

As you said, it's a nasty, crime-ridden hell hole.

I used to live in a nasty, crime-ridden hell hole of a neighborhood when I was a poor student. Now, with "gentrification" and the "urban young families" I'd need close to a half a million bucks (not happening) to buy an apartment in my old ratty building, which looks absolutely high end and fancy-pants now. I go by that old neighborhood every now and again and I see a mother with a stroller where some guy got stabbed back in the day, and an old guy walking a little dog where that drive by happened...and oh, I remember the day when that apartment...and that apartment... and that apartment got burgled, and so-and-so got jumped in the foyer getting his mail...! But nowadays, it's all nice and landscaped and clean and swept and pretty amazing. Children are playing in the little park where the heroin deals used to go down.

Money changes everything.

As for MA and CT fitting into the size of TX Cadillac, the population density of those two tiny states (around ten million) is nothing to sneeze at, even with recent migrations. Add in VT, NH and little ole RI and that's three million more. And WAY less drive time than someone going from one corner of TX to the other..!

about 30 miles or so from Springfield, and while it's unlikely I'd ever go to the casino should it be built someday, I am excited about the prospects for some kind of revitalization in the area...even mine...as maybe people from NY or VT pass through the area on their way to the casino. Or maybe people staying there already wanting to take day trips.

We don't have any industry in my town, so we have to rely on taxes and tourism.

As for Springfield being a nasty crime-ridden hellhole, I can't argue with you there. I was born and raised there, and it makes me really sad to see it featured on the news just about every night for drugs, murders, etc. Even some of the nicer areas where I used to live are no longer immune.

So opponents of the casino are using !!!CRIME!!! as a reason for opposing it, but the crime rate has been rising for decades without having the excuse of a casino causing it.

Opponents don't want the casino, but can never seem to come up with some alternate (and feasible) plan for improving the quality of life in their own city. Only negatives...never positive solutions.

Anyway, my area often gets neglected (or given negligible mention, at best) in the "Visit Massachusetts!" pamphlets. It's all about Cape Cod and Boston, FGS.

Well, there's plenty of cool stuff to do out here, too! We could use some tourist business...

I lived in Springfield for years. We raised our two sons there. Happy to have gotten out before the bottom dropped out. It's a shame. It actually has the potential to be a nice walkable city, but the corruption is so pervasive they're fucking themselves. But hey, they've got more strip bars per capita than just about about anyplace in America! Focus on the positive.