DUer in the News

Once in a while I like to post on DU what I actually do when I'm not posting here.

Well, we're in the middle of a hell of fight on a big local issue here in Massachusetts that might be a split with my friends here at DU. However, it's a big deal with Labor


But, here it is in the Boston Herald. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who louis c is.
Paragraph six.

link:
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=126610

Good to see you in the news :hi:

the Union guy!

It would be a shame to lose Suffolk Downs. I know that getting slots approved in Mass. is an uphill battle.

Good for the Union guy!

... on your upcoming victory !

Peace Out
PVD
cape cod

Who would fault you for fighting for decent jobs? Does the idea of slot machines bring out the morality monitors? What are they afraid of? I suspect I know their arguments. It's so much easier to create mythical issues than it is to resolve the real ones.

Keep us posted, will you?

if business is declining would you think slot machines should replace horse racing? Where is the trade off in that? I didn't realize race tracks were in trouble in the first place. Gambling is gamblin...but if you bring in the slots you're going to get the Abramoff type organized crime in there. Have you thought of that?

Just curious when I read the article. (and...yes..I'm very worried about all the gambling interests in the country taking over from Mississippi to Florida..from Connecticut to every state where the Indian Reservations are involved in this.

It would be better to fight for good union jobs than to have to resort to gambling. What's next? Legalized prostitution where Pimps and Whores can be unionized to save jobs? (I know that sounds extreme but I'm very big Pro-Union and think that focus should be on the Outsourcing of good jobs and the recruitment of white collar workers into unions rather than going down the gambling road which could lead to criminal involvement.

BTW...not meaning to sound like I'm slamming you...but honestly want to know about the decline of racetracks and why you think "slots" are the answer.

Thanks and :-)'s

QUOTE FROM THE ARTICLE:

Battered by a steep decline in business, racetrack owners have made it clear they will have to shut down — sooner or later — without slots.
Along with deploying a small army of highly paid lobbyists, track owners have also mobilized hundreds of employees to blitz lawmakers with pleas to save their jobs.
“My sense of this vote is we have a really good chance — the best chance we have ever had,” said Louis Ciarlone, president of Local 123 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 200 Suffolk Downs workers. “This is the World Series.

First of all, horse racing can not survive on attendance alone, or selling hot dogs. The life's blood of a racetrack (in this case, a horse track) is pari-mutuel wagering.

Gambling in the 60's and early 70's was confined to only racetracks. As a result, they were booming businesses.

Then came the state lottery. small, at first. Just a daily number, then a once a week mega-bucks game. Then Bingo was legalized. Now tracks had to compete with the state for the gambling dollar. The state regulates tracks, so now we were in competition with our regulators. Next came scratch tickets, and Mass Millions drawings,then more and different scratch games and Keno.

Finally, Rhode Island legalizes slots at tracks and Jai Alai, Connecticut opens two of the largest casinos in the world. New York follows with slots at our border. Even Maine has them. Massachusetts is surrounded by gambling, the dollars go over the boarder, so the racing industry is starved out.

Slots' revenue will be used to increase the purses and the quality of the Horses. It will give the workers job security and improved benefits. The money will come from the many patrons in the Boston area who travel miles to play slots in other states. It has worked in Pennsylvania, NY, Delaware, West Virginia, Iowa and Louisiana. It will work here.

The horse racing industry is worth saving. It has thousands of good jobs with good benefits. Hundreds of union jobs. It creates open space with horse farms. The positives are endless. All we are asking for is a level playing field in order to compete for the gambling dollar.

I would love to go back to the early 60's when the only place to legally place a bet was a racetrack. But, alas the gennie is out of the bottle. To allow Bingo at churches, where people worship God. To allow the purchase of scratch tickets at convenience stores, where children buy milk, to allow Keno to be played at family restaurants, but prevent adding additional gambling at a racetrack, which was established for gambling, reminds me of the line in Casablanca, when Claude Raines turns top Humphrey Bogart and declares, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that there is gambling going on here." If there is to be gambling in only one place, a horse track should be the most agreeable.


I respect the opinion of those who believe all gambling is wrong, and they hold a consistent position on that. But Hypocrisy, that I can't abide.

Now, you heard my stump speech on the subject,

going to lowest "common demonimator." In other words, EVERYONE IS GAMBLING AND GAMEING...and our Horse Racing is "DYING" because of it. It's syphoning off our funds and we need the mony so let's put in the slots to stay competitive.

But...what about the whole Horse Racing Circuit? What about the folks who breed and raise and have the farms? What about the Horses and all that depends on them with care and feeding and transportation. What about the Promoters and the rest of the industry who thrive on the Horse Racing events? What about the geneticists who focus on "breeding" the stock in "siring and birthing" and the care and feeding.

From what you are saying to me ...it sounds like at some point the slots and Las Vegas stuff are going to impede and eventually take over the Horse Racing Enterprise and eventually the great Farms and Care that's evolved around the Racing will be auctioned off and the Horses sold for fodder or dog and cat food like the wild Mustangs of the West that Bush is trying to kill and put in cans...and that UNION JOBS are MORE IMPORTANT than ANYTHING ELSE LEFT ON EARTH?

WHAT KIND of UNION JOBS will be SLAVES to Gambling Interests? How long will that be sustainable? With ATM type machines it might all be sourced off to India or Pakistan and really WHERE are the JOBS WITH THIS?

I know I'm sounding kind of worked up here...but I'm surprised you would accept the ineviability of this?

Here in my state we are working 24/7 to keep the DRE Voting Machines that only offer a toilet paper/thermo paper ballot as opposed to a full paper ballot that doesn't "fade" and can be recounted. We are working our butts off and actually have had a success in that 75% of NC will have Verifiable Paper Ballots which can be "hand" recounted. We were working against all odds...we had Bush Bots down here in league with our OWN DEMS working against us....but we didn't give up...and we won a 3/4 Victory.

How can you let the whole tradition of Horse Racing go down for "Slots/Betting Parlors/Bingo/Lotteries and all the other STUFF that goes with GAMBLING. INCLUDING ORGANIZED CRIME?

Wouldn't it be better to fight for UNION RIGHTS over allowing Slot Machines to replace Horses?

I know I'm going at you hard...and you have yourself to support and maybe family and kids and just can't get into this for the "long haul." But, please...where will this go? Will your job be MORE SECURE years OUT? What if this latest scam by the Repugs FAILS...shortly? Where will you be? Is it better to fight against this?

I don't know ...it's up to you and thanks for explaining the whole thing. I, for one, really didn't know that gambling interests from "other venues" were eroding the traditional sport here in the US...

Please don't take offense at my rant...but it seems a huge issue to Americans who don't know what's going on.

Peace and :-)'s

Abramoff was paid to STOP GAMBLING by those who didn't want competition.

Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition were useful in his plan.

Profit by not having Competition. That's what Abramoff was about. Working for those who didn't want competition.

Is that what it's come to? :-(

Good for Union!

Yes. America has that already with the RW Media Corps.

A problem or two.
The Kentucky legislature is fighting the same battle - uphill.
The tracks want the slots, and do not want to share the "bounty" with any other group.
I believe your situation is about the same as KY with a couple exceptions. There aren't union jobs to protect.
Should the bill pass in KY it's likely to have to pass Constitutional muster, since the state constitution was changed to accommodate the lottery in the early 90s without any reference to slots. The interpretations vary as to whether this new measure was intended at that earlier constitutional vote.
(BTW, James Carville was the guiding force behind getting Wallace Wilkinson elected on this single issue (way back then). Turned out to be a (Democratic) Crook.)
I oppose the Kentucky measure because the Blue Bloods are rich enough, imo. Share the wealth.
...O...

In other words...gambling with all other venues is better than raising horses? It gives a chance to the little guy to make some money?

But, what happens when the horse farms shut down. The horses go off to slaughter and the farms are sold off to developers who put it "Gated Golf Communities on all that "rolling farmland?"

Have you traded one culture for another just to allow folks to get addicted to gambling?

You will have a fast food restaurant on every corner and some upscale BB&Beyonds, Crate and Barrel, and some Steak Restaurants like Ruth Cris who will charge you 5 bucks for a baked potato "on the side"...and maybe a Chili's and a Cheesecake factory...but will it be worth it? :shrug: