Salem Observer : Salem, gambling

Salem officials hope this is the year for expanded gambling

Salem Editor — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:18:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

As the Senate prepares to tackle the state budget, officials in Salem have their fingers crossed that this will the year that expanded gambling comes to the Rockingham Park Racetrack.

“It’s been going on for years. I remember them talking about this in the ’90s. We need it,” said Patrick Hargreaves, a selectman and a lifelong resident of Salem. “I remember the Rock in its heyday. It was packed. The parking lot was filled from one end to the other. It was fantastic.”

Hargreaves, along with other town officials believes this might be the best, and last chance, to bring video slot machines to Rockingham Park along with the expected added tax revenue and new jobs to the community. On the eve of the senate debate over the budget – which includes $185 million in expected revenue from expanded gambling across the state – Arthur Barnes, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, hand delivered letters to each of the state senators, urging them to carefully consider bringing video slot machines to Rockingham Park.

According to Selectman Elizabeth Roth, residents have historically come out in support of expanded gambling in their community, passing three nonbinding referendums in favor of the proposition in recent memory.

In April, residents again voiced support for bringing video slots to Salem during a forum held by Millennium Gaming, which owns an option to purchase the racetrack if expanded gambling passes in New Hampshire, at Rockingham Park.

“I don’t think it is a panacea for all of our taxes, but the Rock has been traditionally helpful to community. In that respect alone, I have always been a strong proponent of expanded gambling so the racetrack could survive in our town,” she said. “We are on the losing end if this does not pass the legislature. I’ve got my fingers crossed to hope that it will.”

Were lawmakers to approve expanded gambling, Millennium Gaming plans to build a $450 million permanent facility at Rockingham Park and have a temporary casino operating within seven months.

Advocates of expanded gambling say the construction would bring jobs and revenue to the community as it has with Washington County, Pa., where another Millennium Gaming owned combination racetrack and casino brought in over $230 million in the first year of operation and along with it, continued economic growth.

Selectman Everett McBride described the present situation in New Hampshire as at a “breaking point.” The racetrack needs the revenue that expanded gambling is expected to bring in just as both the state and the town are searching for new revenue streams of their own, he said.

“For us, it’s a positive thing. Overwhelmingly, we’ve supported it at the ballot box. The community is behind it for sure,” McBride said.

McBride also pointed to the ongoing Texas Hold’em tournaments, bingo nights and craps games held at the racetrack already as a bright spot for local charities and nonprofit organizations who benefit from gaming proceeds as well as proof that expanded gambling would not impact the quality of life in the community.

“If you went to the racetrack on a Sunday, you would see there is plenty of gambling going on ... They can say we don’t have it, but they’re just kidding themselves,” he said. “Texas Hold’em is gambling. The state can say we don’t have gambling, but we do. In Salem (gambling) is not a problem.”

According to Ed Callahan, Rockingham Park’s general manager, the racetrack has pursued bringing in video slots since the early ’90s when the Lincoln Park greyhound track in Rhode Island successfully incorporated the machines into their operation. Since then, more than a dozen states have allowed for expanded gambling, something Callahan would like to see happen in New Hampshire.

Callahan is hoping the latest push for expanded gambling will come to fruition this time around, but said he would hesitate to put money on it.

“I’m in the gambling business, and it is a very rare occurrence that I can pick the the winning horse. Generally, I don’t pick ’em,” he said. “I hope the Legislature will look very closely at expanded gambling.”

Advocates say N.H. can still beat Bay State to expand gambling

Salem Editor — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:50:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

Though he does not come to the Rockingham Park racetrack regularly, Dennis Hansbury doesn’t think the prospect of casinos across the border will lure him away in the future.

A Massachusetts resident, Hansbury – who spent a Friday evening watching simulcast horse racing in the racetrack’s Sports Club – believes that if legislators in Boston allow for expanded gambling in the Commonwealth it will take away some of the business from the racetrack.

“It would (have an impact),” he said, adding that the casinos in Connecticut would probably also lose half of their business.

With lawmakers in Massachusetts getting set to debate a bill in both the House and Senate in the fall to expand gambling, advocates of expanded gambling in New Hampshire hope the competition will provide the motivation to allow 15,000 video slot machines in facilities across the Granite State, including Rockingham Park.

Though the New Hampshire Senate bill was tabled last month, Lou D’Allesandro, D-Manchester, said the effort to expand gambling in New Hampshire is not yet dead. Both the economic downturn and the push around New England to expand gambling have become major assets, he said, but being first in the market has its advantages, and he stressed the importance of beating Massachusetts out of the gate.

Richard Killion, a spokesman for an expanded gambling advocacy group, Fix It Now, and Millennium Gaming, which holds an option to buy Rockingham Park, said even if Massachusetts were to pass expanded gambling legislation before New Hampshire does, video slots at the racetrack would bring in over $200 million in revenue.

Were lawmakers to approve expanded gambling in New Hampshire, Millennium Gaming plans to build a $450 million permanent facility at Rockingham Park and have a temporary facility up and running within seven months, according to Killion.

“Rockingham Park is uniquely positioned on the Massachusetts border. Up to 70 percent of the visits would come from Massachusetts. We know we can compete with anybody, even if they have expanded gambling in Massachusetts,” Killion said. “Let there be no doubt – which is why New Hampshire should seriously look at this now – there are significant benefits to be the first in the marketplace. The first is being the first to position yourself by really marketing yourself and developing a customer base.”

According to Killion, Millennium Gaming did two studies on the potential revenue from a permanent facility at Rockingham Park. Without competition from expanded gambling across the border, Millennium expects to draw in roughly $418.2 million.

The second study – based on the three casino model lawmakers in Massachusetts pursued in 2007 – estimated the racetrack would earn about $286.9 million.

The Meadows, a Millennium owned racetrack and casino in southwestern Pennsylvania, which advocates cite as a model for the future of the Salem racetrack, has thrived despite its location only a half an hour away from casinos in West Virginia, Killion said.

“Competition is not something to shy away from. There would be an impact (from expanded gambling in Massachusetts), but that impact is further mitigated by being first in the marketplace,” he said.

With about 80 percent of his clientele already making the trip from Massachusetts, Rockingham Park’s General Manager Ed Callahan believes expanded gambling in that state could have an effect on business, but said that any impact would depend on where the casinos set up shop and whether or not video slots had already come to the racetrack.

Not everyone believes that the promise of casinos in Massachusetts will lure away patrons from Rockingham Park.

William Armstrong, a Derry resident and native of Kentucky and having grown up near Churchill Downs, has been coming to the racetrack for 28 years and does not see expanded gambling across the border as a threat to the racetrack.

Still, he does not understand why legislators have not given expanded gambling the green light.

“People are going to gamble whether they go to Foxwoods, come here or go to their buddy’s house for poker. It doesn’t make a difference,” Armstrong said. “We’re all going to hell anyway. Why not go out cheaply?”

Comparing casinos - Proponents say Rockingham would be a success like others

Salem Editor — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:53:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

A few hundred miles south of Rockingham Park, Barry Endy, 75, has spent much of his life in the Pennsylvanian township of North Strabane where he has watched the community grow up around a racetrack reinvigorated by a new casino.

“The entire area has been built up around it,” he said. “They put in a large shopping outlet, which just opened, right near the interstate. At this point it’s done a lot for the township.”

Endy has seen what was once rural farmland undergo two economic booms, the first coming with the original construction of the Meadows racetrack in the ’60s and a second following fast on the heels of the addition of a new casino – set to open in April – that will house roughly 3,700 slot machines.

Now new retail outlets and hotels have sprung up and property taxes have dropped, a year and a half after the casino opened for business in a temporary facility.

Owned by Millennium Gaming, the same company which holds an option to purchase the Rockingham Park racetrack, the success of the Meadows Racetrack and Casino so far has gambling advocates in New Hampshire pointing not to Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but a community of roughly 12,000 residents nestled just south of Pittsburgh.

“It’s the very apt comparison,” said Richard Killion, a spokesman for the special interest group focused on getting legislation allowing the installation of slots at Rockingham Park, Fix It Now, and Millennium Gaming.

“It can be a great success here. We’re happy to talk about the Meadows because it is the most important comparison. Atlantic City or Las Vegas is not only an inappropriate comparison, it’s complete nonsense. It’s akin to comparing an elm tree to a cactus.”

According to Killion, Millennium is planning to undertake a $450 million casino-building project that supporters say will bring tens of thousands of new jobs to Salem. The project hinges on a bill that senators tabled earlier this month that would allow the installation of 15,000 video slot machines in facilities across the state.

The licensing fees from the slots alone would yield $50 million for the state up front, Killion said.

While slots advocates also point to the estimated $200 million in revenue the casino could bring to the state – based on the success of the Meadows, which earned more than $230 million in its first year – critics argue that the effect on the local communities outweighs the benefits.

“New Hampshire is the safest state in the country and Nevada has the highest crime rate in the country … It’s a major contributor to our quality of life and results in us having healthy communities and healthy kids. We don’t want to give that up,” said Jim Rubens, director of the Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling. “The money that would come from taxing slots is not enough to compensate from the increases in criminal justice costs, welfare, embezzlement and on down the line.”

Though Rubens points to the continued opposition to gambling legislation held by the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police, Salem’s Chief Paul Donovan said his department could put the revenue coming from the slots to good use, like funding the construction of a new police station.

“By far, the stuff that is coming across the border right now is far worse to deal with than what we would see at the Rock,” Donovan said. “The Rock has been part of Salem for a hundred years. We will benefit from the Rock getting the slots … The thing that amazes me the most is that people try to compare slots to big casinos in Atlantic City and Nevada. This is not going to be that. I worry more about the drugs and the organized shoplifting gangs.”

Outside of a surge in traffic along the roads in the immediate vicinity of the racetrack and casino, Endy – not a gambler himself – said the community has not seen any negative impact from the Meadows Casino.

“The racetrack has been there so long it’s kind of a fixture, and that softened the impact (of adding a casino) in many ways. People have always been aware that it’s there. We all kind of grew up with it,” Endy said. “I have not heard of any real complaints.”

Game on – Salem officials speak in favor of video gambling at Rockingham

Salem Editor — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:59:00 GMT

BY MATT HERSH

With the prospect of video gambling at Rockingham Park on the horizon once again, town officials and residents have told the state House of Representatives that they’re in full support.

Several officials, along with Rockingham Park manager Ed Callahan, testified before a House Ways and Means subcommittee recently in hopes of convincing the state to pass a pro-gaming bill that could bring revenue to the state.

The revenue might be used to alleviate the state’s education funding issues and also bring money to other state programs.

If passed, the bill could bring about dramatic changes for the struggling 170-acre horse racing park.

Callahan has been pushing for video slot machines and other forms of gambling for 13 years.

In recent years, the park stopped hosting thoroughbred racing because it can’t afford to, Callahan said.

Making ends meet has become a challenge, he said.

But if the raceway had state approval to host gambling, Callahan said he envisions an entirely renovated facility with slot machines, restaurants and live entertainment.

“The eventuality is that racing will not sustain itself,” he said. “With the introduction of gaming, we could draw a bigger crowd and it would be very beneficial to the local community.”

The possibility of casinos being built in Massachusetts has also added pressure to the situation, according to Callahan. Middleborough, Mass., recently approved a Wampanoag casino to be built in town, but the proposal still has to be approved by state officials.

Many Salem residents have long supported allowing gambling at the park.

Two nonbinding referendums that approved gambling at Rockingham Park were passed in 1994 and again in 2003. Despite the residents’ push, the New Hampshire Legislature nixed the idea both times.

Town Manager Henry LaBranche said that though the majority of Salem residents approve of the plan, anti-gambling advocates have also spoken before state officials, citing increased crime and other negative effects of gaming.

“I think that some people are opposed because they believe gambling is an addiction, and it creates other social problems,” he said.

Still, Salem Police Chief Paul Donovan, who also testified recently, said these anti-gambling sentiments are often misconceptions.

“It’s a knee-jerk reaction and some people think (any gambling) is going to be a criminal enterprise,” he said. “But if it is controlled and regulated properly, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. Personally, I see this as beneficial. That’s why I went up there to speak.”

Selectman Arthur Barnes, who joined Donovan in testifying, said he went to represent the people of Salem, but he’s not completely for bringing gaming to Rockingham Park.

“Personally, I’m not opposed to it but I’m not a strong supporter of it either,” he said. “But since I was selected to testify, I’ve received many calls about (gaming). Eighty percent of the people I talked to were for (gaming).”

While the state may need more revenue to fund education and other programs, gambling isn’t the only possibility. The Ways and Means Committee has also formed subcommittees on sales tax and another on smaller taxes and fees.

An income tax subcommittee was quickly disbanded after it was formed.

Callahan said he intends to keep lobbying for gaming at the park. Otherwise, Rockingham Park may end up being sold to developers in the future, he said.

“The town should have the option to vote on this for real, but to be honest, most of the legislature doesn’t give a damn about Salem,” he said. “Regretfully, the timeline on this doesn’t keep extending. We just can’t afford to do what we used to do. There are a lot of people on our side, but we have the rest of the state to convince and that’s not easy.”

Elks caught gambling on Super Bowl

Salem Editor — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:18:00 GMT

BY MATT HERSH

Due to illegal betting during the Super Bowl, the Derry-Salem Elks Lodge may lose its liquor license.

Members of the Elks were placing bets on football squares, a popular form of gambling where money is won each quarter of the game by matching randomly drawn numbers to the score.

A pot of $6,100 was seized from the Lodge on Feb. 4, along with the board of squares, according to Lt. Kyle Metcalf of the New Hampshire Liquor Commission.

Metcalf said the betting was discovered by officer Aaron Chapple, who was patrolling for violations on Super Bowl Sunday as part of a statewide search of bars and clubs.

Members of the club will have to appear before the commission in the near future, but a date has yet to be determined, Metcalf said.

While the penalty the lodge will receive is still up in the air, Metcalf said it could involve losing its license or having to pay a fine.

Metcalf said this kind of betting is common and has been increasing lately. The commission recently cited the American Legion in Plaistow for an illegal card game and raffle.

While many places like the Elks and American Legion like to hold events for charities, any gambling must be state-sanctioned and approved by the commission, attorney general and local police.

Members of the Derry-Salem Elks lodge could not be reached for comment.