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by: Gene Koprowski.
The latest gambling push has an aura of inevitability. All three political leaders on Beacon Hill, Boston, enthusiastically support expanded gambling.

Governor Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray have been lobbying for casinos, but former House speaker Salvatore DiMasi blocked it last year. But, he's retired, and a new Speaker, Robert A. DeLeo, who has long supported slot machines, is in power.

The state legislature is expected to extract the best elements from the bills and introduce a new gambling bill by January.





With the economic recession and the governor’s announcement this week that he may eliminate 1,000 to 2,000 state jobs, labor and business leaders seized on casinos with open desperation, saying that the threat of social ills from gambling could be managed while the devastating realities of unemployment could not be.

“There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more debilitating and difficult to deal with than not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from,’’ said Bob Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “Destination resort gaming offers hope to families that are struggling, plain and simple."



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