Slots Opponents Up Ante for Tuesday’s City Council Meeting

Monday, June 03, 2013

Kate Nagle, GoLocalWorcester News Contributor

Debate is expected to continued on Tuesday at City Council over the Rush Street Gaming slots parlor proposal

Tuesday night's City Council meeting will once again take up the issue of a Rush Street Gaming slots parlor proposal in Worcester, and organized opposition to the project continues to turn up the heat.

"They're stacking the deck against us," said Ed Moynihan with Vote No Slots, regarding Rush Street Gaming. "Every day that goes by gives us less time to cross our "T"s and dot out "i"s. The longer the process gets delayed, the less time there would be for information to get out to the voters."

As of last week, the hotel plan that had been part of the project as initially proposed appeared to be off the table, and the city and Rush Street Gaming officials were unable to come to an agreement on money earmarked for consultants.

"The proposal as initially pitched to Worcester included a hotel, which a number of folks got behind because of the city's room needs," said Moynihan. "Now it looks like us they want us to take the negatives -- crime, problem gambling, traffic -- and not provide any of the benefits they initially promised. In our view, any deal now has become even worse if there's no hotel component."

No Slots Group Pushing for Information Asked by Council

A petition has be filed asking the Council to vote to end negotiations. In an e-mail update that went out on last Thursday, No Slots reiterated the requests made by City Councilor Joe O'Brien at the last City Council meeting, which included:

* Electronic copies of the city of Springfield’s host agreement with MGM for a full casino

* A report on Rush Gaming’s ongoing labor disputes in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

* A breakdown of Rush Gaming’s job classifications, wage schedules, and benefits, including employer/employee contributions

* How Rush Street Gaming intends to meet the Massachusetts’ Gaming Commission’s requirement for a labor harmony agreement

* A report on the feasibility of Worcester to require, ask, negotiate a cap on expenditures used for referendum campaigning

Regarding the reports requested, a representative for Rush Street told GoLocal "there were a number of them, and Mass Gaming & Entertainment has been providing information since then."

Ed Moynihan testifying at a previous slots forum.

Timing, Motives Questioned

"The plans have been shifting seemingly day-to-day," said Moynihan. "What raises a red flag is that Rush Street has not been forthcoming with a plan, and as we just saw, they wouldn't even approve the funds necessary for consultants for the city to broker a host agreement, as required."

"So what bothers me, and others opposed to this, is that Rush Street Gaming is already dictating to the City what they can or cannot do to protect the best interests of the voters."

"It's our view that it's time for the City Council to put an end to this, to wasting time when there are more important issues that the council should be dealing with," said Moynihan.