roponents
of legalizing casinos in Massachusetts promise that they will bring
numerous service sector jobs to boost economically depressed areas.
For the most part, that promise should hold true, according to
a report by the the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which
was created by Congress in 1996.
GARY HIGGINS/The Patriot Ledger
Valerie McDermott of Westerly, R.I., serves
free drinks to players at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.
The average pay for workers - from blackjack dealers to restaurant
and hotel employees - in large commercial casinos is said to
be $26,000.
“Casino gambling creates full-time entry-level jobs, which are
badly needed in communities suffering from chronic unemployment
and underemployment,” the report said.
But the report, issued in 1999, says that, for true economic development
to happen, a casino must be a large resort destination that allows
workers to unionize.
The Washington report says smaller casinos, which draw mostly
local patrons, do not provide enough jobs. Larger casinos, such
as Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, with their restaurants,
shops and other entertainment venues, do.
The report cautions states that casinos can have a negative impact
on other businesses.
For example, it says, Atlantic City businessmen testified that
casinos hurt them.
“As evidence of this impact, few businesses can be found more
than a few blocks from the Atlantic City Boardwalk,” the report
says.
The report noted that Atlantic City had 311 taverns before the
first casinos opened in 1978. In 1997, only 66 taverns were still
operating.
Atlantic City’s population also declined, from about 45,000 to
35,000, during the same period, which some economists attribute
to the introduction of casinos.
Economists say the key question Massachusetts lawmakers must ask
is whether casinos will create more jobs than they take away.
University of Illinois economist Earl Grinols says that when casinos
are introduced into a region, new jobs are often created at the
expense of existing ones.
‘‘Where casinos have had a positive effect, unemployment appears
to have been little affected even as employment gained,’’ Grinols
said at a 1995 Federal Reserve Bank symposium in Boston. ‘‘This
suggests that few of the jobs at casinos are filled by individuals
who are unemployed at the time of opening.’’
The National Gambling Impact Study Commission’s report puts casinos
into three categories: large commercial casinos, small commercial
casinos and American Indian casinos.
Only the large commercial casinos tend to be unionized.
Workers - from blackjack dealers to restaurant and hotel employees
- in large commercial casinos make an average of $26,000 a year,
the report says.
The report says workers in small commercial casinos earn $20,500
annually. Workers in the average American Indian casinos make $18,000.
Because union workers are paid more and get more benefits than
nonunion workers, the commission recommends that states require
casinos to be unionized.
In 1998, Matthew Walker, spokesman for the Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees International Union, testified before the commission
that 83 percent of Atlantic City’s unionized workers had health
insurance.
The union represents 80,000 of the more than 300,000 casino workers
in the country.
Walker said 95 percent of Atlantic City’s unionized casino workers
have pension plans “as compared to 45 percent of the private sector
work force nationally.”
During a recent interview, union spokesman Tom Snyder said the
data from the Washington report is still valid. “If anything,” he
said, “the gap between the large commercial casinos and the other
(casinos) has probably grown since our union has concluded very
strong new contracts since the commission’s study was published.”
Janice Loux, president of the Hotel Employees local in Boston,
said that if casinos come to Massachusetts, they should be unionized.
“For this to be creating good jobs that affect the economy in
a positive way, then there needs to be standards around these jobs,”
she said.
roponents
of legalizing casinos in Massachusetts promise that they will bring
numerous service sector jobs to boost economically depressed areas.
