Speech before the NH Gambling Committee

State sponsored gambling is Reverse Robin Hood, steal from the poor, and give to the rich.
Gamblers are our poorer, disadvantaged and less educated citizens. We call them losers, and upon entering a casino, they lose again. Dunno about you, but I am squeamish about fleecing losers.
The losers will be New Hampshire citizens. People won’t fly in from the west coast, or even drive up from Boston to play slots at Indian Head. Gambling takes money from the poor of New Hampshire. Gambling doesn’t create wealth, it merely redistributes it.
The casino management will be experienced out of state people, from Vegas and Atlantic City, mostly with Mob connections. The Mob started Vegas and still controls it, politely of course. Same goes for Atlantic City. You can’t find an experienced casino manager who isn’t tied to the Mob.
Jobs promised by the gambling “industry” are bottom level, waiting tables, making beds, sweeping floors, no health benefits, no career path. The only winners are casino operators. They get their cut before any taxes are paid. They also do the books. Want to bet they show humongous expenses, no profit and hence owe no taxes?
SB 490 sets up a gambling commission with juicy jobs. The commissioners get $50 million license fees with no obligation to put the money into the state treasury. They get the power to revoke casino licenses. The casinos will go out of their way to treat the commissioners right. Free meals, free drinks, free this and that, walking around money, a split on the take. What other under the table kickbacks can they invent?
The commissioners can do criminal record checks on casino employees but don’t have to divulge the results to anyone without a court order. Prevents the citizens from getting upset about the Mob connections of people in the gambling business.

Tourists contribute a lot to the New Hampshire economy. We get incredible numbers of tourists from out of state and over seas. They come to experience the New Hampshire advantage, natural beauty, mountains, woods, lakes, rivers. They climb, hike, camp, ride the tramway, hunt, fish, ski, leaf watch. Many of them love New Hampshire so much they build taxable vacation homes and ski chalets. Casinos are tacky, casino people are tacky, and casino customers (gamblers) are unattractive. Garish neon signs on the Indian Head on the way into Franconia Notch are a turn off. Let’s not drive off the paying tourists by turning upstate New Hampshire into Las Vegas with pine trees.