Philly Casino Watch

Governor Ed Rendell said the following about the current council, “City Council with no guts that can be extorted by community groups.”

This is big news, and shows how the powers in Harrisburg are flexing their muscles in result of Mayor Nutter pulling the “riparian lands” license for the Sugar House Casino. Read about it in our post, Nutter Does Philly Right.

The Casino-Free Philadelphia Organization feels strongly about the recent developments, “Extorted by community groups? Give us break. We call it democracy, Rendell. It is not gutless to take leadership from the people. It does take guts to stand up to casino money. Rendell has his priorities screwed up.”

Northern Liberties resident Debbie King expressed her thoughts, “Who is the governor representing? Does he represent the people of Philadelphia or does he represent the special interests? If he represented the people, he would be looking at new locations for these casinos away from our neighborhoods.”

You can sign this petition in hopes of having Gov. Rendell retract his statements.

Sources:
casinofreephila.org
philly.metro.us

In the post “Thank you Mayor Street” by Jamie, he explains the situation in which previous Philadelphia Mayor Street passed the “riparian lands” license to begin building the Sugar House Casino. Well, it turns out that we are not the only ones who thought that it was the wrong move; Mayor Nutter is on our side (so it seems as of now)!

Mayor Nutter asked Commerce Director Bumb to revoke the license because it had been “issued in error” and was “unnecessarily rushed.” Nutter said the issue was “not just about money” and continued, “This is about proper process and procedure and how we conduct ourselves here in the city.”

Of course this has the Sugar House CEO Greg Carlin flipping out, “We have been advised by our legal team that the City’s action to rescind our submerged lands license is contrary to law given the pending litigation surrounding that license.”

Bumb countering Mr. Carlin’s comments states, “The city had not reviewed submerged lands for 20 years […] It was a little-known process involved here, and that probably should have caused us to be more cautious […] We hurried it more in a way that was helpful to the project.” But now he sees there are other factors that should not have been ignored, such as the community.

This is a huge victory for the city of Philadelphia, but it is only one small step in the right direction. It is an uphill battle that seems can never be won…or can it?

Check out this news clip!

Sources:
planphilly.com
philly.com

There is so much wrong with the establishment of Casinos in Philadelphia’s historic waterfront district that I am plagued with where to start and how to structure this Blog entry, while maintaining a professional tone and open mind to contrary beliefs. Casinos are bad for communities; they increase crime, overwhelm areas with social problems, destroy local small businesses, lower the quality of jobs, and so on…

Philadelphia’s police department has a hard enough task controlling the city as it is today, add two casinos with 24/7 free unlimited drinks into the equation, and the future looks grim at best. It’s no wonder why crime rates in casino communities are 84% higher than the national average. And these are not the drunken fist fight crimes; we are talking about rape, gun violence, and prostitution!

The social problems that come with the institution of casinos are countless; most notable will be the inevitable bankruptcy, addictions (gambling, drugs, alcohol, prostitution), suicide, homelessness, and many more horrible results from these infernal money machines. I could write an essay on the social evils of the industry citing hundreds of case studies, articles, and experiments – but in respect of the length of this Blog I will not…if you have further interest on this subject, you can start by Googling: casinos social implications.

Why go to the local pub and grab a $5.00 Guinness when you can go to the Casino and drink all night for FREE?! Sounds like a small business killer question to you too? On top of the negative effect it will have on local restaurants and pub’s, think about the traffic situation. They are estimating an additional 40,000 cars per day added in to the already backed up I-95! Delaware/Columbus Avenue are always congested now, add this extra traffic and imagine the gridlock, gas wastage, and additional pollution to the lovely waterfront district of Philadelphia.

So it seems the only argument left for a casino supporter would be, “what about all the extra tax money?” It’s so funny talking to these people – they think its all just “free” money, they notice none of the above problems of crime and social troubles – but rather just the “free” money. The reality is that almost every dollar generated in tax is from our own pockets (the majority of casino goers will be Pennsylvanians), and the other 50% of our dollar goes to the casino investor, whom I guarantee has the education behind him/her not to get addicted to a losing bet! These casinos are just another way for the government to take more money out of our pockets, when will it be enough?! The future makes me sick…and that is why I am Anti-Casino!