Community Corner

Letter to the Editor: Jobs for Foxboro Issues Rebuttal to No Foxboro Casino Claims

Verifiable data refutes misleading allegations regarding Wynn Resorts DVD.

 

From Jobs for Foxboro:

Jobs for Foxboro (JFF) released a detailed rebuttal to misleading claims published on the NoFoxboroCasino.com website.

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Exposing NoFoxboroCasino.com’s claims as wrong, the JFF rebuttal counters every claim, citing peer-reviewed, independent national studies and other widely available public information that demonstrates how the economic benefits of a destination resort casino far outweigh impacts.

“Widely available, independent, and verifiable evidence directly contradicts the nonsense that NoFoxboroCasino.com continues to publish,’” said Scott Farmelant, spokesman for Jobs for Foxboro. “Truth is, community after community across the United States have comfortably integrated destination resorts and reaped tremendous economic benefits and millions in new tax revenue in the process.”

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NoFoxboroCasino.com’s recent “rebuttal” to the Wynn Resorts DVD and letter provided inaccurate data reportedly taken from the 2001 study by professors Earl Grinols and David Mustard. (http://129.3.20.41/eps/le/papers/0509/0509001.pdf.) Statistics cited by NoFoxboroCasino.com are not included in this Grinols and Mustard study. Nor are the cited statistics included in a 2006 study by Grinols and Mustard called “Casino, Crime and Community Costs.”

NoFoxboroCasino.com continues to make its claims based work by Grinols and Mustard that has been proven to incorporate flawed data. A 2008 study by economist Douglas Walker highlighted serious flaws in Grinols’ and Mustard’s 2006 study, such as selection bias and incomplete data.  

In addition to citing unsubstantiated percentage increases in crime from an unknown location, NoFoxboroCasino.com also cites and attributes a statistic to Boston Magazine regarding school rankings that was never published.

In the detailed, five-page rebuttal, Jobs for Foxboro noted more than 20 points, including:

  -A February 26, 2012 report by the Associated Press demonstrated that major crime (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft) fell by 35-percent and 25-percent in the Connecticut communities that host casinos.

  -The Town of Foxboro has more than $100 million in future obligations, including unfunded employee retirement liabilities and capital debt, undercutting any claim that Foxboro does not need new revenue sources.

-Voters in Iowa, who by law must vote on whether to approve or reject casinos every eight years, endorsed legal casino gaming in 2010 by an average of 78.5-percent, up from 74-percent in 2002. This fact undercuts claims that casinos are not widely accepted in communities where they are located.

 -The leading opponent of a casino recently developed in Pennsylvania, Rev. David Wickmann of the Moravian Church, admitted that predicted dire consequences related to crime never came to pass and that the casino had no impact on the community’s character. Reverend Wickmann is one of many former casino opponents who later declared they had been wrong about feared impacts.

Wynn Resorts will create 4,000 permanent jobs and thousands of additional jobs in construction and related businesses. The proposed resort would deliver amenities such as a five-diamond hotel, a convention center, a luxury spa, up to 10 fine dining establishments, a performance arts theater, and high-end retail shops.

About Jobs for Foxboro

Jobs for Foxboro supports the resort destination concept unveiled by Wynn Resorts. The organization is comprised of Foxboro residents and is committed to engaging the Town about the potential benefits and issues associated with a mixed-use destination convention hotel and casino. 

As a best-in-class operator of resort destinations, Wynn Resorts is capable of delivering thousands of sustainable jobs to the region and creating a lasting revenue stream for the town that provides a secure financial future for Foxboro.

By engaging in positive dialogue about the potential benefits and issues associated with the proposed development and gathering credible, verifiable third-party research regarding the impacts of destination resort casinos (such as the United States National Gambling Impact Study conducted by a panel of leading academics and experts under the direction on the President, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader), town residents will be best able to make an informed decision at a town-wide referendum.

 


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