Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist: Boston doesn’t need a casino anymore

Massachusetts Gambling

MGM Resorts International via Springfield Republican / AP

This Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012, file photo of an artist rendering provided by MGM Resorts International via The Republican shows part of a proposed casino complex in Springfield, Mass.

Boston doesn't need it anymore.

The city’s booming economy is the best argument against building a Boston-area casino — and for repealing the law that allows it.

The cranes tell the story. They are everywhere in Boston, tangible evidence of the new urgency to build. Their presence means there’s work for the building trades — diminishing labor’s need to promote a slots palace in Everett or Revere as the only job development plan in town. In April, the Boston unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If jobs are the rationale, the state can do without casinos, too. In May, the overall jobless rate for the state fell to 5.6 percent, the lowest in six years.

Sure, many people still need work, but casinos are no longer the best medicine for a state suffering the ill effects of a national recession. Not that they ever were.

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