Quote of the Day

“Everybody including Twin River, the competitor across the border 17 miles away in Rhode Island, projected that Penn [National Gaming] would do more than it’s been doing. Exactly why it isn’t, nobody’s quite sure. Whether it’s that you can’t smoke or you have to be 21, we don’t know for sure what it is … Plainridge [Park] has about 500 jobs, about 20% of those people were hired off the unemployment rolls, and Plainridge has generated $80-plus million in tax revenue. From the standpoint of the negative consequences, there have been no serious traffic problems since the first day, we have a very careful study done of any crime of any kind in all of the surrounding communities … there has been zero increase in crime in the first six months owing to the casino.” — Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby, projecting $300 million in annual revenue for the commonwealth of Massachusetts when all the state’s casinos are open.