By Rosalie Tirella
Yesterday, driving around, running my biz – new issue of InCity Times hits stands this Friday – I had the chance to talk with lots of folks. Some interesting nuggets of information:
One fellow and his wife were pretty frequent visitors to one of the big Indian casinos in CT. One year they spent $80,000 gambling. They did not spend their mortgage/bill money, but extra dough. At the end of the year, if you are a high roller at a casino, they send you a letter, a print out telling you how much $$ you spent. Because this man spent so much money, he earned a lot of casino POINTS. These points were like free dollars to be spent at the casino’s restaurants and retail stores. All casinos and slots parlors do this. The guy said he never paid for a meal. The dinners were always free because of the points. Drinks too. Even clothing and other goodies at the shops. One year they did all their Christmas shopping at the casino’s mall with all the POINTS they had earned.
The man said you are given points to keep you gambling in the casino. You are fed and watered and everything else so you can lose …$80,000 in one year. At the casino.
Sometimes the man and his wife would not take the highway, but as a kind of scenic jaunt, drive the backroads between Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, explore the towns between the casinos. NO STORES, RESTAURANTS, DINERS -anything – could be found in these towns. All commercial life was dead. The casino had sucked the life out of all the neighboring downtowns. Ghost towns, as far as commercial activity went.
The man said, within a five mile radius of the casinos, NO COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY.
Points also got him free nights at the hotel owned and operated by the casino. Well, one night his points earned him a room, a room so huge, with a living room area, dining room, baths, seating area, it felt miles long. Luxury room. Free. To keep him and his wife gambling spending … $80,000 in one year.
Something to consider: WHY THE HELL ISN’T THE CITY OF WORCESTER HEALTH DEPT CHIMING IN ABOUT THE PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEMS CAUSED BY GAMBLING. WHERE THE FUCK IS THE NEW PUBLIC HEALTH DIRECTOR, DEREK BRINDISI?
Probably kissing his bosses’, especially the city managet’s ass. Too afraid to speak the truth about gambling addiction. Too afraid to come out and say how a slots.parlor will affect the nearby Green Island families and homes. Hell, his office is right on Meade Street, practically across the street from the slots parlor site, Wyman Gordon. How ironic in a pathetic sort of way.
If Dr. Morse were still the director of Worcester’s public health dept., you can bet he would be at the vanguard of protests. In his very polite, sweet way he would disagree with his bosses and take the stand closest to his doctor’s heart.
Not Brindisi. A pointless twerp. Nothing more than a municipal p.r. flak and yes man. City Hall is filled with ass-kissers like Brindisi who will shut their pieholes at times like these to keep their $100,000-a-year jobs.
Dr. Morse broke the mold.
Brindisi is mold.