Tag Archives: slots parlor

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

No slots parlor! It’s a five minute drive from …

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By Rosalie Tirella

… my beloved neighborhood! My quiet, pretty, old timey Worcester neighborhood, Quinsigamond Village. Cars going to the slots parlor, which Rush Street Gaming is proposing to build next next door to the Blackstone Valley Shoppes on MCCRACKEN Road, are gonna zip by my three decker and the cute little single family homes. Yesterday, I laid out in my big backyard, with trees all around me, Greenwood Park across the street looking lush with its own trees heavy with dark, green leaves. I was reading Hemingway and thought to myself, Wonderful. I found myself lost in the nature Hemingway was describing, while ensconced in my own urban Paradise.

Why bring in noise pollution, traffic, air pollution, the lowest form of gambling to fuck up Hemingway? Why trash up a sweet little hood like my Quinsig Village just because Rush Street gaming wants to degrade our region? Why have them hurt my neighborhood’s mom and pop businesses? Heck, why even damage the businesses at the Blackstone shops? What will happen to the Apple Bees and other fast food type pubs that are part of this open air mall? The slots parlor will offer the same third tier grub. And if local gamblers (slots only pull in folks from the region) spend their money on slots will they have enough expendable income leftover to buy clothes and gadgets at the Blackstone Shoppes?

Shame on Senator Mike Moore for duping good, basic folks in a cute little Central Massachusetts town, Millbury. A town that used to be a mill town but is now attracting young yuppie couples with kids from the Boston area. People who did not move to Central Massachusetts for slots! They are folks who came here for the great homes at a relatively low price tag. They even came for the nature, for our many trees …. They too want to read Hemingway on their lawns in peace.

The traffic ob McCracken Road, already a nightmare when I make my way to the Shoppes, especially during the Christmas shopping season, will be BRUTAL. People will be driving through Quinsig Village, by my three decker in Greenwood Street. The gamblers will then zip through the cute little residential neighborhoods of Millbury.

Can you imagine former Senator Ed Augustus going for this garbage and noise and pollution and traffic , not to mention the gambling addictions that will hurt iindividuals and families. FAMILIES. CHILDREN.

This is all so heartbreaking.

NO SLOTS IN MILLBURY!

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Millbury’s slots problem is Worcester’s slots problem

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By Rosalie Tirella

Amazing! Rush Gaming regrouped so quickly – to pull this – proposing a slots parlor in Millbury, the town right next door to Worcester! If you don’t think a slots parlor will impact Woo, think again. Several years ago, I had a conversation with the owner of a pub/bar on Millbury Street. It was struggling. I asked why … The person said since the Blackstone Shoppes, with their Apple Bees and other free standing restaurants opened in Millbury, people have been driving by their exit on the highway to get to  the Apple Bees, etc in Millbury. They sorta shared the same types of customers. Apple Bees “ate” into (excuse the bad pun) their customer base.

Example #2 I live in Quinsig Village, home to eateries and other businesses. One biz person recently told me his morning crowd has diminished since the Rt 146 connector was constructed and drivers – his morning crowd – stopped traveling down Greenwood Street like they used to. An entire group of customers – poof! Traveling down a different road.

If slots come to Millbury, these Worcester businesses, many fragile, will take another huge hit of competition. I believe that the damage will go as far as the Canal District.

And the social ills will be with us, too. The same Worcester gamblers will be heading a few miles down the road to Millbury – not the Wyman Gordon site. Big problems for families and individuals – from Woo, Millbury and beyond.

We need to make Millbury’s business our business and educate their selectmen, small biz folks, church groups, etc. STOP the Millbury Slots Parlor!

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Doubling Down on Gambling in Atlantic City

When it was built, Revel emphasized luxury and did not allow smoking. Now it has a large smoking area.
Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

By KATE ZERNIKE

July 6, 2013

ATLANTIC CITY — Known simply as Revel, the newest addition to this gambling city was going to be different.

The emphasis was on luxury, with the Himalayan salt grotto in the spa, the botanic garden winding toward a rooftop pool, the Michelin chefs instead of all-you-can-eat buffets. There was no smoking in its 47 stories, and with floor-to-ceiling windows offering vistas onto the Atlantic Ocean, you could almost forget the seedier streets at its back. There was a casino, but it was self-contained on one floor, as if it were an aside. This was a resort, its promoters said, that happened to have gambling.

Little more than a year after opening, Revel is sorry. Deeply, dearly sorry.

And it is an expensive apology. As it fights its way back from bankruptcy, Revel announced that it would refund all slot losses and match all other casinos’ promotions for the month of July. Revel cost $2.4 billion to open and has spent millions more in recent months to install diner-fare restaurants, more slot machines and air filtration systems — because it now allows smoking, too. Buttons worn by employees and billboards along the Atlantic City Expressway declare its new slogan: “Gamblers Wanted.” And its new official name: Revel Casino Hotel. …

To read entire story, click here!

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Thank you, Worcester Police Chief Gemme, for coming out against the Slots Parlor!

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By Rosalie Tirella

Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme has recommended that the City of Worcester NOT BUILD A SLOTS PARLOR in Green Island.

His reasons? They are listed in a report he has prepared for City Manager Mike O’Brien (public record) and include:

More crime and traffic problems for an area of town that already suffers from …

an inordinate amount of: assaults, aggravated assaults, traffic violations, prostitution.

In his report. the chief wrote that the area is already a challenge to police/keep safe. A slots parlor on the old Wyman Gordon site will make things even more difficult for the families and businesses of the neighborhood and stretch an already thinly stretched Worcester Police Department force (due to lay offs and early retirements).

In his report, the chief notes that it will also cost $$$$ to police the area/keep it safe. Two million visits per year to the slots parlor, 3,000 cars per day to the slots parlor will call for 16 hours of Worcester police officers patrolling the site per day. This “police detail” will cost Worcester taxpayers MORE THAN $2 MILLION (TWO MILLION!!!) a year.

These days Worcester is blooming and looking great with all our development! We do NOT NEED a slots parlor to muck things up for us.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Slots parlors, our city health dept. head, and big rooms

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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.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Rush Street Gaming is not looking out for the city’s best interests

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By Rosalie Tirella

So many people have come up with other creative uses for the Wyman Gordon site in Green Island. For years the people of Green Island have been clamoring for a supermarket for that site, a full service grocery store that offers its customers FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES, fresh fish, etc. Years ago, we had Supreme Market and Buellar Brothers Market and a fruit store – all on Millbury Street. Long gone. For these past four decades we’ve had freaking Honey Farms on Millbury Street. Canned Spam, canned crap, high prices. Depressing. And unhealthy for many Green Islanders who do not own cars and are forced to do their grocery shopping at a CONVENIENCE STORE.

Then there was a call for a bank branch and maybe a Walmart. Residents wanted a place to shop and, seeing Walmart is now in the grocery business, buy their groceries at a reasonable price.

Those Wyman Gordon dreams also bit the dust.

Now we have Rush Street Gaming breathing hot and heavy over the site. Slots dreams. What a pathetic joke to play on the people of Green Island, people who need the basic amenities – and have not gotten them.

Now here is my Wyman Gordon site dream. Piggy backing on Deb Cary’s idea, I am suggesting a SUPER FAMILY FUN PARK. A Whalom Park/Water Park/Miniature Golf/Batting Cages PLUS a family style restaurant for the site. A bonanza of fun for kids of all ages! A rollercoaster, The Scrambler, The Whip, Bumper Cars, The Spider, a haunted house, a lovely ephemeral Merry-go-round. Huge brightly colored water slides and spray park water flourishes, batting cages, fun wall climbing, game stands, concession stands, a sit down family restaurant. The Wyman Gordon site could accommodate all of this stuff. It would draw thousands of people from Worcester and Central MA and Metro West. Possibly even beyond ….

Great idea. Rush Street Gaming could build it – they are in the game biz after all, n’est ce pas?

Well, FORGEDABOUTIT!

The only reason Rush Street Gaming and the owner of the Wyman Gordon site are doing something with this mammoth brownfield is that with slots they make BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. With the super amusement park, they would make dough, BUT NOT ENOUGH. NOT THE KILLING THEY KNOW THEY WILL MAKE WITH SLOTS. THE GREEN ISLAND HOOD BE DAMNED. It is not about the people. Not about Worcester.

A friend of mine, a well-off friend, told me she and her hubby went gambling at Mohegan Sun. She lost the $500 her husband gave her to spend in about 10 minutes. He lost his $500 shortly after she did. He gave her some more dough to gamble away and she lost all that $$$ real fast, too.

That is what slots and gaming are made to do … Take a ton of your money real fast. The amount of cash slots will bring in, millions of dollars per slot machine, can never be equaled by the lowly amusement park cum water slides. That’s why Rush Street Gaming is here! To make billions of dollars, easily, quickly, consequences be damned. How quaint of us to think Rush would go for Merry-go-rounds and exercise for city kids!

Rush Street Gaming is bent on economic rape. And if the voters of Worcester approve their plans, we will be taking it up the ass, without wanting to, FOR DECADES.

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Economic development? Buy outs and lay offs!

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From the Niagara Falls Review. – R. T.:

Slot attendants offered buy-outs from Niagara Casinos

John Law 

By John Law, Niagara Falls Review

Friday, February 1, 2013 4:04:35 EST PM

Niagara Casinos has offered all 92 of its slot attendants voluntary buy-out packages.

The offer extends to attendants at both Casino Niagara and the Niagara Fallsview Casino. Employees have until Feb. 5 to decide.

The buy-outs were announced during a mandatory meeting with slot attendants and lead slot attendants Thursday, a day after Casino Niagara closed for a day because of renovations to the building’s electrical system.

Greg Medulun, Niagara Casinos director of communications, stressed the buy-outs are voluntary – there will be no job losses or layoffs. But staffing schedules and numbers “have fallen out of sync with our business needs.”

“There has been almost zero turnover in the last number of years in that area.”

A similar buy-out was offered two years ago to all full-time, non-unionized staff at both casinos. Seventy employees accepted, including four slot attendants.

The new package for slot attendants includes three weeks for every year of service (up to 26 weeks) …

Click here to read entire story!

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

“Slots” of times … times like these call for …

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Bob Marley and the Wailers. Not only did Marley write some of the greatest love songs of all time (listen to one of my faves – WAITING IN VAIN – below), but he also penned incredible, spiritual protest songs!

Take this Rush Street Gaming!!!! And smoke it!!!

– R. Tirella

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Wow! What a lovely “site”! Rush Street Gaming plans to build a Walmart-like …

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Photo: Our first chance to see their "vision." A sea of asphalt parking lots filling Kelley Square with a small jumble of three buildings in the center. Since Rush habitually scales back from their initial "grand" proposals used to sell the public on projects, it was genuinely surprising just how underwhelming the vision presented was.

… building in the Canal District (on the Wyman Gordon site)! Look at their slots parlor site plan! Look at that ugly BIG BOX!

These billionaires aren’t dopes: they have hired the priciest, most-connected lawyers in the city to do their bidding. Lawyers with old Worcester money, blue blood roots and a ton of clout: Fletcher (Allen Fletcher’s older, more sedate brother), Tilton and Whipple.

Pathetic.

– R. Tirella

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

To defeat Rush Street Gaming …

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By Rosalie Tirella

Now is the time for:

No to Slots!! lawn signs. EVERYWHERE. ON EVERYONE’S FRONT LAWNS.

Door to door education/outreach. Let folks know this is a big box Walmart type building filled with slot machines. Nothing more. I mean really nothing more if Allen Fletcher and the Canal District biz folks kill the two restaurants and spa slated to go there. This is not a full service casino, this gambling Walmart slated for the Wyman Gordon site. There is no attached hotel, shopping mall, concert venue a la Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods. Let’s not delude ourselves: The building will look like a Walmart – a big box store, with a few frilly flourishes. Cheap, low end. It won’t fool anyone.

Tell folks the truth about Rush Street Gaming and how they run their businesses, their other slots parlors. They are now pressuring their full time slots employees in other cities to ACCEPT BUYOUTS and ALL THE FULL TIME JOBS ARE BEING TURNED INTO PART-TIME JOBS.

The money, billions of dollars, Rush Street Gaming makes goes to Chicago, their headquarters. It does not get plowed back into the local economy, the way local small businesses put their earnings back into local economy. Remember: ALL THE STATE LOTTERY MONEY GOES BACK TO MA CITIES AND TOWNS. Not so with Rush Street Gaming.

The Rush reps we are meeting are SALESPEOPLE. They are not economic development experts. They do not care what happens to our city. They are salespeople, smooth talking and attractive, pushing their product, a slots parlor. To make billions of dollars.

They are betting on Woo’s desperateness. They know our factories are gone. They know we aren’t a Boston or Providence. That there are major gaps in our employment picture They have done their research and see: RUBES. We may think we can out-negotiate them, but we lose IF WE GET A SLOTS PARLOR. Even if we get a fake canal, some part time jobs, etc we still LOSE.

Worcester is a big family town. We don’t do adult entertainment. We do soccer, little league, church, schools … . NOT SLOTS.

Mailings need to go out to every Woo household! Mailings that detail how stupid slots are for Woo. Show folks the truth.

PUSH FOR A $10,000 ADVERTISING LIMIT FOR GAMING GUYS. Otherwise, they will plow hundreds of thousands of dollars into a gambling advertising blitz. Stop their bull shit advertising campaign in its tracks.

Have meetins in churches, schools, halls of all sorts to Stop Slots.

Let’s have all the factions who have said no MOBILIZE THEIR PEOPLE. Sarai Rivera and Mary Keefe – inner city folks/Latinos. Father Madden – the Catholics in town. Harriet Chandler – the Jewish community, etc.

InCity Times will continue to urge Worcesterites TO VOTE NO SLOTS. In the paper and on this website.

The battle has begun. We cannot let up for one second – until AFTER THE REFERENDUM HAS BEEN HELD