Poll shows 57% now favor allowing casinos

DARMOUTH - In a survey of Massachusetts residents the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth found 57% feel the state legislature should legalize two or more destination casinos. Thirty percent of residents disagree.

“Massachusetts residents know they and fellow Bay Staters spend more than $1 billion every year at Connecticut casinos and Rhode Island slot parlors,” CFPA Director Clyde W. Barrow said in a statement today.

“The survey reflects a Massachusetts populace strongly supportive of destination casinos, who believe Massachusetts spending at out-of-state gaming venues should be recaptured, and who want casino revenues to be used to help fund overburdened city and town budgets and to provide individual property-tax relief,” he said. “Support for destination casinos in the commonwealth continues to grow among those who have not visited a casino.”

He continued, “(Clearly) Massachusetts residents believe their local legislators should address state and municipal fiscal burdens by first recapturing the tax revenues, jobs and tourism that Bay Staters are exporting to Connecticut’s and Rhode Island’s economies.”

The poll included 420 Massachusetts residents from April 23 to 29 with a 4.7 percent margin of error. It was commissioned by Northeast Resorts Group, a real estate development firm that holds options on land in both Palmer and New Bedford.

Return to Massachusetts Casinos.