Editor:

   Why is Penn National working so hard to convince us we need the racino and the attached retail village? They’re dangling the carrots of a new school and public safety building in front of us hoping we’ll bite. It has nothing to do with benefiting Scarborough. They’re in it for the money.  Money that will not benefit Scarborough as they insist it will.  

   It was argued in a local newspaper last week that opponents of the racino are being misled by statistics critical to casinos. The author, a university professor, argued that crime actually decreases around casinos because of the increase in jobs. However, what he neglects to clarify is that those are areas of economic blight. Scarborough is not a blighted area.  Economically speaking no one can answer what will happen to the high tech businesses Scarborough is trying to attract. There’s no way to know how it will affect already existent local business.  

   It was also disingenuous to say that addiction to gambling is so low that it also won’t cause problems. Any child left home alone, in a car, or brought to a casino is a big problem. Last week in Bangor a woman was found guilty of stealing $43,700 from three elderly patients at a facility where she worked. She used the money to fuel her gambling addiction at Hollywood Slots. Some of the “misleading statistics” that the author pointed to as predicted problems with addiction beginning to occur two to three years after the opening of the facility. Hollywood Slots has been open for three years.  Children and the elderly are the most vulnerable and are often victims. Most of the problems associated with the racino will occur in the community and many will be unseen and go unreported.

   Four of our schools are within a mile or two of the facility. There are some startling statistics concerning gambling and children — Dr. Ken Winters of the University of Minnesota found that youth are four times more at risk for developing pathological gambling than adults, and Michael Frank, professor of psychology at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey found that students who live close to casinos are more prone to gambling addiction.  There has been a mass marketing of casinos to children. Many now include gaming rooms where children play while parents gamble. Touting casinos as family entertainment, the gaming industry uses the same marketing ploys as the tobacco industry when it comes to children.

I spoke with Scarborough’s police chief just last week. Chief Moulton told me that Scarborough is seeing an increase in drug trafficking as a result of our proximity to the turnpike and an increase in the number of hotels and motels in the area. That’s without a racino. How could crime not increase by adding a business that has notoriously attracted crime?  

For more information about where I stand on this issue and other issues, please visit my Web site www.KarenForScarborough.com

style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; line-height: 10.0px; font: 9.0px New Century Schoolbook">Karen D’Andrea

Candidate for Scarborough Town Council