Let's Play the Slots

Great news for the hundreds of activists working overtime: Massachusetts may get those casinos we’ve been demanding for years and years. I’ve personally participated in several demonstrations to allow those massive, windowless resorts into Brookline, Wellesley, and Weston. During our sit-ins, we had bass-heavy sound systems blasting NPR. We held hands and sang and shivered off the cold together, chanting, “Loose slots now! Loose slots now!” Even when I couldn’t make it, rain or shine, hundreds of our intrepid fellow citizens spent their days at the state house steps hoping against hope that legislators would cave. Along with our intensive online petitioning, the grassroots campaigns have finally paid off.

My friends, this is a true example of how beautifully democracy can work. The people spoke, and they were heard. Now some lucky, unsuspecting small town in the middle of the state is about to get a red hot injection of class. Some double-digit exit along I-90 is about to become the epicenter of mirth. Multi-lane traffic and enormous parking lots aside, the real benefit to legalizing the slots is that now all the back-room restaurant workers will finally have something to do with their jars full of quarters. (Comforting stat: “Players with household incomes under $10,000 bet nearly three times as much on lotteries as those with incomes over $50,000.” Hey, lots of my friends make more than that, before taxes!)

After all, why should legalized gambling be limited to hedge funders? Why should those guys have all the fun?