Casino bait and switch

To the Editor:

Thank you for the visual proof on the front page of last Thursday’s Advertiser [February 17]. Just before the vote in November, the Lewiston Sun Journal ran an editorial touting the 1,700 jobs the casino (casino, not the whole resort) would bring. After the vote, it was 700.

During the presentation in the auditorium of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, the Black Bear spokesman said not one taxpayer dollar would be spent on the project in answer to the TIF question. I think the water line up top the casino is being paid for with taxpayer dollars. I don’t think the developers are paying for it.

The 100-mile radius exclusion zone is now the 100-mile road exclusion zone.

What do you suppose will be next? I expect that it will be that they can’t find qualified local companies, suppliers or workers to pull this off.

Down the road I expect that the place won’t bring enough profit to the developers to phase in all the rest of the promises. Profit gets eaten up by business expenses like salaries and payments to investor developers. They’re in it for the money. And there’s money to be made if the competition can be kept out of the picture. There’s money to be made if the buses will roll in from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Canada. There’s money to be made from all the Maine people who choose to lose their money in the casino.

The people I know who tell of going to Connecticut to gamble don’t speak about all the other places they visit or all the other places they shop or even all the other restaurants they go to. It’s go, gamble, leave. That’s realistic expectation for a casino in Oxford.

Bait and switch, I’m just disgusted.

Vickie Rogers

Otisfield