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EDITORIAL
OP-ED; Back Bay casino a bad bet for Hub
Thomas M. Keane Jr.

03/19/2003
Boston Herald
All Editions
029
(Copyright 2003)

I wonder if someday Warren Beatty will star in a movie about Quincy state Sen. Michael W. Morrissey.

Morrissey has a lot in common with the legendary Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the visionary who in the 1940s built the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.

Like Siegel, Morrissey has a dream. He has proposed converting the Hynes Convention Center in Boston's Back Bay into a casino. He figures a "gaming" operator ("gambling" is too pejorative a term) would easily pay $500 million for the building. On top of that, of course, the state would collect millions annually from additional taxes.

For Massachusetts, facing a $3 billion deficit and eager to find money anywhere it can so long as it doesn't involve raising taxes, it's a deal that's hard to resist.

But we should resist it anyway.

To be sure, it's certainly possible. Once the new convention center in South Boston opens, the Hynes will likely sit empty. A big yellow-brick box with few windows to the outside world, the Hynes would make a perfect casino, a place where gamblers, unaware of the time of day, never need stop.

Moreover, the Hynes is part of the Prudential Center complex and is connected by walkways to Copley Place. Four hotels, two extensive shopping malls, several office and residential buildings and, of course, the Prudential Tower itself can all be reached without ever having to go outside. Everything a gambler needs would be in one place.

It's not a bad start.

But that's what it would be: Just a start.

For as Las Vegas found out, there's no such thing as just one casino.

Imagine the possibilities.

Fenway Park could be converted into the Circus Circus Field of Dashed Dreams Hotel and Casino. Duck Tours could now offer spectacular views and $5 slots as they cruise the Charles River. The Tropicana Public Garden could provide a unique mix of gaming and horticulture. The MGM Grand Commonwealth Mall ("Now enclosed for all weather gaming!") could offer the world's longest casino, stretching a full mile from one end to the other.

Bachelors and bachelorettes would no longer fly their retinues to Las Vegas for that one last fling. Instead, they would land at Logan and head to the Back Bay, partaking in the all-night exuberance of $7.99 all-you-can-eat cafeterias, spectacular rides and, of course, those sophisticated, adult-themed shows.

From the Boston Common to Kenmore Square, Boston could easily put together a gambling mecca that would put Las Vegas to shame. Our weather may be bad, but it's even worse in the desert. Combine the possibility of quick riches with quaint buildings and American history and Boston could readily take on Las Vegas.

Do I exaggerate? Not really. For if Boston wants to get into the business of gaming, then it needs to understand: It can't do so in a half-hearted fashion.

Gaming is an unusual business. It doesn't generate any real wealth on its own. Rather, it succeeds by persuading visitors to come into an area and part with their own money.

There's a limited number of people who are willing to do that. If Boston wants to succeed in gaming, it needs to persuade those people to come to it rather than to someplace else. Places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City and nearby casinos such as Mohegan Sun - all fiercely committed to making gambling succeed - will become Boston's competitors.

There's no question that gaming can be lucrative. Nevada has no income tax and gambling accounts for 43 percent of all state revenues. Las Vegas achieved that success by offering more choice and more variety than any other gaming center. There is something for everyone and that's why everyone goes.

But that success has come at considerable cost.

Las Vegas is virtually a one-industry town, with gaming dominating almost all aspects of life. It subsumes all other businesses. Its buildings overwhelm the landscape and it creates undesirable and apparently unavoidable spillover effects - most notably, those relating to organized crime.

Some will argue that Boston can avoid this, that the Hynes can be an isolated casino with little impact on the rest of Boston.

It's not a credible proposition. Once the novelty wears off, a gaming-oriented Hynes would have to attract visitors away from its competitors. The pressure to expand, to compete successfully, will be enormous, perhaps irresistible.

Few would have predicted when the Flamingo opened in 1946, that it would so fundamentally transform a quiet desert town. In retrospect, thought, it almost seems inevitable.

Las Vegas, with few other options, may have had no choice. But before Boston takes Morrissey up on his idea, it should consider whether its vision for itself really is Las Vegas on the Atlantic.

Tom Keane can be reached at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.