Via a release from No Casinos.org:
Should inmates run the asylum, or burglars be guarding a bank vault? Then why is the gambling industry being paid $400,000 tax dollars to tell us if more gambling would be good for Florida? That’s the question being posed in new TV and radio ads sponsored by NoCasinos.org that begin running in Tallahassee and two other Florida markets this week.
The ads are referring to a much-anticipated report commissioned by the Florida Legislature that is expected to be released on October 1st. The report is being written by Atlantic City-based Spectrum Gaming Group, a consulting firm with a history of working for virtually every type of gambling interest in America, and in Florida.
Spectrum’s prolific work generating rosy economic predictions caused leading national observers of gambling issues to dub the firm “the roll out team for casino expansion.”
“Let me go out on a limb and predict that the study being written by Spectrum Gaming group of Atlantic City is going to make a case for more gaming (the industry’s euphemism for gambling) in Florida,” said NoCasinos.org President John Sowinski. “Their ties to the industry – from consulting for casinos to financing them – gives them a conflict of interest that should be obvious to everybody.”
In fact, just two years ago Spectrum Gaming Group worked for the Genting company as a part of its failed lobbying efforts to build the world’s largest casino in downtown Miami. Genting remains one of the major players in trying to legalize mega-casinos in Florida.
