Well, you all drank the Kool-Aid.
The Narragansett tribe hasn't always been under the best management, but they have been completely screwed over by the government of Rhode Island. Then, sometime last year, they actually had a chance to overturn the previous laws and join the long list of Native American tribes with casinos. Moreover, there was an opportunity to create hundreds of new jobs and a lot of new revenue for Rhode Island.
That was when the trouble started. Groups were popping up- SOS: Save Our State at the forefront- that didn't want the tribe to have their own casino. They began publishing fuzzy equations showing financial harm. They attacked Narragansett Chief Matthew Thomas and their casino project backers Harrah's (not unjustifiably in some cases, though it didn't relate to this particular proposal). They even started holding seminars stating untrue "facts" about how casinos hurt the surrounding economy. Amazingly, enough people bought it that the casino proposal was voted down in last year's elections.
I was surprised and a little ashamed of our state. The worst part was something that I found out later from the Boston Globe. I found out just who was behind Save Our State.
It was none other than a little enterprise called Twin River Casino.
Yes, just a few months after convincing a majority of the public that casinos were bad for Rhode Island, Twin River opened its doors on the ashes of the Lincoln Greyhound Park. It's been advertised heavily and business has been fairly good. People are gambling their lives away. But, for some reason, the state isn't getting any poorer than the rest of the country as they claimed it would be with the Narragansett casino. Many popular musical acts have performed at Twin River, and the Providence Performing Arts Center isn't losing business; again, something we were warned about with the proposed Narragansett casino.
More than that, it is just a wholly depressing place to be. I happened to see The Turtles in concert there over the summer. The show was great (as Flo & Eddie tend to be), but the entire building had an unpleasant, unfeeling atmosphere. In contrast, the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut (where I have seen many concerts) has a very nice, almost magical feel to it. Even if you don't gamble, there's a little something for everyone. One can't be completely sure, but from some of the drawings I've seen, the Narragansett Casino seems like it would probably have been closer to Sun in nature.
It truly sickens me that this has not caused public outrage. I would have been happy to have the Narragansett Casino in my state, but Twin River is a blight I wish we could scrub out.
Adam Bram is a staff writer/cartoonist for the Anchor. When asked what cards make up a Full House, he will reply that Bob Saget is funnier when he is allowed to be dirty.
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