The One Issue that Matters to the Gambling Debate

Photo by White/Packert

I mean, c’mon: Really? Again, with the gambling? Is this our fate, our retribution for the Sox winning the Series? Hearing Bobby DeLeo whine on, year after year, about how casinos and tracks inside our borders will make the commonwealth — really — a richer place? Beacon Hill shouldn’t be discussing this again, but because it is (of course it is!), here’s the one thing, the only thing, that matters, and the media coverage so far has missed it and the hearings at the State House yesterday ignored it: DeLeo and Governor Deval Patrick need to sit in a windowless room and not come out until one has mind-wrestled the other into submission.

Patrick wants resort-style casinos and no race tracks. Speaker DeLeo, the son of a track worker, representing a district lousy with tracks, wants, you guessed it, everyone to experience the thrill of pony betting. And this divide is what all of last year’s work, an entire legislative session, could not bridge. It’s amazing that DeLeo has the gall to bring it up again, but recycled ideas are what passes for leadership.

Look, at this point, I don’t really care if this bill passes. But let’s not go through the charade of hearings and strongly worded op-eds. Just figure it out, you two.