DARTMOUTH – A majority of Bay State residents favor a waterfront casino in New Bedford, according to a statewide poll by the Center for Policy Analysis (CFPA) at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
When asked, “if the state legislature authorizes one or more destination resort casinos, do you support or oppose locating a resort casino on the waterfront in New Bedford,” 51 percent said they support the idea, 19 percent were opposed and 30 percent were undecided. Support was slightly stronger among those identifying themselves as registered voters: 52 percent were in favor, 19 percent opposed and 28 percent undecided.
More support than opposition for a Whaling City casino was found among “nearly all demographic groups,” Clyde W. Barrow, the center’s director said in the survey report yesterday afternoon. But that support “was not evenly distributed among all groups, and there were some indentifiable pockets of opposition or indecision,” he said.
Men favored a New Bedford casino by “a large majority” of 61 percent to 13 percent, with 26 percent undecided, the center found. A plurality of women also supported the plan, with 43 percent in favor, 24 percent opposed and 34 percent undecided.
“A generational effect” also was seen, Barrow wrote. Support was strongest among residents ages 18 to 39, with 59 percent in favor, 13 percent opposed and 28 percent undecided. Among residents 40 to 59 years old, 52 percent were in favor, 19 percent opposed and 27 percent undecided. Residents 60 and older favored a New Bedford casino by 35 percent to 28 percent, but 37 percent were undecided.
Among income groups, support was weakest among those earning less than $25,000 per year, with 43 percent in favor, 30 percent opposed and 28 percent undecided. In all other income groups, a majority of respondents were in favor, the center found.
“As has been typical of most polls on the casino issue,” the center added, “individuals with a graduate degree or higher were the least favorably included toward having New Bedford host a resort casino.” That group was evenly divided between support and opposition, with 31 percent for and 31 percent against, while 37 percent said they were undecided. “However, residents with a high school diploma, an associate’s degree, technical certification or a bachelor’s degree all agree that the Whaling City should host a resort casino.”
Residents of New Bedford itself have twice voted strongly in favor of host a casino, in 1995 and again in 2001, the CFPA noted. And in a poll by the center last summer, 53 percent of city residents said they favored the idea, 20 percent were opposed and 27 percent were undecided. (READ MORE)
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“Since the casino issue was first broached in Massachusetts in 1995, New Bedford has been identified as a potential host community, and its residents have repeatedly indicated that they are willing to host a resort casino,” Barrow said, adding: “It makes you wonder how many times our citizenry will have to make the same point.”
The latest survey of 411 Massachusetts residents was conducted Feb. 18 to 21. It has a 4.9 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level, according to the UMass Center for Policy Analysis.
The poll was sponsored by the Northeast Resorts Group, at a cost of $6,000. The company and its partner, Peter Pan Bus Lines, have site control of 35 acres of waterfront land in the Hicks-Logan section of New Bedford. Their proposed development, called Revere Landing, has been identified as a possible casino site, if the state legislature authorizes an expansion of gaming in Massachusetts.
A rival plan by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe – which is seeking to build a casino 640 acres of land in Middleboro and Mashpee, Mass., that it has applied to place under federal trust – was dealt a blow by the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday, when the court ruled against the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island in a similar tribal-land case. (READ MORE)
For more information about the University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis and its New England Gaming Research Project, including the latest data on gambling expenditures in southern New England, visit www.umassd.edu/cfpa/.
