Steve Wynn's Retreat: How Community Power Knocked the Casino Industry Off Course

Like the progression of any disease making its hearty way through stages of infection and incubation before being treated and eventually annihilated, things have to get worse before they can get better. Such is the story of casinos.

Casinos suck money out of local communities without putting anything back in. An estimated 70 to 90 percent of a casino’s profits come from problem gamblers – thus the casino industry is dependent on creating a pathological addiction to its product. It preys on the socioeconomically disadvantaged, who are targeted by expensive advertising campaigns with false promises of quick and easy wealth. The effect of state-sanctioned gambling on the local community is swift and devastating as problem gambling leads to more extensive problems like divorce, bankruptcy, suicide, white-collar crime and lost work time. If casinos were opened in Philadelphia they would cause a loss of jobs and wages, reduced local sales and the cannibalization of Philly’s local businesses. A cost/benefit analysis by Casino-Free Philadelphia (CFP) found that casinos will cost the city $52 million dollars – money that could be spent on education, jobs, housing, healthcare and any of the other more pressing needs that Philadelphia has.

Thus like a fever in the middle of the night, Philadelphia sank into a cold sweat as Governor Rendell and others padded their wallets with campaign contributions from moneyed interests who had financial stakes in the propagation of Philadelphia casinos – in direct opposition to the opinions of economic experts who crunched the numbers to show the horrific impact casinos would have on Philly. In the course of the nearly six years since gambling’s legalization in PA, two casinos are already up and running in Bethlehem and Pittsburgh, and two more are slated for Philadelphia.

Well, were.

Because of the dedicated actions of scores of committed citizens, the second proposed casino – whose operating license is owned by Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut – has just gone belly up. Massive citizen unrest forced Foxwoods from its original site in South Philly to Center City – where the galvanized anti-casino campaigning of Asian Americans United, CFP, Arch Street United Methodist Church, Liberty Resources, the Media Mobilizing Project and the rest of the members of the No Casino in the Heart of Our City Coalition forced it out. Like the last kid to be picked for kickball, Foxwoods was left scuffing its sneaker on the sidelines. Philadelphians didn’t want it, and – as predicted – the Mashantucket Pequot tribe (owners and operators of Foxwoods) went bankrupt in early 2009 because of the failing casino industry in the throes of the largest economic recession the United States has ever seen.

With one final cancerous stab, the gaming industry tried to tourniquet the bleeding by sending in their white knight: Steve Wynn. Wynn, considered the saving grace of the Las Vegas strip and mastermind behind The Bellagio, The Mirage and more, appeared on the scene with checkbook in hand and dollar signs in his eyes.

But he hadn’t counted on us.

When Wynn appeared before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on March 3 to take over the Foxwoods project, he wasn’t prepared to face the people his industry demanded he exploit. In the hearing room were members of CFP and the Coalition – average Philadelphia citizens with families and jobs who love their city and the people in it – who demanded to know why a Vegas billionaire wanted to force a predatory industry on an already economically depressed community.

The result is staggering: slightly over a month since Wynn Resorts announced its intention to take over Foxwoods and merely three days after Wynn himself met with Nutter to discuss site plans, Wynn Resorts announced it is pulling out of “all negotiations and agreements” in regards to Foxwoods. Foxwoods is “amazed,” Nutter is “stunned” and Rendell is speechless – but you know who’s not surprised: us.

We, students, workers, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and children, community organizers and grassroot activists  – we, the citizens of Philadelphia – bonded by our joint struggle to end economic and social injustice in our community, stood up to defend our vision of a Philadelphia not predicated on regressive taxes and predatory industries and WON.

We know that the fight is not over. We’re continuing to ramp up our efforts to make sure SugarHouse’s doors never open, and that Foxwoods doesn’t make a comeback. But Steve Wynn’s record retreat from Philadelphia does prove that the gambling industry is crumbling. It shows that the economic recession has created a hostile economic environment – one where consumer spending has dropped and can no longer be as easily manipulated. It shows that due to market saturation – due to a national explosion of legalized gambling across the country over the past decade – the demand for casinos has gone down. And it shows that Wynn realized two casinos in Philadelphia would have a huge competitive disadvantage with two casinos already operating in neighboring towns (Harrah’s Chester and Philadelphia Park) and Atlantic City a quick bus-ride away.

But more importantly, our win over Wynn shows the indefatigable power that a bunch of average Joes and Joannes can have when they come together and, through discipline, strategic planning, non-violent direct action and unflagging passion and devotion to the cause and – above all – each other,  change the course of the future for the better.

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