First of two stories examining the communities and proposals competing with Leominster for the sole slots-only casino license in Massachusetts.
By Jack Minch
jminch@sentinelandenterprise.com
RAYNHAM — Freddy Parziale goes to Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park six days a week, where he spends several hours looking over parimutuel racing forms and socializing.
“I used to be a dog man when they had racing, but I’ve been following the horses since they closed,” Parziale said during an interview last week.
Massachusetts voters in a statewide referendum outlawed dog races as of Jan. 1, 2010. Since then the track has been used only for simulcast parimutuel racing.
Parziale sat at a table on the edge of the room that overlooks the former dog track.
The clubhouse is still well maintained, with walls of televisions to watch horse races at tracks around the country, a cafeteria and a bar.
The dirt dog track on the other side of the window from Parziale is tired-looking. A dilapidated scoreboard hangs along one side of the field.
There’s a restaurant with rich-looking wood panels overlooking another side of the track that was so popular during the 1980s it took three months to get a reservation, as well as a dance club. But the lights are off and the heat turned down.
“We were famous for the food,” said owner George Carney. “That was one of the things that helped us surpass Wonderland and Lincoln Downs.”
Carney is teaming with Greenwood Racing of Philadelphia in a proposal to open a slots casino at the track. Greenwood’s flagship casino is in Philadelphia. They are proposing a 175,000-square-foot casino on a 100-acre site along Route 138 that’s 1.5 miles from Interstate 495.
The proposal is one of three the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will consider when it awards the sole slots-only casino license. The decision is expected in March.
The Carney-Greenwood partnership says it can have a temporary slots casino operating in six or seven months by converting the clubhouse, restaurant and dance club. Simulcasting of races would continue.
Then it will tear down the grandstand overlooking the track and build a casino for 1,250 slots machines. The project will take up some of the land on which the former track sits.
They estimate about 1,400 temporary construction jobs and then about 1,778 permanent jobs.
Raynham voters passed the proposal with 86 percent support in a referendum vote on Aug. 13.
Carney and his family’s racetrack are institutions in Raynham and southeast Massachusetts.
The 82-year-old patriarch started in the business as a lead-boy when he was 14, making $4 a night and $24 a week when school teachers were only making $18 to $20 a week, he said.
The racetrack opened in the early 1940s with the blessing of the state which, like now, wanted to raise tax revenues and put people to work.
The Wonderland dog track in Revere and another in Taunton were already in operation. The Carney family was a minority partner in the tracks.
“I really believe it’s going to be the same infusion of jobs and money for the commonwealth,” George Carney said.
The family was also at times a minority partner with legendary Lou Smith at Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H., where they ran thoroughbreds and later harness racing; Suffolk Downs in East Boston on the Revere line, where Mohegan Sun is proposing a resort casino; and even Lincoln Downs in Rhode Island.
Taunton and Raynham had opposite racing seasons, which left each track quiet half the year. So Carney merged the two and kept the Raynham track operating through three seasons.
He also owns the Brockton Fairgrounds, which is part of his proposal to win the state’s only slots casino license.
The owners of Plainridge Racecourse have argued that if they don’t get the slots license they won’t be able to stay in business.
Carney said he will restore racing to Brockton Fairgrounds.
“If we’re fortunate enough to get the license, we’re going to spend $6 million to $7 million to fix the place up the way it should be,” Carney said.
He believes he can succeed using marketing and his experience with Rockingham Park to bring in high-quality horses.
“It’s going to take two or three years to do it, but it can be done because I was involved with Rockingham when it was a huge success,” Carney said.
‘Putting people back to work’
Raynham’s unemployment rate as of November was 6.7 percent compared to 6.2 percent a year ago.
The Taunton Area Chamber of Commerce needs the jobs the casino would bring, said President Kerrie Babin.
“We’re not in favor either way of gaming. What we’re in favor of is jobs for our region,” she said. The area lost hundreds of jobs when live racing was outlawed four years ago, she said.
The region has three successful industrial parks, including Raynham Industrial Park with Electrochem, Johnson & Johnson’s Dupuy and Poland Springs.
Jobs and revenues are the main attraction to Raynham, said Town Manager Randy Buckner.
“It’s putting people back to work,” he said.
Raynham was a rural area when Buckner started as town manager in 1994 but is transitioning into a suburb community for Boston and Providence, which are both about 30 miles away, he said.
Its main business base is car dealerships (there’s an Auto Mile) and grocery stores. There’s a Walmart in town, with a second scheduled to open this spring.
Traffic will increase with gaming, but it will be spread out throughout the day, unlike the traffic from dog races, which was clustered around starting times, Buckner said. Most of it will come off I-495 to Broadway but some will probably travel on Route 24 and use Elm Street as a shortcut to Broadway, he said.
The town lost revenue when dog racing was eliminated. During its heyday in the mid-1980s the town took in about $800,000 annually from the track’s taxes but that’s fallen to about $150,000 with simulcast.
With mitigation payments it stands to get about $1.1 million annually, plus property taxes.
Supporters aren’t worried about the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s proposal to build a resort casino in Taunton.
“There are issues that may never get worked out,” said Carney’s nephew, Tom Carney.
Parziale said his visits to the dog track kill time. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
“It’s a shame people around here have to go to Foxwoods, Twin River, when they could go right here,” he said.
Diane Hines of Norton has been working at the track for more than 20 years. She’s a maitre d’, bartender and waitress.
“I think a lot of people don’t know we’re still open for simulcast racing since live racing was canceled,” Hines said.
She likes working at the track, where the Carneys give her flexibility on her schedule to help in her four children’s schools and be at home when they get out of class.
Without the slots casino her chances of staying with the track appear slim, Hines said.
“I don’t know how long they can survive without it,” she said.
Ron Valerio was watching the races Thursday, but he is against converting it to a slots casino.
“I’m not in favor of them, don’t like them,” he said.
There’s little chance to win at the slots but with racing there’s a chance to choose wisely, Valerio said.
“Here you have a chance to make money,” he said.
Art Duarte, manager at Greyhound Package Store a couple of miles down the road from the park, is hoping a casino can help businesses throughout the community. Gamers who go to casinos such as Twin River would be drawn to the proposed Parx Casino.
“It puts a lot of people in Raynham, and a lot of people back to work,” Duarte said. “A lot of Raynham residents worked there.”
Marie Kirk moved to Raynham from western Massachusetts last fall and doesn’t want the casino.
“I want to live in a more rural setting,” she said. “I want less traffic and less traffic lights and slots I think will take away from why I live here.”
There are good and bad arguments for the casino, said Lois Weiner, of Raynham, after she walked out of the town’s post office.
She doesn’t want the casino on Broadway (Route 138) because of the increased congestion.
“I really don’t want to see it because of the traffic on this street and they want to put another Walmart in,” she said. “Casinos themselves, I’ve got nothing against, it’s just where they want to put it.”
The state Gaming Commission is scheduled to resume its host community hearing at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Raynham. Plainville’s will resume at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, and Leominster’s at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.
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