Senate’s casino bill better for Hanover

The Massachusetts Senate recently voted to approve the licensing of resort casinos. Among the amendments that were ultimately included in the bill is a provision requiring that casino performance venues receive approval from a subcommittee on cultural facilities when booking large-scale concerts, comedy or theater events.

Without this provision, resort casinos in Massachusetts would decimate The Hanover Theatre and other downtown performing arts centers by booking our top headline performers and enforcing radius restrictions that would prevent those performers from playing The Hanover Theatre. Requiring the casinos to seek approval from this neutral third party will not prevent competition, nor will it prevent casinos from booking any performer or show. It will, however, create a dialogue between casinos and existing nonprofit venues such as The Hanover Theatre that will enable both to survive.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to state senators Stephen M. Brewer, Michael O. Moore, Jennifer L. Flanagan, and in particular Harriette L. Chandler, for putting forward this provision and making certain that it was included in the final bill. Similarly, Reps. Vincent Pedone, John Binienda and others were instrumental in supporting us in the House of Representatives.

The bill is now before a conference committee, where members of the Senate and House are working out differences between their two visions for casinos in Massachusetts. We urge the members of that committee to retain the language in the Senate bill; to secure our future and that of performing arts centers in Boston, Lowell, Springfield and throughout the state.

TROY R. SIEBELS

Executive Director

The Hanover Theatre

Worcester