BOSTON — A legislative conference committee was working behind closed doors last night to make a deal that would allow casino gambling in Massachusetts.
One member of the conference committee, Senate President Pro Tempore Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, said keeping the talks private would be the best way to produce a compromise.
A leading opponent of casinos, state Sen. Susan Tucker, D-Andover, whose district includes Lawrence, spoke out against "closing off the public."
The three representatives and three senators on the conference committee are under pressure to reach an agreement by July 31, the end of the current session of the Legislature. If they fail to work out a compromise, they'll have to start all over again in a subsequent session.
Rep. Brian Dempsey, who has represented Haverhill in the House for nearly 20 years, is a key player in the talks.
Dempsey coauthored a bill that would allow two resort casinos and slot parlors at the Suffolk Downs and Plainridge horse racetracks, as well as the former dog tracks at Wonderland in Revere and Raynham Park.
Each site would be permitted up to 750 slot machines. The dogs are no longer running at Wonderland and Raynham because the voters outlawed canine racing in 2008.
Dempsey is House chairman of the Legislature's Economic Development Committee and is the lead House conferee.
At the request of House Speaker Robert DeLeo, he studied the pros and cons of casino gambling for a year before crafting the House proposal.
The Senate bill calls for three casinos, in western Massachusetts, the Metro West region and the southeastern section of the state, but no slot machines. Gov. Deval Patrick, who advocates casinos as an alternative to raising taxes, has voiced reluctance about slot machines.
Dempsey and other proponents of casino gambling said casinos will create jobs and bring more money into the state treasury. Opponents, including Tucker, warn that expanding legalized gambling will increase addictions and crime.
All six conference committee members voted to keep the negotiations secret. Six legislators who oppose expanded gambling, including Tucker, were asked to leave the hearing room.
"The Senate, actually, was quite proud of its days and days of open debate and transparency," said Tucker. "And that makes this particularly sad that in the final hours they're closing off the public and other legislators."
Before removing members of the press and an opponent of expanded gambling representing the Massachusetts Council of Churches, Dempsey told reporters that the committee wouldn't set a "timetable" for completing its work.
"We know that the clock is ticking and we have a lot of work to do," he said.
Besides Dempsey and Rosenberg, the other conferees are Reps. Paul Frost, R-Auburn, and Kathi-Anne Reinstein, D-Revere; and Senate Ways and Means Chairman Steven Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, and Sen. Richard Ross, R-Wrentham, elected a few weeks ago to U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's seat in the state Senate.
The House rejected casinos two years ago, when Salvatore DiMasi, an opponent of expanded gambling, was the House speaker. DiMasi warned against a "casino culture" and predicted expanded gambling would pull commerce away from other Bay State businesses.
Gambling policy initiatives quickly gained momentum under DeLeo, who represents a pair of racetracks that have been angling to bid on casino licenses.
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