What is the pennsylvania gaming control board hiding?
We need your help. The PA Gaming Control Board is rushing to license two casinos in Philadelphia. It continues to refuse to make public the information about the design, traffic planning and other impacts on our neighborhoods.
The right to information is basic to democracy. We are asking everyone who wants to defend our rights to take concrete action, and help protect our city and state.
OPERATION TRANSPARENCY is a bold campaign launched by Casino-Free Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) legally has to post transcripts of its meetings on its website. But it has not. It used taxpayer money to determine if the revenue projections by the casino applicants are accurate. But it refuses to make these public, too.
- Is the revenue promised from casinos really as much as estimated?
- Will the casinos have more of a negative impact on our neighborhoods than a positive one?
We can’t answer these questions without quality information. Our right to know is being violated by the secrecy of the PA Gaming Control Board.
This is why we are launching OPERATION TRANSPARENCY. We will force the Gaming Control Board to release all of the updated impact studies, all casino applications, and all information about projects that impact our neighborhoods.
On December 1
if the documents are still not public…
We will have to resort to nonviolent direct action. December 11 is when we will attempt a Document Search operation in the office of the PA Gaming Control Board.
For this action to succeed, we need your help.
Sign up if you are willing to consider an act of civil disobedience. Please fill out and sign the enclosed support card or sign up at www.casinofreephila.org.
You can also play a support role at the action and not risk arrest.
On December 11th, flood the Gaming Control Board and political representatives with phone calls, emails and faxes calling for the release of the documents. Write letters to the editor to spread the word about Operation Transparency.
Our Objectives
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Who are we?
CASINO FREE PHILADELPHIA is an association of civic organizations, businesses and religious groups dedicated to protecting the quality of life in Philadelphia neighborhoods from the anticipated harms cause by casino development. We’re not just fighting to stop casinos in our or others' neighborhoods. We’re fighting for the future our communities. By protecting ourselves we are protecting all of Philadelphia. Read more: www.CasinoFreePhila.org
What we know
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) has an important role in the development of casinos: to make decisions about the licensing and oversight of potentially two casinos in our city. They are concerned with everything from traffic to size of billboards, noise levels, neighborhood impacts, and more.
We know they have researched questions like: whether revenues will amount to as much money as the casinos claim.
In the only leaked document so far related to revenue projections, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review made a portion of a report, paid for with taxpayer dollars, showing that that the estimate of revenue for one of the racetrack casinos was less than half of what the casino claimed. Tad Decker, the Chairman of the PGCB will not release the full report. Why not? And if revenue from casinos is less than was claimed, how does this impact the promised “tax relief,” which is the core reason for slots gaming in the first place?
What we need to know
We need to know the contents of all these documents. What do they say?
We need to know the actual plans for the casinos. Casinos have changed their proposals considerably. We know the Trump Casino added 12 more acres to its site. But before our city is foisted with a decision we can’t overturn, we need access to quality information. Therefore, these are our objectives:
- obtain the release of casino planning documents, including those about site & traffic plans, design, and revenue projections of each applicant before licensing;
- win a stop to all licensing of casinos in Pennsylvania until these documents are made public and the public has an opportunity to review them and provide meaningful comment;
- create an open, public process to plan the future of our neighborhoods.
Operation Transparency, the strategy
We are asking for casino planning documents. HERE ARE OUR PLANS. NO SECRETS AND NO SURPRISES.
From repeated requests… to an ultimatum
Over 20 different residents have requested access to the applications for casino licenses and were all turned down. Requests for PGCB meeting transcripts – which should be public – have been ignored. While casinos get to change and update their applications at will, residents do not have the updated information. Yet the licensing of the casinos continues, as if it is a done deal. Therefore, we have sent an ultimatum to the PGCB: make these documents public.
Document Search
We do not want to do this. But if the Gaming Control Board continues to refuse to make public these documents, we will be forced to get them ourselves. The issue is too important.
The idea of a “Document Search” is inspired from Gandhi.
In the freedom struggle of India from British rule, Gandhi built a campaign against the salt tax. When the government repressed illegal salt making, the civil disobedience had to reach a new level. That is when “nonviolent raids” on the colonial salt depots were organized (a key moment in the struggle, dramatically depicted in the Oscar-winning movie “Gandhi”).
On December 11, 2006, if the Gaming Control Board still has not made public its documents, we will use this nonviolent Document Search tactic at their offices in Harrisburg.
Calendar
October 30 Trick or Treat: Deliver Ultimatum
We deliver our ultimatum to the PA Gaming Control Board (PGCB) by fax from City Hall. With treats and magnifying glasses to hand out to the Mayor and City Council, we announce that we if our requests are not met by December 1 we will be forced to search for them ourselves. We will ask for our City representatives to support us in our efforts to safeguard democracy. Petition drive begins at www.CasinoFreePhila.org.
November 13 Gaming Board “Public” Hearings in Harrisburg: Our Silence is Golden (for the Casino Industry)
Will allies we head to the State Capitol for the first day of hearings on the Philadelphia casino applications. The public is not allowed to speak so bring your tongue protector -- and a magnifying glass. Those documents must be around there somewhere.
November 20 Delivery of Petitions and Washing Windows for Transparency
We will go down to the Gaming Control Board offices to wash PGCB staff windows, to help them become more transparent. We will deliver petitions demanding the documents be made public.
November 23 Thanks-giving to Whistleblowers of the World
This Thanksgiving, as we gather with our friends and family, we will write special thanks to past and future whistleblowers. We write letters of support, encouraging folks to do their civic duty and make these documents public.
December 1 End of Ultimatum
If the documents are not made public, then we will be forced to announce our intention to search for them ourselves.
December 10 Training in Nonviolent Document Search
December 11 Nonviolent Document Search
On December 11th, six weeks after the Ultimatum deadline -- and if the casino planning documents still have not been released -- we resort to nonviolent direct action. We now attempt to retrieve the documents ourselves.
What next?
When the documents become public, we launch Operation Democracy, where we publicly debate the benefits and drawbacks based on solid information and community input.
(Casino-Free Philadelphia thanks CUPW for its leadership in first testing out this campaign model.)