Casinos Nutty With Numbers
Casino Free Philadelphia released its results from the unofficial ballot box poll about casino placement yesterday. The poll asked voters whether or not Philadelphians wanted casinos within 1500 feet of schools, homes, chrurches and other public places. The boxes were placed outside polling places on election day, and the poll was also available online to registered voters. An overwhelming majority of voters (95% of 13,319) said they would like casinos far away please. Yet, Casino representatives are spinning this vote into a negative outcome. Foxwoods spokeswoman Maureen Garrity had this to say:
We’ve always said that only a vocal minority oppose these casinos. This vote dispels the myth that Philadelphians are opposed to casinos.
Are you dizzy yet Maureen? The argument here is that since only 13,319 people voted, the rest of us must not care at all. Maybe if the question had actually been on the real ballot, more people would have been able to vote. Like, everyone. And then we would know what the citizens really think. I have a feeling it might have been close to the same percentage of yays as the poll that did take place. Cause really, why does a casino need to be within 1,500 feet of a school or home. Who would vote yes to that?
Daily News: You Wanna Win Big At The Nickel Slots?
Previously: Council Votes To Put Casino Question On Ballot
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Like it or not, the PR flack has a point. A bit over 13,000 just says that, 13,000 people (which is not a majority of the electorate) were willing to go “out of their way” to “vote” on Q1. That doesn’t really say shit. I’m curious how much CasiNO’s stunt cost since anyone looking at the design of their “election” could see there’s no way this stat would ever have any legitimacy in anything but advertising. Ironically, it looks like their wasteful expenditure on gathering and tabulation may well work in the Casinos favor.
It was theater and poorly staged. And I’m not at all a fan of the casinos.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Cause really, why does a casino need to be within 1,500 feet of a school or home.
Maybe ’cause the only place in the city that’s more than 1,500 feet from a home is the top of the damn Comcast building. It’s not like the city’s exactly swimming in open space.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Excuse me, but the vote was not a publicity stunt OR theater. Tell that to the 100+ volunteers who worked the boxes at the actual polls, and who worked for hours on end, inputting the results of paper ballots into a website. The fact is, the Pennsylvania Gaming Board must have been pretty scared of the outcome of this vote, or they wouldn’t have bothered suing in order to get the Supreme Court to block the vote on the actual ballot.
Why didn’t they just leave the vote on the ballot in the first place?