Patrick bets against slots
Technically, the governor has ten days to sign the casino/slots bill passed by the legislature last night. But the odds against that are pretty high. House Speaker Robert DeLeo, whose district would likely get both a resort casino (Suffolk Downs) and a slots parlor (Wonderland) vowed to raise the stakes if Patrick "amends" the bill (sends it back to the legislature with proposed changes; effectively killing it).
Or even if he does sign it, he can do what he wants because of an apparent mistake with a single word in the section of the bill setting up a gambling commission, the Outraged Liberal informs us.
Meanwhile, Ross Levanto writes that all the dithering over casinos means Massachusetts lost out on a federal stimulus program to encourage small-business job creation.
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He still shouldn't sign the bill, even with that error
The error in the bill means only that the current Commission could decide to deny slot licenses. That could change once Patrick is no longer governor -- even if he is re-elected this year, he won't be governor forever.