Letter to Investors

On November 5th, the following letter was sent out to all of the Sugarhouse and Foxwoods investors. We requested a response by November 20th but have not heard anything back.

From: Casino-Free Philadelphia
Subject: Resiting Casinos

Both the SugarHouse and Foxwoods casino projects are embroiled in controversy. The issue is that citizens have been cut out of decision-making on an issue that would change the fabric of our city and of our lives forever. We were never asked. As we see it, you and some other very well-connected casino developers are holding Philadelphia's riverfront hostage from us, the citizens of the City of Philadelphia. We want smart development along our riverfront that opens the waterfront to the public, encourages economic growth, creates construction and long-term good-paying family-sustaining jobs.

Casino-Free Philadelphia is asking you to put the health and prosperity of our city first. This is your opportunity to stand for the values that we believe you stand for. We are asking you to condemn your current proposed site and the process by which it was chosen.

Some of you simply believe this is a good investment with a high rate of return. Others may believe casinos are a good investment in our City. Some of you believe you will be able to control the negative influences of these casinos by establishing trusts to disperse your profits directly to groups while also reducing tax obligations on your profits.

But the issue is not about your right to make an honest buck or to give back to the community. The issue is that there is nothing honest about how slots are being brought to our city.

Philadelphians were denied every opportunity to provide meaningful input. The Gaming Control Board willingly withheld crucial information from the public, even arresting citizens attempting to gain information to which they were lawfully entitled. And on key points of information, including the closeness to neighborhoods, the Gaming Control Board has allowed factually inaccurate information to stay on record. Homes, places of worship, schools, parks, playgrounds and neighborhoods are threatened by these two massive slots barns. Foxwoods has over 5,855 people living within 1,500-feet of the proposed site; Sugarhouse has 3,808 within an equivalent radius.

Academic studies, reports in the national media, city planners, and citizens' groups have sounded the alarm on the parasitic effects that casinos have on the communities that host them. A recent report by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) warned that casinos would cannibalize Philadelphia's economy, compete with local businesses, and lead to higher unemployment. PICA conservatively estimated that the costs of dealing with the rise in crime due to gambling addiction alone could cost the city more than $200 million per year.

Around the country, casinos have devastated local economies, driving up unemployment and shuttering local businesses. In Atlantic City, one-third of the city's retail businesses closed within just four years of the casinos' arrival. In Gilpin County Colorado, the home of the majority of the state's casinos, the number of retail businesses dropped from 31 (before gambling) to 11 within a couple of years after casinos arrived. In South Dakota, retail and service businesses suffered a net loss of approximately $60 million in anticipated sales in the year following the introduction of gambling.

Therefore, it is hardly surprising that when SMR Research Corporation, one of nation's largest publishers of industry and market research studies, surveyed 298 counties, it concluded that gambling is the "single fastest-growing driver of bankruptcy". SMR found that counties with the highest bankruptcy rates in Nevada, New Jersey, California and Connecticut are those closest to major casinos.

We want responsible development that will strengthen our communities, create real long-term jobs, and compliment surrounding businesses. Casinos do just the opposite. They are the antithesis of good city planning. This is why a vast majority of Philadelphians support re-siting casinos to new locations away from city neighborhoods.

In the past, we have challenged your professional consultants’ misinformation campaigns , and we worked to bring political leaders to our side.

It was always our intention to use the courts, the ballot box and the political process to protect this City from the social harms of casinos. We have tried to give Philadelphians an opportunity to vote on the question. We have pursued traditional legal mechanisms in our efforts to win back the public's right to have meaningful input.

We have made steady progress. Neither zoning nor riparian rights has been granted. Construction has not started. Amendments to Act 71 have been introduced in the State Legislature as the citizens are learning the implications of slots parlors on their lives.

But the grip of a few on the city's future has overridden our right to an open, transparent and democratic process. It is time to put an end to this madness. It is time for the public to be heard and for responsible development to begin.

We know you can hear our urgency and the dedication of hundreds of volunteers and neighbors. Our next campaign will focus on the investors who have turned a blind eye to the wider social and economic costs of casinos. We will begin using the media and our dedicated volunteer force to focus on your role in a biased and undemocratic process that threatens to undermine the quality of our neighborhoods in a city that you, too, love.

We invite and encourage you to publicly and actively support re-siting of the two casinos through an open and transparent process.

This is an opportunity for you to stand for the values that many of you have publicly promoted in other parts of your careers. Because many of us have a high regard for you, we have so far kept most of you out of the public’s eye during this debacle. Now it’s time for you to step up to demand re-siting the casinos through an open and transparent process.

We humbly request an answer by November 20, 2007.

We hope you will do the right thing.

Sincerely,

To: SugarHouse and Foxwoods Casino Investors