Lately my early morning routine of turning on newsradio WMTW has had me shaking my head in disbelief. It’s those gross pro-casino ads. They attempt to appeal to consumer/voter emotion by urging Mainers to support their fellow citizens. If you care for other Mainers, they insinuate, you’ll vote yes on question three, because if there’s one thing Maine needs it’s more jobs. What they won’t tell you is though Maine might sorely be in need of new jobs they’re not the type of jobs a casino can offer.
The jewel of the campaign is the ad featuring an older gentleman sporting the typical Northern Maine drawl. The majority of Southern Mainers don’t own that drawl. They must’ve dug around in the county to find that guy. The faceless drawler encourages the citizens to vote yes to bring more jobs to the people of Maine. He wants us to vote yes so that maybe his kids will return to Maine.
That one nearly had me. Though my head was brimming with reports and research I had compiled supporting the inherent faults of a casino in Maine I felt compelled to help out my fellow Mainers. Until I realized, my fellow Mainers deserve careers that can offer them advancement and learning opportunities, not positions that exist only to fatten the wallet of an already wealthy businessman.
My favorite though, is the young male “college graduate” claiming a casino can offer him a job worthy of staying in Maine. As an aspiring college grad I was immediately fired up with disbelief. Is that what my goal is when I leave USM with my degree? Am I busting my hump working, taking classes and learning about community so I can throw it all away catering to the gluttony of the gambler to earn a measly “living wage”?
I’ve worked in the service industry for years and that experience drove me back to education. Those jobs have few redeeming qualities. You leave each evening with a bundle of cash in your apron and lead in your shoes exhausted from constantly giving to those who little appreciate your efforts. They are positions with extremely high turnover rates and though many students do it to support themselves through college, most strive ultimately to steer away from it as a career.
The presence of the proposed $650 million monstrosity will only encourage more jobs of a similar caliber. These and other equally low quality positions will sprout up in and around the Sanford area to support the casino and its clientele. In fact, these establishments will most likely have to install slot machines to compete for the casino clientele’s patronage. This happened in Montana and most likely other places in the country. Before you know it you’ll be able to play the slots while you pump your gas. However, this isn’t going to assist Maine in remedying the overwhelming problem of the student migration out of Maine for jobs.
As reported in this week’s issue (page 3), Maine’s “brain drain” is a result of the unavailability of jobs for the educated population. Though Maine has one of the highest rates of high school graduation in the country, it also has one of the lowest percentages of those who go on to college. Further, 50 percent of those college bound go out of state for their schooling and end up staying there.
The tourism industry in Maine is already squeezing out the opportunity for other business ventures and eliminating the possibilities for educated Mainers. These types of establishments don’t offer consistent, stable employment because of the dramatic seasonal slump. The introduction of a casino will only cause the spread of the tourism industry which offers primarily low-paying, dead-end positions. Maine will remain a state with little opportunity for career advancement if we continue to cater to businesses like casinos that offer primarily “living wage” jobs.
Christy McKinnon can be contacted at [email protected].