Reinstein: Senate vote doesn’t finish off slots

REVERE – The state Senate’s rejection of a proposal allowing dog and horse tracks to add 2,500 slot machines each does not mean the legislative debate over bringing slots to Revere is over.”I don’t consider it a sign,” said state Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein, a long-time proponent of installing slots at local tracks, “People want a process to have it be taken on its own.”State Senate President Therese Murray said the Senate will debate gambling in the fall. For now, the Senate’s rejection of slots as a revenue source for cash-strapped state government leaves Reinstein feeling a little like Gov. Deval Patrick did last year after legislators axed his plan to build three resort casinos.She looks forward to the fall fight over slots as she has since 2003 when Reinstein and Winthrop colleague Robert DeLeo pushed to bring slots to Wonderland Greyhound Park or Suffolk Downs or both tracks.”We’ll go through the process and let people vote the way they want to vote and hopefully we’ll be victorious,” Reinstein said.With DeLeo as House speaker and Murray and Patrick supporting some form of expanded gambling, the odds for slots or casinos to come to Massachusetts have grown dramatically. Reinstein and other supporters, including Mayor Thomas Ambrosino, say slots would raise desperately needed tax revenues and preserve jobs.Critics called slot machines addictive and said the state would be preying on the most vulnerable.Last December, Reinstein, citing a study conducted by state Treasurer Timothy Cahill, estimated slots would generate roughly $489 million to be distributed to cities and towns, according to the Lottery local aid formula.A merger agreement announced by Wonderland and Suffolk Downs in August said owners of the tracks hope to “strengthen the effort to bring a resort-style casino to the East Boston-Revere area should the state decide to expand gaming.”Wonderland is under a deadline to transform from a racetrack to a casino or development site after voters in November approved a ban on greyhound racing, effective Jan. 1, 2010. The Senate this week also rejected a proposal to delay the ban until January 2012.But the Senate backed a plan to join the multi-state lottery game Powerball, which could generate $25 million for the state.