DeLeo: Gambling bill unlikely this year

BOSTON – House Speaker Robert DeLeo is predicting that a bill allowing expanded gambling and casinos in the state likely won’t reach Gov. Deval Patrick’s desk by the end of the year.DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat and supporter of both casinos and racetrack slot machines, said Monday that there are still too many unanswered questions – including tax policies, oversight jurisdiction, siting, addiction treatment and the number of licenses – complicating the gambling issue and making it hard to get a bill passed this year.”To say that we’ll have a bill on the governor’s desk by the end of this, I think, may be a difficult task,” DeLeo said while standing alongside Senate President Therese Murray and Patrick after an hour-plus State House meeting.DeLeo, whose 19th Suffolk House district contains all or part of four wards in Revere, the focal point of local interest in the casino issue, said he expects a public hearing sometime in October.Noting that the Legislature is scheduled to halt formal sessions on Nov. 18 for the rest of the calendar year, Murray said, “We’ll continue to work on whatever comes out of the hearing process as we move forward, and hopefully be able to take it up early in the next part of the session.”Patrick, who supports casinos, said he didn’t want the debate over casinos to draw attention away from other pressing issues, including the state’s ongoing economic recovery.(Material from The Associated Press and State House News Service was used in this report).