CCACG History
Thirty years ago a group of Newporters banded together to defeat an attempt to build a gambling casino in the city. The victory by the band, which came to be known as Citizens Concerned About Casino Gambling (CCACG), was but the frst of many battles to keep casinos out of Newport and out of the state.Having just helped defeat the biggest threat so far--the attempt by Harrah's Entertainment and the General Assembly to locate a casino in West Warwick--it's time we celebrated that victory and our 30th birthday with a gala thank you party for our friends, our supporters and ourselves.
Joining the celebration will be former Gov. Lincoln Almond, who led the statewide effort against Harrah's in 2006, and many others who participated in that victory as well as others over the last three decades.
The first victory was on March 9, 1977, when Newport's City Council voted 5-2 against a proposed casino in Newport. We knew then -- as we know now -- that casinos operators don't know what "no" means. So it was that three years later, in 1980, CCACG defeated a proposition to turn Newport's Goat Island into Monte Carlo.
Despite little public activity over the next few years, CCACG volunteers, anticipating new attempts to build a destination casino in the state, informed voters and legislators about the negative effects of gambling. Although we helped defeat a non-binding referendum in 1991 that supported simulcasting the legislature ignored the voters and approved simulcasting. A year later video slot machines were installed at both Newport Jai Alai and Lincoln Park over the vigorous oppostition of CCACG and others.
Under the leadership pf retired Navy Capt. Howard N. Kay, CCACG led the effort to form a state-wide umbrella organization to coordinate anti-casino activities. This culminated in the 1994 constitutional amendment requiring a referendum to approve any expansion of gambling in the state. A year later, voters rejected five referenda, each calling for approval of a casino in different communities.
Ten years later Harrah's Entertainment entered the picture for what became three years of conniving with the General Assembly to win approval for referenda for the West Warwick casino. After legislation approved by the General Assembly in 2004 and 2005 was declared unconstitutional by state Supreme Court before a public vote, Harrah's and the legislature drafted outrageous legislation to change the constitution so that Harrah's could build a West Warwick casino.
The unprecendented assault on the constitution was rejected by 63 percent of the voters in 2006 despite Harrah's massive $17.8 million propaganda campaign. In Newport County, where CCACG concentrated its efforts, Harrah's scheme was rejected by 73 percent of the voters.
CCACG was not only the first group to oppose casinos in Rhode Island, it is the only group that for 30 consecutive years has stood against the expansion of gambling. It is a war that has no end. A whipped Harrah's is gone in 2007, but we all know it, or another of its wealthy counterparts, will be back to try again. Locally, meanwhile, we're faced with Newport Grand's desire to expand and its probable sale to buyers who will have their own grandiose ideas on the best way to extract money from us.