Bethlehem
Pro-Casino Campaigners Get Personal
As reported by the Morning
Call: "If the mass advertising campaign,
the volunteers going door-to-door and the $50,000
Musikfest sponsorship weren't enough, investors
on Tuesday added a personal touch to their effort
to bring gambling to Bethlehem.
"Barry Gosin, chief executive
officer of Newmark & Co., the company that
helped remake the SoHo and TriBeCa neighborhoods
in New York, traveled to Bethlehem on Tuesday
to meet with Councilmen Joseph Leeson Jr. and
Gordon Mowrer. Leeson and Mowrer propose a zoning
change that would ban a slots parlor from the
former Bethlehem Steel land where an $879 million
casino, hotel, shopping and residential development
is proposed.
"The CEO house calls were the latest in
a two-week full-court press by BethWorks Now
and its partner, Las Vegas Sands, in advance
of a City Council vote next week on the zoning
change. The campaign started with a $50,000
sponsorship at Musikfest in August, continued
with a 12-page booklet of the project stuffed
in nearly 30,000 Bethlehem area newspapers last
week and continued this week with an automated
telephone campaign designed to transfer gambling
supporters directly into the City Council switchboard.
"With the vote set for Tuesday, City Council
members are experiencing the kind of big-time
lobbying usually directed at state legislators
and members of Congress…"
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