(already subscribe? log in).

Caesars CEO dismisses concerns about casinos

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

February 15, 2012|By Mark Arsenault

Gary Loveman offered no new details on his companys plans for Suffolk Downs. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff )

The onetime Harvard Business School professor who now runs the largest casino company in the world glibly presented himself yesterday as one of the “wolves’’ of the gambling industry.

“The wolves are here,’’ deadpanned Gary Loveman, the chief executive of Caesars Entertainment Corp., in remarks to an audience of business leaders and powerbrokers, including Mayor Thomas M. Menino, at Boston College’s Chief Executives’ Club of Boston.

Loveman offered an upbeat defense of his industry, which he acknowledged remains a contentious issue in Massachusetts three months after Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation to legalize casinos.

“Across the world’’ casino gambling is “becoming increasingly mundane,’’ said Loveman, who wants to build a gambling resort at Suffolk Downs in East Boston. “Pick your favorite cosmopolitan destination or your vision of a very conservative US jurisdiction, and in every instance casinos have been around, they’ve operated for a long time, and they have become entirely noncontroversial in the context of people’s lives and their communities.’’

Loveman, who holds a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lives in Wellesley, offered no new details on his company’s plans for Suffolk Downs and declined to answer reporters’ questions about the workings of the company, including a media report that Caesars was looking to sell casino properties in the Midwest to raise money to invest in new locations, such as Suffolk Downs. Loveman repeatedly said federal securities laws require he stay quiet on company business following Caesars’ stock offering last week.

In his speech, Loveman dismissed many of the public concerns about casinos, such as the charge they are predatory businesses that take from those who can least afford it. He said casino patrons tend to be older and better off financially than most. He also claimed crime goes down near casinos, and that property values go up - exactly the opposite of what casino opponents say.

The only downside Loveman acknowledged is the problem of addiction, which he said affects about 1 percent of people where gambling is available.

“That 1 percent absolutely deserves our foremost attention, research, therapeutic interventions - all the things we can do to address this very damaging problem,’’ said Loveman. “But we have to recognize at the same time that the vast majority of participants are in a very different position.’’