Palmer, Mass., residents bullish on casino plan

In Palmer, the western Massachusetts town where Mohegan Sun wants to build a smaller version of its Uncasville self, residents have made up their mind: Build it already.

Sixty-four percent of the town's registered voters now support the proposal, according to a poll released Thursday by the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass Dartmouth. The backing extends to a majority of virtually every demographic and political group in town.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives is expected to take up a bill next week that would authorize two resort casinos in the state as well as 3,000 slot machines at four existing race tracks. Under the bill, a town's voters would have to agree to host a casino.

The poll, based on telephone interviews Monday and Tuesday with 523 Palmer residents, found that 30 percent of registered voters would vote against permitting a casino in their midst while 6 percent are undecided. Among all respondents, not just registered voters, 63 percent indicated they would vote "yes" in a casino referendum and 31 percent "no." Six percent are "undecided."

A similar poll in July 2009 found 60 percent of Palmer's residents favored a local casino while a July 2008 poll found support among 55 percent of residents.

With the number of "undecideds" falling from 20 to 6 percent over two years, "there aren't many people left to persuade on either side of the debate," Clyde Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis and superviser of the poll, said in a news release.

The latest poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percent, was commissioned by Northeast Resorts Group LLC. Leon Dragone, a Northeast Resorts partner, also heads Northeast Realty, the East Longmeadow, Mass., agency that owns the Palmer casino site on which Mohegan Sun holds an option.

Jeffrey Hartmann, Mohegan Sun's chief operating officer, said the poll results were consistent with the feedback Mohegan Sun officials have received since opening a downtown office in Palmer in May 2009. "People are looking at it as an economic opportunity," Hartmann said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com