The Great Grey2k Media Challenge

By Dennis McKeon

Lost in all the G2k hubbub over their attack on the National Greyhound Association’s recent handling of a neglect case, their subsequent rescue of 141 greyhounds, and the lifetime suspension from greyhound ownership and racing of the perpetrator, was this little tidbit:

The anti gambling organization, Stop Predatory Gambling, among others, has succeeded in having the previously resolved issue of whether or not local communities within Massachusetts should be allowed to decide whether or not they host a casino within their borders, overturned by Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling. Casino approval will now be decided by statewide ballot.

It might come as a surprise to some of us that an activist group like Grey2k, which has accepted millions in donations under the onus of “helping the greyhounds”, would be interested at all in the fate of Massachusetts’ would-be casinos.

That is, perhaps, until one discovers that the Executive Director of Grey2k also sits on the board of Stop Predatory Gambling, an activist organization dedicated to the elimination of state-sanctioned gambling and gaming.

Wikipedia has this to say about the Stop Predatory Gambling:

”The organization that would become Stop Predatory Gambling began forming in the early 1990s as state and community leaders challenged efforts to bring commercial gambling into their communities. Tom Grey, a Rockford, Illinois resident who fought against a proposed casino in his community, emerged as a leader for the movement representing a diverse national coalition of groups and individuals.”

Tom Grey also happens to sit on the Board of Grey2k.

Grey2k’s spokespersons have steadfastly maintained that the group is unengaged and neutral on the greater issue of gambling, and the formerly local issues of casino sanction. The Massachusetts Supreme Court docket, however, lists Stop Predatory Gambling as a complainant in this most recent overturning of the Attorney General’s previous ruling.

The Brockton Enterprise, in November of 2013, reported the following:

”Carey Theil, executive director of GREY2K USA, said although his organization does not have an official position on casino gambling in general, the nonprofit is backing the Repeal the Casino Deal coalition now working to add a ballot question to the November 2014 election that would repeal the law legalizing three casinos and one slot casino in Massachusetts.”

They did not mention that Theil also sits on the Board of Stop Predatory Gambling, however.

Recently, in Florida, the issue of “decoupling” took center stage. The decoupling question centers on whether casino-racetracks, whose management agreed to allocate a percentage of their casino profits to the purses that the greyhounds compete for, should be allowed to walk away from that agreement, which was intrinsic to their pari-mutuel license, which was intrinsic to their fast-tracking into casino license/operation, bypassing the normal bidding and licensing processes.

Grey2k were unabashed supporters of the Florida “decoupling” movement and proposed decoupling legislation. That, strangely enough, placed them in lock-step support with the Casino racetrack operations there, while at the very same time they were working with the Repeal the Casino coalition in Massachusetts.

Both Grey2k and Stop Predatory Gambling encourage and accept donations from the public to support their agenda and activities, and both have been granted tax-exempt status.

The decoupling movement gained traction with the curiously timed release of a report of what appeared to be an excessive number of racing related fatalities over a seven-month period at Florida’s greyhound tracks.

Subsequent analysis of the extremely nebulous reports, seemed to show that only about a little more than half of the fatalities documented were unquestionably attributable to racing, and not simply instances of normal, premature or accidental mortality, or were unexplained sufficiently.

The number of fatalities, nevertheless, was unprecedented, and unacceptable to the Florida Greyhound Association (of greyhound breeders, owners and kennel operators) who smelled a rank conflict of interest.

The negative publicity this report generated in the various mainstream and social media, seemed to be precisely what the casino-tracks needed to drive home their decoupling money grab, synchronized as it was to the upcoming legislative hearings and vote on the decoupling question.

Since it is the job of the casino/racetrack management to maintain a safe and hazard free racing surface for the greyhounds, the Florida Greyhound Association decided that the tracks perhaps needed some motivation to take care of their responsibilities in a more competent and holistic fashion.

To eliminate any possibility that the casino-racetracks were slacking in their commitment to proper racetrack maintenance and preparation, and perhaps deliberately cultivating a racing environment guaranteed to produce an excessive number of injuries to the greyhounds, and then reaping that attendant, helpful-to-their-cause, negative publicity which injuries to greyhounds generate, the Florida Greyhound Association proposed what came to known as the Smith Amendment.

This legislation would have mandated that all Florida’s racetrack lures be safeguarded against electric shock and concussion hazards, and would have held each racetrack’s management to a stipulated standard of racetrack surface maintenance and preparation.

Oddly enough, it was Senator Maria Sachs, who has worked hand in hand with Grey2k on the decoupling issue, as well as the humane controversies surrounding greyhound racing, who killed discussion on the Smith Amendment, essentially throwing this much-needed and greyhound-beneficial legislation on the trash heap, where the decoupling legislation also ended up.

Grey2k, the self-proclaimed “greyhound protection group” inexplicably failed to raise its voice in support of the Smith Amendment, which not only would have prevented future injuries to racing greyhounds, but could have served as a model of legislation for other states where greyhound racing is conducted.

Meanwhile, they were eagerly awaiting the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which, it turns out, will delay casino development in the commonwealth, if not entirely prohibit it, pending the whim of the electorate, who may or may not be anywhere near a proposed casino.

Perhaps the most inscrutable and shameful episode in this whole, tiresome scenario, is that the mainstream media, who are only too happy to trumpet every accusation Grey2k levels at greyhound racing professionals, seem oblivious to this flagrant lack of ethics and glaring conflict of interests.

Grey2k, meanwhile, right under the nose of the “bloodhound” media, double-dips with impunity. Supporting the casino-track operators in Florida, and working against them through proxy in Massachusetts, and accepting donations in either case, to “help us help the greyhounds”.

Then, when they had a chance to support legislation that would have proven a great benefit to all of Florida’s greyhounds, they did nothing.

Nothing, that is, other than to watch and listen as their political cohort dismissed the Smith Amendment as being unnecessary, while testifying before the legislature that the racetracks in Florida were well-managed and safe.

This, after years of defaming greyhound racing and the people who participate in it as being cruel, abusive and inhumane, essentially because of the supposed risk of injury to the greyhounds on those very racetracks---while accepting millions in donations from a public who believes they are investing in actual greyhound welfare provision, something Grey2k has never provided, and inexplicably failed to support, in this instance.

This arrogant nose-thumbing at their supporters, as well as their media sycophants, in a perfect world, would likely be interpreted by any industrious and ethical investigative reporter, as a spit-in-your-eye challenge.

It’s truly become a theater of the absurd.

Hopefully, someone, somewhere in the mainstream media has taken notice.

Copyright, 2014