The advertisements for casinos are so glamorous. Sexy young people gathered around a roulette wheel dressed in ravishing clothing and oozing wealth. And the picture painted by the casino industry that wants to be in our commonwealth is of a gambling glitterati, flying in from Paris and Dubai, spending their cash to support our state’s revenue needs, rather than spending it in Connecticut and providing lots of jobs in the process. No pain, lots of gain.

The reality starkly clashes with this picture. The casino industry is planning on taking in billions of dollars a year, and overwhelmingly it is expected to be from local residents. And, unlike the lottery, which at least has all its profit go to cities and towns, the profits from casinos will be heading out of state to where the gambling bosses live. The Gambling Commission says that we will “recapture” $485 million from Connecticut and Rhode Island if we open our own casinos, but where will the extra billions in gambling losses come from? From our neighborhoods.

Wynn’s casino in Everett expects nearly two-thirds of their revenue to come from Massachusetts residents, nearly half from people who live within 30 minutes of the casino. And upwards of 80 percent is likely to be spent on slot machines, which at one time may have been random in terms of payouts, but are now computer operated to encourage gambling “to extinction,” a term from the gambling industry, which means that you go home broke. It’s all rigged.

Where is the money that is expected to be taken in by the casinos coming from? Local residents will be a billion or so dollars lighter in their wallets, every year. Money that had been spent on local businesses, restaurants, arts and entertainment, community programs, food and rent, will be shipped out to wherever the likes of the people who run Wynn Resorts and the bosses of MGM Grand casinos live.

And what about the jobs that are promised? The 6,500 construction jobs and the 20,000 promised (now reduced to 10,000) jobs for local residents? Beyond the fact that the construction jobs are temporary, can’t we use our skills as a state to figure out how to keep our economy growing, and continue to build buildings for commercial enterprise, education, health care, technology and housing? There’s over $6 billion in construction going on right now in Boston alone. From a construction perspective, we don’t need casinos to keep our construction workers employed.

And the 10,000 casino jobs? Overblown at least, compared to what other states with similar numbers of casinos have, but 25 percent of them, according to the Gambling Commission, will be part time, and, according to the Department of Labor, the average wage will be about $23,000. You may hear from the gambling advocates a number of $45,000, but these numbers grow when you add in the salaries of the likes of Steve Wynn, and include benefits. I’ll take the DOL numbers over ones supplied by the casino industry. Try finding an apartment on a salary of $23,000.

Our state has been producing 21st century jobs for several years now. It is insulting to think that our best minds have concluded that Massachusetts’ future has to rest on low wage jobs made possible by taking money from poor and working class residents.

We’ll see additional crime, vice, prostitution, the crimes of desperate people who have lost their money, the doubling of gambling addiction within 10 miles of a casino, and the losses of the targets of the gambling industry - - the poor and working class - - who will be a short subway and bus ride away from it all. We’ve seen the corruption that casinos have already brought to our commonwealth, even before the first casino or slots parlor opens – every week there are more stories of corruption, shady characters, and indictments. It’s a mess before the first coin gets put into a slot machine; imagine what it’ll be if we allow this industry to take hold of our state.

There are so many reasons to vote yes on Question 3 and stop casinos from coming into Massachusetts, it’s incredible to me that the polls show the race as close. Stop this mess from coming into our state and into our communities. Vote yes to repeal the casino law.

Bill Walczak, is a resident of Savin Hill, founder of Codman Square Health Center and long time Dorchester community activist.