Massachusetts Governor Patrick touches on several hot-button issues in his speech at Brown University last night, including casinos, same-sex marriages and universal health care.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

PROVIDENCE — Massachusetts Governor Patrick last night issued a stout defense of his plan to bring three resort-style casinos to his state, saying to a Brown University audience that the casinos would provide much-needed jobs, create $2 billion in economic activity and $400 million in state revenue that would be used to repair aging roads and bridges, finance transportation projects and pay for property tax relief.

Patrick also pledged to set aside “a portion of the proceeds” from the casinos to “deal with the undeniable social costs” of gambling addiction. “To ninety-seven percent of people who visit casinos, it’s harmless entertainment.”

“It is a problem but a manageable one,” said Patrick, who noted that 8 to 10 percent of people who drink alcohol develop problems related to alcohol abuse.

Development of three resort casinos in Massachusetts will yield 30,000 construction jobs, 20,000 permanent jobs and bring tourists to the state. Patrick has proposed a casino in western Massachusetts, one in Southeastern Massachusetts and one in the Boston metropolitan area.

“We’re not talking about gambling halls,” said Patrick in a brief news conference after his speech, which was part of an annual lecture series devoted to the memory of the late Gov. Frank Licht, a Democrat who was a member of the Brown Class of 1938.

Casinos are best seen as part of the hospitality industry, Patrick said, and he hopes resorts with hotels, golf courses, meeting spaces and entertainment venues can be developed. Resort casinos tend to provide good jobs, Patrick said, with average salaries between $35,000 and $45,000 annually. “And they have benefits,” he said.

Patrick also said that the jobs would be even better if unions organized the workers, as has been the case in some parts of the casino industry, especially in Las Vegas.

Rhode Island Governor Carcieri, a critic of the casino industry who nonetheless has expanded slot-machine gambling more than any other governor in state history, attended the beginning of Patrick’s speech last night at Brown, but left before Patrick tackled such hot-button issues as same-sex marriage and the casino question.

Rhode Island’s state budget relies on gambling for 9.6 percent of its state budget — the sixth highest rate among the 50 states according to a recent Boston College study.

After Patrick unveiled his casino plan last month, Rhode Island House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, said the General Assembly would probably study in January whether Rhode Island should allow casino-style table games at the state’s two slot parlors, Twin River in Lincoln and Newport Grand in Newport.

Patrick touched on many other topics in a speech at Brown’s Salomon Teaching Center that was not well attended, with many empty seats visible in the auditorium that holds about 400.

Democrat Patrick said he was proud that the Massachusetts legislature did not give in to pressure from opponents of same-sex marriage to put the measure to a voter referendum. Such a campaign, Patrick said, would have turned “Massachusetts into a national circus” as both sides of the contentious issue would flood the state with shrill debate.

Patrick said he believes that Massachusetts, the only state that gives same-sex partners the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples, can be a beacon to other states on the issue.

“One thing we can do for the rest of the country is show this can work,” said Patrick. Since Massachusetts allowed gay marriage, beginning in May 2004, “the sky hasn’t fallen, the ground didn’t open up and swallow us all.”

On health-care, Patrick said that while a government-run single payer system may be the best solution to the nation’s health-care dilemmas, Massachusetts’ attempt to patch together a hybrid private-public solution to universal insurance is an experiment that must be given a chance to succeed. “Instead of thinking we have to come up with a perfect solution or no solution, we decided to try something.”

Patrick, the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts, has been on the job just nine months. He said he hopes to work toward weaning his state off reliance on fossil fuel and said he favors development of wind energy and conservation as alternatives to building more electricity-generating plans in the state.

In the early parts of his speech, Patrick told the largely student audience that it is time for their generation to get involved in the political system. He urged them not to be cynical and to search for real solutions to national and world problems.

Recounting how he rose from a poor neighborhood on Chicago’s south side to graduate from Harvard College and the Harvard Law School, Patrick said the most disheartening part of his tenure on Beacon Hill has been the battle to fight crime in the state’s impoverished urban neighborhoods.

“This is the most frustrating part of my job,” said Patrick.

smackay@projo.com