Boston briefs: Caesars gets the vote out, etc.

In the face of iffy local support for its Suffolk Downs project, Caesars Entertainment has surrogates going door to door in East Boston, selling voters on the proposal’s virtues. Given the Latino majority among Easties, that’s where Caesars is targeting its efforts. Don’t sell Caesars’ chances short: A similar get-out-the-vote among company employees helped Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) crush the casinophobic Sharron Angle back in 2010.

Tewksbury voters, meanwhile, are expressing a certain degree of surprise at the sudden manifestation of Penn National Gaming‘s proposed Merrimack Valley Casino. That doesn’t mean that the opposition — which is trying to fight Penn with a Facebook page (talk about David and Goliath!) — holds a winning hand. Penn’s biggest worry at this point are Tewksbury’s selectmen, who want more money from the gaming giant before giving their assent.

While S&G still thinks Hard Rock International‘s casino proposal for West Springfield is blah with a capital “B,” there’s an interesting story behind it. That would be the hardscrabble rise to success of CEO James Allen (at far left) who worked his way up from the kitchen of Bally’s Park Place in Atlantic City. The well-traveled Sol Kerzner protege has stints under Donald Trump (which he won’t discuss), at Atlantis Resort and the Desert Inn. He’s also worked for Mohegan Sun, now a serious rival for that west-Massachusetts license. It’s an epic tale that’s well worth reading.

If tourists seem bombed when they get here, it’s because they’ve gotten an early start on their drinking, long before the plane reaches the tarmac. Going home, they’re tapped out and far less likely to tipple — just when you need some booze to anesthetize the pain of losing.