Beantown Brawl: Wynn vs. Menino

It wasn’t exactly a Profile in Courage day for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission yesterday. It told the cities of Everett and Boston to work out their feud over a proposed Steve Wynn casino between themselves. Now what do you think are the chances of that producing a mutually agreeable result? Beantown Mayor Thomas Menino has made no secret of his partisanship toward the rival Suffolk Downs proposal backed by Caesars Entertainment. And Wynn Resorts seems to have been rather coy as to how much land in Boston it owns and what it plans to do with it. To not have foreseen what Menino would do so seems … well, careless. Given the volatile personalities involved — Menino, Steve Wynn, etc. — the MGC is naive to expect everyone to join hands and sing “Kumbaya.”

Pissy casino opponents got faced by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. They’re trying to repeal Massachusetts’ casino-enabling legislation. By the light of the Bay State’s constitution, reasoned Coakley, this would be an illegal ‘taking,’ the casino companies having bought in the reasonable expectation they could build casinos on it. You go, ma’am.

Perhaps the MGC punted on Wynn vs. Menino because it is trying to “bulletproof” a bizarre arrangement between Penn National Gaming and Plainridge Race Course. The former lacks a potential casino property and the former needs a new owner. “Gaming commissioners questioned whether the law allowed for a new gaming entity to step into an agreement it had not negotiated and make itself subject to a community referendum arranged by a previous slots developer.” Got all that? Proponents argue that Plainville shouldn’t be made to suffer for the track’s sins. As for Penn, already a two-time loser in Massachusetts, it’s not clear whether or not its name will actually be on the Sept. 10 ballot question. What’s certain is that Penn will have to abide by terms negotiated by Plainridge, which surely isn’t how the company hoped to enter the Bay State. Over in Milford, the leaders of Foxwoods Massachusetts continue to up the ante in what has to be, per capita, the most “george” revenue-sharing deal in the state.

The design proposed by Wynn Philadelphia sure looks a heckuva lot like the one pitched to Everett. Surely the design braintrust at Wynn Resorts can’t be that hard up for new ideas. (Then again, they tend to do the same design twice, then move on — think of Bellagio and Beau Rivage.) Wynn’s man in Philly, Dan Keating, is late of SugarHouse Casino (oh, cruel irony!) and argues that Wynn would be a game-changer, altering the profile of the Philly casino customer. Give Keating points for candor when he advised not to “plan on a casino to bring about urban renewal.” He also dissed Joseph “Tomato King” Procacci who rather foolishly “says he figured if everyone else was so interested in building a casino in South Philadelphia, perhaps he should do it himself.” Yeah, that’s a compelling strategy ya got there, Tomato King. Ditto his naive “business is business” remark. Not in the casino industry. Keating contends that a Wynn hotel would raise ADRs in town and would come with its own water feature — the Delaware River. Now if only El Steve could figure out how to put some fountains in it …