Another day, another occasion to scratch one’s head over the casino-averse culture in Massachusetts. The Boston Globe‘s Shirley Leung does her usual Chicken Little routine, lamenting that the Bay State may get no casinos at all. (Fret not, Shirley, somebody will get them.) But she makes some good points: Massachusetts has a thriving lottery. It is a significant feeder market for casinos in Maine, Connecticut and especially Rhode Island. It just seems to have a bad case of NIMBY Syndrome.
As you can see, it’s damned difficult to imagine where Suffolk Downs could put a casino on the Revere end of its property without having to bulldoze much of the current infrastructure. As the Globe‘s Mark Arsenault puts it, local officials are “flummoxed” — and so am I. Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby is a new-minted skeptic, saying, “It’s clearly going to be complicated, at best. All I’m saying is we will entertain whatever proposal they might come up with.” Even Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo (D, left), Suffolk Downs Booster Number One, is having a hard time wrapping his cranium around the problem. At the very least, significant downsizing of the $1 billion project may be necessary. The track’s got until Dec. 31 to work it out. Suffolk could transfer the project to nearby Wonderland track, also in Revere, but that opens a big can of worms. Arsenault again: “Would Suffolk Downs have to negotiate and sign a new casino agreement with Revere? Would there have to be another election? Would the commission lift its deadline to accommodate a campaign and a vote?” Suffolk Downs was evidently so sure of its chances — despite having to win two referendums — it didn’t have a Plan B and is scrambling.
Boston Mayor-elect Martin J. Walsh has now thrown his support to Foxwoods Massachusetts (because it’s not in his back yard, natch). That project’s fate is now in the hands of the Milford electorate, which votes on it in less than two weeks. One can only say that it’s too close to call, although there’s some local grumbling about traffic, sound pollution and similar concerns.
Meanwhile, the Mashpee Wampanoags scored a significant victory when the Massachusetts state Senate unanimously approved the new compact with the state. It is projected to yield slightly more than a million dollars a year for the state, at a 17% tax rate. This puts pressure on the MGC to not give a racino license to Raynham Park, just a stone’s throw away, as that would cause the Mashpee Wamps’ tax rate to go to 0%. It would defeat the purpose of the compact if money is left on the table like that. Of course, several not-inconsiderable hurdles remain to be cleared.
It’s a cinch that Mohegan Sun will get a recount of the Palmer election, whose outcome it is disputing.
Ixnayed? Frankly put, if PokerStars.com were to be licensed in New Jersey, it would make a joke of casino regulation in the Garden State. Evidently, S&G is not alone in that opinion. It’s a simple matter of numbers, as in eight (number of guilty pleas made, in regard to the “Black Friday” crackdown), two (execs still on the lam) and 731 million (dollars paid to the Department of Justice to make this unpleasantness go away). There’s also the $15 million that parent Rational Group was hornswoggled out of by Colony Capital, in the Atlantic Club Hotel fiasco, money unlikely to ever be seen again. If the rumors bear fruit, it will be a windfall for the American Gaming Association and its stateside clientele. The AGA had formally opposed PokerStars’ licensure, writing that it was “a business build on deceit, chicanery and the systematic flouting of U. S. law.” It sounds as though New Jersey regulators agree. Stay tuned.
Goes to show you how divisive this is in MA. One says Yes by a 3-to-1 margin and the other says no.