Sheldon Adelson‘s old sparring partner, Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, was ruling on a Steve Wynn lawsuit last week, dismissing litigation against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in light of the latter’s abject subjugation, er, settlement with Wynn. “The commission executed this 
action after receiving advice from our legal counsel, and the necessary assurances from investigators that this commission will receive all material and substantive information required to make a fully informed decision” on the fate of Encore Boston Harbor, said MGC Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein, trying to put a positive construal on a complete beatdown of her agency.
Now the focus shifts to Wynn Resorts, which could be on the receiving end of a fine even bigger than the $20 million it paid in Nevada, according to Global Gaming Business. The MGC is feeling the hot breath of state Attorney General Maura Healey down its neck, warning it not just to go with the flow and let Wynn Resorts off lightly simply because it already built its casino.
In a juicy subplot, Sterling Suffolk Racecourse is suing Wynn Resorts’ realtor, FBT Everett Realty for being part of an allegedly nefarious plot to screw afforesaid racecourse out of a megaracino. In addition to 
demanding $3 billion in damages, Sterling Suffolk has accused Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria for being on the receiving end of kickbacks from Wynn Resorts et. al. “The Defendants herein conspired to, and did in fact, circumvent the safeguards and protections that the Gaming Act was intended to provide,” salivates the lawsuit. DeMaria, for his part, called the allegations “blatantly false,” adding, “To be clear and unequivocal, at no time did I engage in any improper activity of any sort in connection with the casino project as Mayor of Everett.”
Also weighing in were …
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- Steve Wynn’s attorney: “more nonsense from a disgruntled competitor which we will file a response to soon.”
- Wynn Resorts’ Michael Weaver: “This is a repackaging of the baseless claims Suffolk Racing has been making since they failed to win a license based on the merits four years ago. We will continue to defend ourselves in court.”
- FBT Everett Realty: “Sterling is betting that it can fool the Court into thinking that a litany of salacious allegations relating to Steve Wynn and Wynn Resorts Limited’s not-yet-open casino hotel are sufficient to state a federal RICO violation.”
- casino analyst Clyde Barrow: “That seems like a pretty explosive allegation to make if you don’t have evidence to back it up.”
- the Massachusetts Gaming Commission: “no comment”
* Elsewhere in the Bay State, as if MGM Springfield didn’t have enough problems already, it is having to cope with an influx of adolescents — 64 in December alone — from its casino floor. According to President 
Michael Mathis, MGM is finding more minors amidst the slot machines because it’s looking harder. He also blames seasonal factors: “We did a tree lighting, ice skating rink, and we just had more families that were going through the facility. And if they stepped into the floor, that constituted being in the gaming area, even if they didn’t actually intend to game [sic].” (Because nobody ‘gambles’ in a casino anymore.)
It’s not clear if Mathis’ longstanding midnight-curfew policy is helping. Carding players apparently isn’t going over well. “One of the issues we 
ran into from a customer service standpoint was that our policy is to card anyone that looks under 30. And you get some of these baby-faced 40-year-olds, and they were literally getting harassed on our casino floor.” (This used to happen to me in bars, so I dig what Mathis is saying.) One possible solution is to hand-stamp eligible patrons upon entry. That would seem to solve the problem right at the root. At any rate, it’s worth trying.
* Minnesota‘s casino tribes are adamantly opposed to a sports-betting bill that just cleared its first hurdle, with bipartisan support, in the Legislature. It would permit sports wagering at the state’s 21 tribal casinos, its two horse tracks and via mobile devices. Evidently the tribes begrudge the tracks their potential access to sports-betting receipts (to be taxed at 6.75%). They prefer the two birds in the bush to the one in the hand. The tribes have de facto allies in anti-gambling activists, who were pushing their one-size-fits-all sob story: “any gains would be outweighed by social costs such as problem gambling, crime, bankruptcies, divorces and social services for affected families.” Has anybody ever broken down that tune to see how much truth it contains?
* Five new table games and 50 slots have been trotted out at Fitz Casino & Hotel in Tunica, to lure customers back after spring flooding cut off access to the casino. Floods are the cross that every riverboat-casino operator has to bear and are one more good reason for not putting casinos on the river anymore.
* Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood‘s new hotel tower won’t be open until early next year, just in time for the Super Bowl. Chalk it up to the engineering challenges posed by building a hotel in the shape of a big-ass guitar. Hard Rock International pushed this onto the back burner during the Great Recession and dusted it off in 2013. It’s quite a daring design and the engineering solutions required make for fascinating reading, if architecture is your thing. Somebody should have been this painstaking when the Harmon Hotel (remember that?) was being built.
