Yesterday was the day ultimate for filing casino applications in the state’s southeastern region. Kinda. Sorta. Maybe. Only KG Urban Enterprises actually bothered to file. Of course, the region is meant as a set-aside for the Mashpee Wampanoags … but that is subject to Interior Department and congressional action that we have rehearsed ad nauseam in these pages. But …
Just because KG Urban is the only qualifying applicant at this point doesn’t mean it’s home and dry. There’s a mega-loophole in state law big enough to build a megaresort upon. Should, say, Penn National Gaming or Cordish Gaming find their slot-parlor proposals junked, they could apply for a shot at southeast Massachusetts and wouldn’t even have to pay extra to do so. Rush Street Gaming and Hard Rock International could get in right now, provided they had a local partner. The same holds true for any other rejected applicant, any of whom would find a willing joint venture partner in non-applicant Claremont Cos., which decided to take a wait-and-see attitude.
If you like futile gestures you’ll love the purely symbolic referendum that West Springfield is scheduling to indicate its approval or disapproval of Springfield‘s deal with MGM Resorts International. The advisory vote is the brainchild of city council member Brian Griffin, who wants to use it as a stick with which to poke MGM, supposedly for not meeting with the town. It’s also seen as a way to get more money from the casino giant. MGM Springfield denies having snubbed West Springfield. If it’s true that MGM has only offered $500,000 to mitigate impacts among six surrounding towns, Griffin’s got a valid beef but, unfortunately for him, not much in the way of leverage.
It’s true. Not only Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman posit that Boston would become the second international gambling 
destination in the United States (I bet you say to all your cities, Gary), he used the opportunity to inveigh against liquor and junk food … two commodities found in abundance at any Caesars property. Since Caesars is hoarding almost $2 billion in cash, it should be able to hold up its end of the Suffolk Downs deal, even pay for the whole thing if majority owner Richard Fields comes up as short on money as he did in his busted play for Trump Marina, several years ago. As for retiring debt, the $260 million anticipated from Caesars’ newest stock float isn’t even a drop in the bucket.
