This just in: MGM Resorts International has been tentatively approved by the investigative branch of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, pending the satisfaction of certain matters.
That moment is drawing nigh at which point the Massachusetts Gaming Commission must rule upon the suitability of Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts International. The magic word is “Macao,” although that likely presents a smaller hurdle for Steve Wynn. After all, none of his shareholders is Pansy Ho. MGM CEO Jim Murren must perform his best sleight of hand to convince regulators that Ms. Ho’s part ownership of MGM Grand Paradise (purchased with money given her by papa Stanley Ho) is of no moment whatsoever. Massachusetts regulators have set a high bar to casino operation in the Bay State and if MGM clears it, it may not be by much.
Other issues of the moment are that it took MGC Chairman Stephen Crosby 13 months to recuse himself from discussion of the Wynn project, despite being aware of a potential conflict of interest since last winter. Also, “the Nov. 5 ballot question specifically stated that Suffolk Downs could not pursue a 
gambling license without the support of East Boston voters,” an obstacle Mohegan Sun and the Downs hope MGC will help them overcome … though it sounds rather a stretch. Crosby, by the way, and the commission have been the target of much vitriol and myth-information ever since Suffolk Downs ran Caesars Entertainment out of Eastie, much of it emanating from Gary Loveman himself. A mite belatedly, Crosby gets to tell the commission’s side of the story and set the record straight on some matters.. But better late than never.
Massachusetts regulators are juggling casino megaresorts and slot parlors, as deadlines loom. One of the would-be slot parlors is promising that Greenwood Racing can be getting customers into the turnstiles (and money into the state’s tax coffers) by August. The existing Raynham Park grandstand would get a 
literal facelift, slot machines and two eateries. Even a hint of thoroughbred racing was dangled, as further enticement, and not was duly taken of landslide public support (86%). The MGC also has to weigh bids by Penn National Gaming (at Plainridge Racecourse) and Cordish Cos., up in Leominster, but Raynham Park has to make an especially strong case, as its existence could mean much less tax revenue from the Mashpee Wampanoags, should the latter’s convoluted pact with the state ever bear fruit.
MGM moved a big step closer to a casino in Prince George’s County in Maryland. Two independent consultants predicted that MGM, not Greenwood, 
not Penn, would build the better mousetrap — to the tune of $713 million-$719 million in gross gaming revenue. Penn came in a distant third in the entrail-reading exercise, projected to generate $152 million-$168 million less. By comparison, a Parx-branded casino was forecast to make $30 million-$102 million less. And these are undoubtedly optimistic estimates. Further complicating the math, each applicant is proposing to pay a different tax rate on its slots: MGM’s is the lowest (56%) but computes to the highest amount of dollars by Year Five.
Greenwood CEO Tony Ricci pitched his company’s more slots/higher taxes formula, arguing Parx would outgross MGM: $800 million. (Parx’s site choice may require new highway infrastructure, though.) Penn executives, while dissenting, managing to keep their dignity while Ricci went into a verbal meltdown, implying that the fix was in.
Miraculously, the Atlantic Club Hotel somehow has slightly more assets than liabilities. Too bad it can’t auction off its contents. Bad enough, it owes Bally Technologies and International Game Technology an aggregate $1.2 million. And then there’s eyebrow-raiser: “Also listed among unsecured creditors are numerous people pressing workers’ compensation claims of unspecified amounts against the casino.” Well, that’s about what we’d expect from Colony Capital and its shambolic mismanagement of the place, isn’t it?
Congratulations to Tilman Fertitta, just named Gaming Executive of the Year by Casino Journal magazine. “Fertitta, owner of Golden Nugget casinos, has accomplished something few gaming executives can claim these days—founding and expanding a U.S.-based casino company in the midst of a recession and desperately slow economic recovery. He has accomplished this by taking the valuable lessons he learned establishing the Landry’s restaurant chain and applying them to gaming,” begins the accolade, in which Fertitta is as outspoken as ever.
