David McKee

As we all would agree, Suffolk Downs doesn’t have the capitalization, the track record or the leadership that Wynn Resorts does. However, Richard Fields and Harvard homeboy Gary Loveman have a big something going for them: juice. I expected their superior political connections to play a role and so they have. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who’s gung-ho for Suffolk Downs, is playing less than pristine pool, hoping to keep Steve Wynn away from a likely jackpot. That’s the nature of the political process and it’s to be expected, but it also implies that Menino doesn’t think Suffolk Downs can win on merit, so he’s going to kneecap Wynn hard and early.

It’s not as though Menino doesn’t have a case: Vague language defining a “host community” in the 2011 enabling legislation allows Menino to infer that some of the Wynn property lies within Boston proper, not Everett. As the Boston Globe reports, “the city is pursuing whether road, landscaping, or harbor improvements may cross the line and possibly elevate the city to a host community.”

Menino could then veto the project … if the Massachusetts Gaming Commission concurs with his interpretation of the law. Given his clear mandate (86% of voters saying “aye”), Wynn might be more strongly inclined to dig in and fight than he was in Foxborough or his first run at Philadelphia. But he’s got another issue threatening his project — it’s too tall; six times higher than currently allowed. The casino and amenities also take up too much square footage for waterfront property. The city fathers of Everett hope to execute a ‘municipal harbor plans’ that lifts the ceiling of state regulations, provided that Wynn “creates public access to the waterfront, such as walking or cycling paths, benches and lighting, and other amenities.” Of course, if Mayor Menino were to complain that Steve Wynn was getting preferential treatment over in Everett, we’d have to say he’s got a point.

When the music stops playing in the contention for a slot parlor in the Bay State, Neil Bluhm will be the only way without a chair, unless this change very dramatically and very soon. Cordish Cos. has inked an HCA with Leominster. “I think we did OK,” deadpanned Mayor Dean Mazzarella, whose town will get new infrastructure and a new police substation — built at Cordish’s expense — in addition to at $3.8 million a year. Assuming that Bluhm can find a town that will negotiate with him, there won’t be much talking to do. Four executed HCAs means that Rush Street Gaming is going have promise X number of jobs, Y amount of dollars and Z elements of infrastructure or go peddle its papers elsewhere.

When applying for a gaming license in Massachusetts, the good folk at Foxwoods Resort Casino could do very well without this sort of publicity. It’s unrelated to casino operators but it’s unlikely to make regulators take a more favorable view of the tribe’s internal controls, shall we say.

There’s at least one U.S. casino out there (well, Malaysian-owned, but U.S.-based) that’s struck a deep vein of untapped demand … Resorts World Casino New York. It’s doing $440 per slot per day, well above the industry average. Aqueduct Casino, as it’s colloquially called, sits amid a particularly cosmopolitan part of the Five Boroughs of New York City and a short cab ride from JFK International Airport, it’s basically gone where the gamblers are. Casino developers could draw some interesting lessons from very different trajectories of bare-bone Resorts World and amenity-driven Revel, not the least of which is that proximity > snob appeal.