How can you pitch a multi-billion-dollar casino in largely extemporaneous fashion, bereft of glossy renderings or a video fly-through. By being Steve Wynn, that’s how. His pitch to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission seems to have been less about touting the virtues of his own casino proposal but shredding rival Mohegan Sun/Suffolk Downs. Which he pretty much did. “If Wynn Resorts is selected, we have only one interest, this casino in Massachusetts. We don’t give a damn about Connecticut,” he remarked. He also made a good point when he noted that Suffolk Downs’ plan to silo its hotel, gambling and retail operations presented a “coordination nightmare.”
Mohegan Sun had emphasized its “old-fashioned New England know-how and New England values” which also had the unintended consequence of reminding everyone of its New England proximity to Boston. That created an opening for Wynn and he charged through it, promising to reclaim Massachusetts dollars for Massachusetts, capturing table-game money that’s spent (and not taxed) in Connecticut. Nor could Wynn resist a bit of snark, referring to Mohegan Sun’s “three-star resort” plan for Suffolk Downs, compared to his own “five-star” one for Everett. It was, on paper, a bravura performance that ought to seal the deal for Wynn in his pursuit of a Boston-area casino.
Wynn’s stemwinder took place against the backdrop of steep job cuts at Foxwoods Casino Resort, where 120 dealers will pink-slipped. The UAW was sanguine about the matter, a representative saying, “It was quite obvious and apparent the company had no choice. The business is down.” A few pit bosses will get the sack, too. One hundred-plus workers is a hangnail on Foxwoods’ 8,000-person workforce. But this cutback does reinforce how, sandwiched between Rhode Island‘s Twin Rivers casino and Resorts World New York, Foxwoods is chasing a finite number of gambling dollars.
A new Las Vegas tourist attraction, in the form of a veterans memorial, continues to creep forward, dogged by fundraising difficulties.
