{"id":11162,"date":"2013-07-19T15:39:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T23:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11162"},"modified":"2013-07-19T15:39:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T23:39:13","slug":"massachusetts-penns-back-in-new-market-for-adelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/massachusetts-penns-back-in-new-market-for-adelson\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts: Penn’s back in; New market for Adelson?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When the city of Springfield<\/strong> finally stopped fence-sitting and decided against going with Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, I knew it was only a matter of time before Penn emerged somewhere else in Massachusetts<\/strong>. Boy, has it ever<\/a>. Operating with speed and stealth, it has executed a host-community agreement with tiny\u00a0Tewksbury<\/strong> (yeah, I had to look it up on a map, too) for a $200 million slot parlor. That — and the promise of $4 million a year — got the Tewksbury selectmen’s unanimous assent. If Penn can pay the town four mil a year, why is Hard Rock International<\/strong> being such a stiff toward West Springfield<\/strong> and neighboring towns? After all, Hard Rock will only be paying 25% in taxes, compared to the 40% impost that Penn is facing. (Hard Rock’s main man in Springfield, Tim Maland<\/strong>, has come way the hell up in the world<\/a> from Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Montbleu casino on Lake Tahoe<\/strong>‘s shores.)<\/p>\n

Burghers in nearby Andover<\/strong> are already throwing up their Pilgrim hands in horror. But, meaning no disrespect to wannabe rivals Cordish Gaming<\/strong> and Rush Street Gaming<\/strong> or two parimutuels, Penn’s arrival puts an 800-pound gorilla into the slot-parlor cage match. It certainly gives citizens of Plainville<\/strong> added incentive to vote “yes” on Sept. 10<\/a> when Plainridge Racecourse<\/strong>‘s racino plan goes to the electorate. If nothing else, an “aye” vote is a poke in the eye to hoity-toity Foxborough<\/strong>, which is butting into Plainville’s affairs. “We would greatly appreciate your consideration of these impacts as your plans for the proposed casino progress,” huffed a Foxborough selectman. (Remember, these are the guys who thought Steve Wynn<\/strong> was beneath them.)<\/p>\n

\"\"What’s more<\/strong>, if Penn wins, it will be the first operator to open in the Bay State, potentially skunking Wynn Resorts<\/strong> and similarly distinguished companies, like Foxwoods Massachusetts<\/strong>, still having to allay concerns about the environmental and infrastructural impact of its rural casino project<\/a>, which will push\u00a0Milford<\/strong>‘s water usage considerably higher, near the maximum allotment. Sewage alone will increase 68% and Foxwoods (pictured<\/em>) will have to lay pipe — at its own expense. No wonder this is a $1 billion project.<\/p>\n

\"\"No country for old women<\/strong>. If Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> doesn’t succeed in Spain<\/strong>, there’s always Cyprus<\/strong>, where the new government is shopping for a casino<\/a>. That’s quite a turnaround for a country that was busting 98-year-old women for playing cards, thanks to the recently departed Communist regime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the city of Springfield finally stopped fence-sitting and decided against going with Penn National Gaming, I knew it was only a matter of time before Penn emerged somewhere else in Massachusetts. Boy, has it ever. Operating with speed and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[70,28,117,165,22,76,112,91,69,33,111,25,12,32,31,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11165,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11162\/revisions\/11165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}