{"id":11501,"date":"2013-09-11T10:10:37","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T18:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11501"},"modified":"2013-09-11T14:42:39","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T22:42:39","slug":"massachusetts-one-win-one-loss-one-surrender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/massachusetts-one-win-one-loss-one-surrender\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts: One win, one loss, one surrender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In a real shocker, residents of West Springfield<\/strong> rejected<\/a> Hard Rock International<\/strong> — and $18 million a year. Local media obligingly regurgitated over and over again Hard Rock-sourced poll numbers that showed the casino eking out a narrow win. When the votes were counted, however, the result was the other way around<\/a> and not close<\/a>. The opposition was overwhelmingly outspent but zealous, turning out to have the superior “ground game<\/a>.” Hard Rock bore its humiliation with grace, while lead activist Nathan Bech<\/strong> took a victory lap. Next, he heads to Palmer<\/strong> to try and do to Mohegan Sun<\/strong> what he did to Hard Rock. The Mohegans’ offer is, on a per-capital basis, so incredibly “george,”<\/a> that he will have a tougher row to hoe there. For its part, Hard Rock could strike at the southeastern region of the state, where the Mashpee Wampanoags<\/strong> look to be as a long a shot as ever<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bech’s political aspirations are certain to get a boost from yesterday’s vote while Hard Rock CEO James Allen<\/strong> has to ponder What Went Wrong. Promising a game-changer and delivering a design that looks like a Clarion Inn<\/strong> might have been part of the problem. But seriously … local resentment of the host site, Eastern States Expo<\/strong>, does seem to have played a role. As for opponents, if MGM Resorts International<\/strong> gets the western-Massachusetts<\/strong> concession, they might do well to remember the prophecy that West Springfield would get many of the consequences of having a casino in the area — but little of the money.<\/p>\n

Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, however, has reason to break out the bubbly today: Voters in Plainville<\/strong> overwhelmingly voted in favor of a host-community agreement<\/a> for Plainridge Race Track<\/strong>. Since the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> — by its own \"\"admission — overstepped its authority in reassigning the bid to Penn National without restarting the clock on the 30-to-60-day campaign period, this could easily have gone to court. But with a crushing, 76% majority in its favor<\/a>, Penn is extremely unlikely to encounter further opposition.<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit Neil Bluhm<\/strong> with being better at counting noses than Hard Rock was. S&G<\/em> predicted that his slot-parlor bid in Millbury was the likeliest to be voted down — a hunch shared by Bluhm himself<\/a>. He told reporters, “we decided that for this particular project, we should move forward only if community support was overwhelming. It is not our style to campaign aggressively and win a referendum narrowly<\/em>.” So he leaves $50K on the table and moves along<\/a>. There’s still time — not much — for Bluhm to find a hospitable city and get an HCA done and voted upon. However, his Rush Street Gaming<\/strong> looks like the Flying Dutchman of Massachusetts’ nascent casino industry, doomed never to find a home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a real shocker, residents of West Springfield rejected Hard Rock International — and $18 million a year. Local media obligingly regurgitated over and over again Hard Rock-sourced poll numbers that showed the casino eking out a narrow win. When … 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":[28,165,112,11,167,91,69,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501"}],"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=11501"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11504,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501\/revisions\/11504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}