{"id":12023,"date":"2013-11-08T11:40:57","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T19:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12023"},"modified":"2023-08-23T16:09:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T00:09:52","slug":"suffolk-downs-life-after-caesars-pokerstars-nixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/suffolk-downs-life-after-caesars-pokerstars-nixed\/","title":{"rendered":"Suffolk Downs: Life after Caesars; PokerStars nixed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another day, another occasion to scratch one’s head over the casino-averse culture in Massachusetts<\/strong>. The Boston Globe<\/em>‘s Shirley Leung<\/strong> does her usual Chicken Little routine<\/a>, lamenting that the Bay State may get no casinos at all. (Fret not, Shirley, somebody will get them.) But she makes some good points: Massachusetts has a thriving lottery. It is a significant feeder market for casinos in Maine<\/strong>, Connecticut<\/strong> and especially Rhode Island<\/strong>. It just seems to have a bad case of NIMBY Syndrome.<\/p>\n

\"DeLeo_07212010\"<\/a>As you can see, it’s damned difficult to imagine where Suffolk Downs<\/strong> could put a casino on the Revere<\/strong> end of its property without having to bulldoze much of the current infrastructure. As the Globe<\/em>‘s Mark Arsenault<\/strong> puts it, local officials are “flummoxed” — and so am I. Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> Chairman Stephen Crosby<\/strong> is a new-minted skeptic, saying, “It\u2019s clearly going to be complicated, at best. All I\u2019m saying is we will entertain whatever proposal they might come up with<\/em>.” Even Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo<\/strong> (D, left<\/em>), Suffolk Downs Booster Number One, is having a hard time wrapping his cranium around the problem. At the very least, significant downsizing of the $1 billion project may be necessary. The track’s got until Dec. 31 to work it out.\u00a0Suffolk could transfer the project to nearby Wonderland<\/strong> track, also in Revere, but that opens a big can of worms. Arsenault again: “Would Suffolk Downs have to negotiate and sign a new casino agreement with Revere? Would there have to be another election? Would the commission lift its deadline to accommodate a campaign and a vote<\/em>?” Suffolk Downs was evidently so\u00a0sure of its chances — despite having to win two<\/em> referendums —\u00a0it didn’t have a Plan B and is scrambling.<\/p>\n

Boston<\/strong> Mayor-elect Martin J. Walsh<\/strong> has now thrown his support<\/a> to Foxwoods Massachusetts<\/strong> (because it’s not in his back yard, natch). That project’s fate is now in the hands of the Milford<\/strong> electorate, which votes on it in less than two weeks<\/a>. One can only say that it’s too close to call, although there’s some local grumbling<\/a> about traffic, sound pollution and similar concerns.<\/p>\n

\"Mashpee<\/a>Meanwhile, the Mashpee Wampanoags<\/strong> scored a significant victory when the Massachusetts state Senate unanimously approved<\/a> the new compact with the state. It is projected to yield slightly more than a million dollars a year for the state, at a 17% tax rate. This puts pressure on the MGC to not give a racino license to Raynham Park<\/strong>, just a stone’s throw away, as that would cause the Mashpee Wamps’ tax rate to go to 0%. It would defeat the purpose of the compact if money is left on the table like that. Of course, several not-inconsiderable hurdles remain<\/a> to be cleared.<\/p>\n

It’s a cinch<\/strong> that Mohegan Sun<\/strong> will get a recount<\/a> of the Palmer<\/strong> election, whose outcome it is disputing.<\/p>\n

Ixnayed?<\/strong> Frankly put, if PokerStars.com<\/strong> were to be licensed in New Jersey<\/strong>, it would make a joke of casino regulation in the Garden State. Evidently, S&G<\/em> is not alone in that opinion. It’s a simple matter of numbers, as in eight (number of guilty pleas made, in regard to the “Black Friday<\/strong>” crackdown), two (execs still on the lam) and\u00a0731 million (dollars paid to the Department of Justice<\/strong> to make this unpleasantness go away). There’s also the $15 million that parent Rational Group<\/strong> was hornswoggled out of by Colony Capital<\/strong>, in the Atlantic Club Hotel<\/strong> fiasco, money unlikely to ever be seen again. If the rumors bear fruit, it will be a windfall for the American Gaming Association<\/strong> and its stateside clientele. The AGA had formally opposed PokerStars’ licensure, writing that it was “a business build on deceit, chicanery and the systematic flouting of U. S. law<\/em>.” It sounds as though New Jersey regulators agree. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another day, another occasion to scratch one’s head over the casino-averse culture in Massachusetts. The Boston Globe‘s Shirley Leung does her usual Chicken Little routine, lamenting that the Bay State may get no casinos at all. (Fret not, Shirley, somebody … 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":[23,3,26,166,172,37,147,112,167,150,111,25,141,31,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12023"}],"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=12023"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32872,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12023\/revisions\/32872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}