Steve Wynn is engaging a multi-pronged effort to clinch the favor of voters in Everett. Of course, if the Massachusetts Gaming Commission takes time off from generating paperwork to stop and be impressed by Wynn’s campaign, so much the better. Wynn’s Everett United lobbying arm is going door to door while Wynn Resorts rolled out a $90K model of the proposed resort, a replica so big it couldn’t be fit onto the corporate jet. (I guess Steve is going to have to get a bigger plane.) The podium level of Wynn Everett looks very much like Encore but the diamond-shaped pattern that dominates the façade of the 551-room hotel tower is a new look for Wynn. Features, aside from the 100,000-square-foot casino, will include a nightclub and an indoor garden — the latter an echo of the short-lived Encore conservatory. Wynn’s primary opposition, Suffolk Downs, is also engaged in a $1 million door-knocking operation and drawing upon its considerable “juice” with Boston-area politicians.
Out west, Hard Rock International hasn’t been approved by local voters, let alone by the MGC. However, West Springfield city fathers are wasting no time counting and spending the money they could theoretically collect.
It could indeed come to pass that Rock Gaming Caesars‘ decision to open a casino and a racino in the Cleveland area has backfired. While Erie, Pennsylvania‘s Presque Isle Downs racino had been steadily losing ground to Horseshoe Cleveland, last month it outgrossed Horseshoe (considerably) in slot handle and (slightly) in gross revenue. In no time at all, Caesars’ Thistledown Racino has nearly matched Horseshoe’s performance — grossing $11 million last month. A considerable rotation of Presque Isle’s slot floor and addition of a high-limit room are credited with helping it get back in the fight, although racino owners might want to send a thank-you note to Dan Gilbert and Gary Loveman for simultaneously monopolizing and cannibalizing the Cleveland market.
The Wynn proposal is a slam dunk and superior to anything else that has been proposed. The MGC ought to be disbanded if they do not award the license to him.