"Gaming pick reaction misjudged, emails say" by Andrea Estes | Globe Staff, July 20, 2012
The newly created state gambling commission badly underestimated public reaction to the fact that Carl Stanley McGee, the man tapped to be executive director of the new panel, had been arrested in 2007 in a sexual assault on a 15-year-old boy, internal e-mails show.
The e-mails, obtained by the conservative blog RedMassGroup and given to the Globe, show that the commission’s public relations consultant predicted in one e-mail that the allegations “will be no more than a paragraph deep into an otherwise extremely favorable story about Stan.”
And it was (keep reading).
When Gaming Commission chairman Stephen Crosby asked the Patrick administration if it had any concerns about the selection of McGee, then part of Patrick’s economic development team, the answer was no.
“I don’t have any immediate concerns with Stan’s candidacy,” Sydney Asbury, then Patrick’s deputy chief of staff in charge of appointments, wrote to Crosby on April 23. “Do you have any concerns about Stan being tied too closely to the governor?”
McGee, a Rhodes Scholar who was the Patrick administration’s authority on gambling, was seen by many as well qualified to lead the independent commission, which was created to license and regulate three casinos statewide. He was forced to resign as acting director of the commission on May 9 amid the uproar over the assault allegations. Florida prosecutors chose not to pursue the charges, but McGee paid a private settlement to the family of his alleged victim....
After the Globe detailed the episode in the steam room of a Florida resort and reported that neither the Gaming Commission nor the governor’s office had ever done an independent review of the case, McGee resigned.
Patrick invited McGee to return to his old job as assistant secretary for policy and planning in the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.
But McGee never came back to work. After taking several weeks of personal time, he decided to resign in June, hoping his departure would end the controversy.
The e-mails obtained by the RedMassGroup under the state public records law make clear that the Gaming Commission had considered the potential public relations backlash from choosing McGee, only to dismiss it.
In late April, public relations consultant Karen Schwartzman drafted a background summary of the allegations against McGee and concluded McGee’s history would probably not pose a problem for the fledging commission, as long as the public relations were “managed.”
I don't know which is sicker, the alleged conduct or official reaction.
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Initial stories did refer to McGee’s arrest deep in the story....
Just as predicted.
Though the case ended without criminal charges, e-mails to the commission showed that the public was less forgiving.
“McGee? A PR nightmare,” wrote gambling opponent Kathleen Conley Norbut to Crosby two days after McGee was selected. “I’ll be blunt — the [Gaming Commission] did not get that one right. Skills and knowledge agreed, but I don’t think that this will be brushed aside.”
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Related: Sunday Globe Special: Sex and Gambling in Massachusetts
Didn't they tell you they go hand-in-hand together?
Next hand.
"Gambling board ready to take casino applications" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, August 08, 2012
Beginning Thursday, developers who want to compete for casino licenses in Massachusetts may submit a $400,000 application fee, along with a short certification form, to become official applicants for one of the state’s commercial casino licenses, he said. The $400,000 payment is nonrefundable.
Though a preliminary phase, the first step is still important on several fronts....
The commission did not expect to begin the application process until later this year, Stephen Crosby, the commission’s chairman, added, but accelerated its process because “there are [developers] who want to get going; they’re public. and they’re making no secret of it.”
Gary T. Piontkowski, president of Plainridge Racecourse harness track in Plainville, is eager to be the first to apply for a license. He sat through the commission’s several-hours- long meeting Tuesday with a $400,000 bank check at the ready, just in case the commission opened the application period even earlier.
“I’ve been waiting 15 years to officially become an applicant,” said Piontkowski. “For my partners and I, we’ve worked very hard to get to this day. It’s like a christening.”
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Among the major players expected to compete for the gambling resorts are Suffolk Downs in East Boston, in partnership with casino giant Caesars Entertainment, for the Eastern Massachusetts license.
Western Massachusetts has the most competitors so far, including the operators of the Mohegan Sun casino for a location in Palmer, and Ameristar, MGM Resorts, Hard Rock International, and Penn National Gaming for various locations in Springfield.
In the third region, Southeastern Massachusetts, commercial casino development is on hold, pending efforts by a federally recognized Native American tribe, presumably the Mashpee Wampanoag, to develop a tribal casino. If the tribe can win federal approval for its plans to build in Taunton, the state commission is expected to not issue the one resort license allowed for that region....
No developer can make a detailed development proposal until the project has been endorsed by local voters in a referendum. The commission could choose the winning proposals as early as October 2013.
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Related: Gaming panel sees 2016 for first Mass. casino
That isn't going to be any immediate help.
And with that I'm dealing you out, readers, because I'm not going to search for the legions of unread stories pushing the casino agenda even now.
Next Day Update:
"Revere seeks Wonderland in casino deal; Plans a stadium for Revolution" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, October 01, 2012
REVERE — Municipal officials have become extraordinarily powerful figures in the early months of the development of the Massachusetts casino industry. In Holyoke, for instance, Mayor Alex Morse was elected on an anticasino platform and promptly persuaded Hard Rock International to give up plans for a gambling resort in the city.
See: Holyoke's Happy Mayor
In Foxborough, the part-time Board of Selectmen stonewalled a casino proposal from Las Vegas billionaire Steve Wynn. When the May town election strengthened the anticasino tilt of the board, Wynn gave up.
In Springfield, Mayor Domenic Sarno took the opposite path, by inviting gambling companies to his city. Sarno will have as many as four proposals from which to choose, as wealthy casino operators eagerly tailor their projects to fit the city’s every whim, in their rush to win Sarno’s favor....
Also see: Springfield a magnet for casino hopefuls
State Senator Stanley Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat and one of the architects of the casino law, said lawmakers gave cities and towns leverage over developers to ensure that the communities are made whole for any negative effects from casino developments or for any added drain on services.
The compensation can come in just about any form: cash payments, new equipment, services, or local preferences in hiring. “We wanted to provide that flexibility,” Rosenberg said.
He's mine, but I never vote for him.
Wonderland, a former dog racing and simulcast track, fell on hard times and closed in 2010, hurt by a state ban on live dog racing....
Related: Last Race at Raynham
Whadda you know, readers? I won a bet.
Also see: Massachusetts Is Going to the Dogs
Globe always seems to line up with the gaming interests.
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