Las Vegas casino developer Steve Wynn, who failed to persuade Foxborough to accept a lavish $1 billion gambling resort, is investigating land on the Mystic River for a possible casino bid in Everett, which could create a clash among gambling titans for the state’s most lucrative casino license.
Related:
Foxborough Voters Make Wynn Fold
Steve Wynn to tour proposed casino site in Everett
Wynn considers Everett casino bid
It's the former Monsanto Chemical Co. site?
Gaming commission chairman says Everett casino interest good for competition
Everett site has better use than a casino
Wynn to make pitch for a casino
Everett mayor backtracks on Wynn lease agreement
Casino bidding could expand in Southeastern Mass.
Wynn’s Everett casino plan calls for $1b hotel
Menino says he was kidding about Wynn casino proposal
And now he's leaving?
Conley advocates citywide casino vote
Mayoral candidates should back a citywide casino referendum
"State’s gaming table is just about set" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, January 12, 2013
WEST SPRINGFIELD — In a glitzy ceremony replete with a live 1980s hair-band rocker and a dead pop star’s famous leather jacket, Hard Rock International joined the crowded field of applicants Friday competing for the sole casino resort license in Western Massachusetts.
The $700 million to $800 million Hard Rock project at the Eastern States Exposition fairgrounds joins three other casino resort hopefuls in the west, MGM Resorts, Penn National Gaming, and Mohegan Sun, and probably rounds out the field before Tuesday’s state application deadline.
See: Ca$hing Out on Ca$inos: Sarno's Decision
As the state’s fledgling gambling industry approaches its first major milestone next week — applicants have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to file extensive financial documents and pay a nonrefundable $400,000 fee — it is conceivable that each available casino license will have at least two bidders, a level of competition that seemed unlikely a few months ago.
In the Greater Boston and Worcester region, projected to be the most lucrative casino market in the state, Suffolk Downs, with partner Caesars Entertainment, was the only viable contender for much of last year.
But the East Boston racetrack is facing a late challenge from Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn, who has signed an option to buy land in Everett for a hotel and gambling resort, setting up a battle between two of the biggest names in the gambling industry, with billions of dollars on the line....
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"Three titans contending for Boston-area casino license" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, January 20, 2013
In a region infatuated with competition, politics, and personalities, the battle for casino development rights in Greater Boston has all the elements of can’t-miss public theater.
The sniping and chest-thumping is already underway, in a clash of egos and corporate power that will unfold during the next 13 months, until the state gambling commission chooses a single winner.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake in the all-or-nothing contest among Suffolk Downs, led by lead investor Richard Fields; Wynn Resorts, the firm founded by Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn; and Crossroads Massachusetts, the development company of David Nunes, who met last Tuesday’s casino application deadline with just 10 minutes to spare. Two more casino applicants that did not declare specific sites could also potentially join the contest.
Why did the pot get lowered?
Also see: Ca$hing Out on Ca$inos: Foxwoods Bankrolling Milford Casino
The competition has evolved exactly as the state gambling commission had hoped, attracting multiple, well-heeled rivals who have enormous incentive to try to outdo each other with more inventive and compelling projects.
Why did the pot get lowered?
Also see: Ca$hing Out on Ca$inos: Foxwoods Bankrolling Milford Casino
The competition has evolved exactly as the state gambling commission had hoped, attracting multiple, well-heeled rivals who have enormous incentive to try to outdo each other with more inventive and compelling projects.
Two of the projects are urban proposals in the heart of Greater Boston, which will face sharp questions about access and traffic. Suffolk Downs and partner Caesars Entertainment plan a $1 billion gambling resort at the 78-year-old racetrack on the East Boston-Revere line. Barely five miles away, Wynn plans a $1 billion hotel and casino project on vacant industrial land on the Mystic River in Everett.
Nunes controls 177 acres off Interstate 495 in Milford, about 35 miles from Boston, where he plans a suburban casino. Nunes has previously offered budgets for the project of $750 million or more, but recently declined to say how much he would spend. He does not want his competitors to know.
The personalities involved are as disparate as the projects.
Fields, 67, is excitable and passionate, self-effacing — at least in interviews — and obsessed with horses, ranches, and the outdoors. He formerly worked with Donald Trump and is known as an influential behind-the-scenes mover in the casino industry.
“I have this connection I can’t explain, an emotional connection with everything having to do with agriculture and saving farms and ranches, and that has brought me to saving this racetrack,” Fields said in a Globe interview.
Wynn, who turns 71 this month, has built some of the most famous casino hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, such as Bellagio, The Mirage, and the Wynn and Encore resorts. He is a celebrity billionaire, a collector of Picasso masterpieces, prone to bragging, but revered for his development vision and skill.
“We’re going to present our credentials and on paper we’re going to show them a first-class project,” said Wynn, speaking of the competition in Massachusetts. He cannot help but add: “And probably it will cause the Suffolk people to upgrade.”
Nunes, 52, has a far lower profile, though he believes he has the winning formula. The rural setting of the casino he proposes is similar to what most Massachusetts gamblers have grown accustomed to, from trips to the casinos in Connecticut.
“People who have gone to Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods want the same experience,” said Nunes, who is gregarious and laughs easily, but has a sharp tongue. “A lot of your gamblers are women over the age of 55, single, widowed, or divorced. Do they want to park in a dark garage in Everett? I gotta be honest.”
Frank Fantini, publisher of Fantini’s Gaming and Lodging Reports, said each Boston-area proposal has strengths.
“Everybody knows if Steve Wynn’s name is on a project, it’s going to be first class,” said Fantini. “We also know he operates at the top end. He doesn’t deal with your stereotypical little old lady playing 25-cent slot machines. To me, that’s his big advantage: If you want a signature development in Boston, he’s going to provide that.”
Suffolk Downs “gives you the opportunity to put gambling where it’s always been, at a racetrack, which could have a lot of appeal for those who are a little skittish about having a gambling operation next door,” said Fantini. “Caesars will bring cross marketing and the development of casino marketing as a consumer science. They have a lot of strength that way.”
Nunes lacks his own vast corporate empire. He is a dealmaker, skilled at assembling partnerships. He has recruited the respected casino management firm Warner Gaming to the Milford project, and recently announced the financial backing of Robert Potamkin, an auto-dealership magnate who holds a stake in SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia. Potamkin, who declined to be interviewed, and Nunes previously served together on the board of an independent school in Colorado.
“David Nunes — that’s interesting,” said Richard McGowan, a Boston College professor and casino expert. “From the state’s point-of-view, [Milford] might be a place that could use some economic development more than the other two.”
Four other developers are vying for the western Massachusetts casino license, while two others are vying for the state’s sole slot parlor license. Bidding for the third casino license, in southeastern Massachusetts, has been placed on hold to give the Mashpee Wampanoag time to pursue a tribal casino in Taunton under federal law.
In search of every possible edge, the developers in Greater Boston are playing up their claims of local roots.
Nunes, who lives now near Aspen, Colo., is originally from Bolton and graduated in 1978 from Nashoba High School. The developer says he has been trying to build a casino in Massachusetts since at least 1996, when he was working with the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah. He has pursued a Milford casino since 2008, three years before the state finally legalized Las Vegas-style gambling after many false starts.
Though Fields is from New York, Suffolk Downs is a Massachusetts icon. Super-horses Seabiscuit and Cigar raced there. A super band, The Beatles, played there. Prominent Boston businessman Joseph O’Donnell is the second-largest stakeholder in the track. And details of the Suffolk Downs casino proposal, presented publicly last June, came from innumerable meetings during six years with neighbors in East Boston and Revere, said Fields, who managed to jab Wynn without mentioning him.
“You can’t just parachute into Massachusetts,” he said.
Wynn’s Everett proposal seemed to come from nowhere in November, when news that he was coming to tour the site broke two days before the visit. But Wynn promotes his return to Greater Boston as a homecoming, of sorts.
“My whole family is from Revere,” Wynn said in a Globe interview. His parents met there, and Steve Wynn would have been born in Revere if not for his father’s heart problems, which left him ineligible for the military draft. Instead, Michael Wynn took a defense job at a Connecticut weapons-maker during World War II. Steve Wynn was born in New Haven in 1942. He is nostalgic about summers at his aunt’s house near Revere Beach.
“I think back to when I was a kid playing stickball on Dana Street with a broom and a tennis ball,” he said.
In addition to local connections, the developers have at least one other thing in common: None are serious gamblers.
That's for suckers, or didn't you know?
That's for suckers, or didn't you know?
“I might have played a slot machine one time,” said Nunes, who is fighting two casino giants. “As you can see, I’m a different type of gambler.”
Fields, whose development portfolio includes successful Hard Rock casinos in Florida, said he has “never gambled.”
“It’s so funny—I just don’t do that,” said Fields. “It’s not for any reason other than it’s not in my psyche. I go to Vegas or any of these places and I’ll go through the projects and find them really interesting and exciting. But I’m a developer and sort of an entertainment guy, and I’ll look at this from the standpoint of how do you make sure people have a good time? But it never occurs to me to gamble. Isn’t that interesting?”
Wynn said in an interview last spring that he shoots dice with a buddy every few years, but generally did not gamble. He said last week that he recently made the first sports bets of his life, laying 9 points last weekend on the favored New England Patriots, the NFL team owned by Wynn’s friend, Robert Kraft. Wynn a year ago proposed a casino on land Kraft owned in Foxborough, but gave up because of local opposition. He had better luck with the wager, at a competitor’s sports book, when the Patriots beat Houston, 41-28.
How much did he bet? “I can’t tell you,” said Wynn. “I’m embarrassed. It will make me look wild and crazy.”
Meaning it is such an outrageous amount it would offend Joe Six-Pack, or so minimal like in "Trading Places."
Meaning it is such an outrageous amount it would offend Joe Six-Pack, or so minimal like in "Trading Places."
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Related:
Wynn duplicates Everett, Philadelphia casino plans
Suffolk Downs investor Vornado pulls out
Steve Wynn makes personal pitch for resort casino in Everett
"Steve Wynn reveals first rendering of Everett casino" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, March 27, 2013
The release of the image is Wynn’s initial punch in a ferocious winner-take-all fight for the sole Greater Boston resort casino license, expected to be the most lucrative casino development rights in Massachusetts....
The project, to be built in a single phase, would create 4,000 construction jobs and 4,000 permanent jobs, he said.
Wynn — who has designed some of the most elaborate casino hotels on the Las Vegas strip, such as Bellagio, Mirage, and the Wynn and Encore resorts — has named the development Wynn Everett. It is proposed for the former Monsanto Chemical Co. site, a polluted plot of vacant industrial land between Route 99 and commuter rail tracks in Everett, near the Boston city line....
I suppose no one else is doing anything with it.
Wynn is competing for development rights with Suffolk Downs, which has proposed a casino at the track in East Boston with partner Caesars Entertainment, and Foxwoods Resort Casino, which has joined an effort to build a gambling resort off Interstate 495 in Milford. The state gambling commission is expected to award the license in early 2014....
The presentation Wednesday did not cover the difficult issues facing most casino projects, such as traffic....
No casino project can win a license unless it has been endorsed by a referendum of voters of the host community.
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"Residents divided on casino at Suffolk Downs; Poll finds slim margin for plan; a citywide vote could stir strong emotions" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, April 01, 2013
Boston residents narrowly support Suffolk Downs’s plan to develop a casino at the track, though the intensity of the opposition could make for a tough campaign if the gambling proposal were to face a citywide vote, according to a Boston Globe poll....
Citywide vote is what the pandering candidates for mayor want.
Clyde Barrow, a casino expert at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said the history of casino votes has shown that “those strongly opposed all show up to vote; those who somewhat support it might show up.
I will.
“Opposition always tends to be much more passionate on these issues,” said Barrow. “You can’t really feel confident about a casino referendum until you’re well into the high 50s for support.”
No casino project can win a state license until residents of the host community endorse the proposal in a referendum. In large cities, such as Boston, city officials have the option of holding a citywide ballot, or restricting the vote to the ward where the casino would be located.
Suffolk Downs is competing for the single license available for Greater Boston, and has offered plans for a $1 billion casino resort at the track, with partner Caesars Entertainment. The other competitors in Greater Boston are Wynn Resorts, which is proposing a hotel casino on the Mystic River in Everett, and Foxwoods Resort Casino, which has joined a casino venture in Milford.
No public polling has yet been done in either Everett or Milford to determine the level of local support.
The state gambling commission expects to choose a winner by early 2014.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino has maintained that the effects of a Suffolk Downs casino would primarily be felt in East Boston, so only those residents deserve a vote on the plan.
But most of Menino’s constituents disagree: 66 percent of Boston adults favor a citywide vote on a Suffolk Downs casino, while just 27 percent believe East Boston alone should make the decision, the Globe poll found.
Secretary of State William Galvin has warned that limiting the vote to one ward could result in lawsuits from residents of other neighborhoods, who could claim they are being wrongly disenfranchised on a major issue.
The poll of 440 Boston adults was conducted March 21-26 for the Globe by the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire. The margin of error is 4.7 percent.
In addition to the three-way competition in Eastern Massachusetts, four gambling companies are competing for casino development rights in Western Massachusetts and four others have applied for the state’s sole slot parlor license. Commercial casino development is on hold in Southeastern Massachusetts to give the Mashpee Wampanoag time to make progress on a tribal casino in Taunton.
Public opinion in Boston on a Suffolk Downs casino closely resembles the city’s general views on Las Vegas-style gambling.
By 45 percent to 40 percent, Boston residents slightly favor allowing casinos in Massachusetts. Men are more supportive, backing gambling 50 percent to 35 percent, while women oppose casinos, 45 percent to 40 percent.
Nationally, people at the opposite ends of the education scale tend to see the casino issue differently, and that is true in Boston as well.
City residents with post-graduate education oppose a Suffolk Downs gambling resort, 47 percent to 36 percent; those with a high school diploma or less favor the plans, 44 percent to 36 percent.
“A lot of the stronger supporters of expanded gambling tend to be people with high school diplomas, because they’re looking for the jobs,” Barrow said. However, “those are also the least likely people to turn out for an election.”
The Globe poll does not include enough East Boston residents to create a statistically significant sample, though the limited survey results from East Boston are generally in line with the citywide results. A plurality of East Boston residents in the survey favor a citywide vote on a Suffolk Downs casino proposal, said Andrew E. Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center.
“Even the people of East Boston seem to realize that putting a casino at Suffolk Downs is much bigger than a backyard issue,” said Smith.
In a ward-only referendum campaign, Suffolk Downs probably would enjoy a vast financial advantage over opponents, he said, though opponents may be able to organize neighborhood and religious groups into a formidable resistance. “There is a moral aspect of casino opposition that is not there with the supporters,” said Smith.
Smith suggested Suffolk Downs might have an easier time in a citywide vote, appealing to neighborhoods less likely to be concerned with traffic or other potential downsides of an East Boston casino.
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"Everett strikes deal with Steve Wynn for casino" by Kathy McCabe | Globe Staff, April 26, 2013
EVERETT — Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr. announced details Thursday of an agreement with Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn that would generate millions of dollars in revenue, along with thousands of jobs, if Wynn secures a license to build a $1.2 billion resort casino on the Mystic River.
“We’re very optimistic about this development for Everett,” DeMaria said at a press conference early Thursday evening. “We think we’ve struck a good deal for the community.”
The agreement calls for a one-time $30 million payment, to be paid during construction of a gleaming, bronze 19-story resort Wynn proposes to build on the former site of a Monsanto chemical factory.
The money would be paid into a so-called Community Enhancement Fund and would probably be spent on capital improvements, including parks and repairs to public buildings in the city, DeMaria said.
Annual payments would be $25.2 million, including $20 million in real estate taxes, $5 million to be spent on police and fire protection, and $250,000 in support of local community groups. Those payments will increase by 2.5 percent per year, according to a summary of the agreement.
Wynn has also agreed to give priority to Everett residents for jobs at the resort, which along with a casino, would include a 550-room hotel and upscale shops and restaurants.
“Everett residents need jobs, and they could use help with their taxes,” DeMaria said.
The $20 million real estate tax payment alone would translate into “pretty much one-third more in taxes” to the city’s tax base, DeMaria said.
In a statement, Wynn Resorts called the agreement a “significant milestone for the company and [it] brings [the] proposed Wynn Everett Resort project a step closer to fruition.”
Residents of Everett gathered at the Connolly Center Thursday night to talk about the proposed casino, and some raised concerns over traffic, jobs, and tax revenues.
But other residents, who were given baseball caps with Wynn’s signature logo, said that a Las Vegas-style resort is just what the blue collar city needs.
“I think this is one of the greatest things that could ever happen to the city of Everett,” said Vinnie Ragucci, adding that his family has lived in Everett since 1898. “If anyone thinks this is a game being played, it’s not. Wynn is here to win.”
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UPDATE: Everett casino developer proposes traffic plan
Related:
Wynn duplicates Everett, Philadelphia casino plans
Suffolk Downs investor Vornado pulls out
Steve Wynn makes personal pitch for resort casino in Everett
"Steve Wynn reveals first rendering of Everett casino" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, March 27, 2013
The release of the image is Wynn’s initial punch in a ferocious winner-take-all fight for the sole Greater Boston resort casino license, expected to be the most lucrative casino development rights in Massachusetts....
The project, to be built in a single phase, would create 4,000 construction jobs and 4,000 permanent jobs, he said.
Wynn — who has designed some of the most elaborate casino hotels on the Las Vegas strip, such as Bellagio, Mirage, and the Wynn and Encore resorts — has named the development Wynn Everett. It is proposed for the former Monsanto Chemical Co. site, a polluted plot of vacant industrial land between Route 99 and commuter rail tracks in Everett, near the Boston city line....
I suppose no one else is doing anything with it.
Wynn is competing for development rights with Suffolk Downs, which has proposed a casino at the track in East Boston with partner Caesars Entertainment, and Foxwoods Resort Casino, which has joined an effort to build a gambling resort off Interstate 495 in Milford. The state gambling commission is expected to award the license in early 2014....
The presentation Wednesday did not cover the difficult issues facing most casino projects, such as traffic....
No casino project can win a license unless it has been endorsed by a referendum of voters of the host community.
--more--"
"Residents divided on casino at Suffolk Downs; Poll finds slim margin for plan; a citywide vote could stir strong emotions" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, April 01, 2013
Boston residents narrowly support Suffolk Downs’s plan to develop a casino at the track, though the intensity of the opposition could make for a tough campaign if the gambling proposal were to face a citywide vote, according to a Boston Globe poll....
Citywide vote is what the pandering candidates for mayor want.
Clyde Barrow, a casino expert at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said the history of casino votes has shown that “those strongly opposed all show up to vote; those who somewhat support it might show up.
I will.
“Opposition always tends to be much more passionate on these issues,” said Barrow. “You can’t really feel confident about a casino referendum until you’re well into the high 50s for support.”
No casino project can win a state license until residents of the host community endorse the proposal in a referendum. In large cities, such as Boston, city officials have the option of holding a citywide ballot, or restricting the vote to the ward where the casino would be located.
Suffolk Downs is competing for the single license available for Greater Boston, and has offered plans for a $1 billion casino resort at the track, with partner Caesars Entertainment. The other competitors in Greater Boston are Wynn Resorts, which is proposing a hotel casino on the Mystic River in Everett, and Foxwoods Resort Casino, which has joined a casino venture in Milford.
No public polling has yet been done in either Everett or Milford to determine the level of local support.
The state gambling commission expects to choose a winner by early 2014.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino has maintained that the effects of a Suffolk Downs casino would primarily be felt in East Boston, so only those residents deserve a vote on the plan.
But most of Menino’s constituents disagree: 66 percent of Boston adults favor a citywide vote on a Suffolk Downs casino, while just 27 percent believe East Boston alone should make the decision, the Globe poll found.
Secretary of State William Galvin has warned that limiting the vote to one ward could result in lawsuits from residents of other neighborhoods, who could claim they are being wrongly disenfranchised on a major issue.
The poll of 440 Boston adults was conducted March 21-26 for the Globe by the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire. The margin of error is 4.7 percent.
In addition to the three-way competition in Eastern Massachusetts, four gambling companies are competing for casino development rights in Western Massachusetts and four others have applied for the state’s sole slot parlor license. Commercial casino development is on hold in Southeastern Massachusetts to give the Mashpee Wampanoag time to make progress on a tribal casino in Taunton.
Public opinion in Boston on a Suffolk Downs casino closely resembles the city’s general views on Las Vegas-style gambling.
By 45 percent to 40 percent, Boston residents slightly favor allowing casinos in Massachusetts. Men are more supportive, backing gambling 50 percent to 35 percent, while women oppose casinos, 45 percent to 40 percent.
Nationally, people at the opposite ends of the education scale tend to see the casino issue differently, and that is true in Boston as well.
City residents with post-graduate education oppose a Suffolk Downs gambling resort, 47 percent to 36 percent; those with a high school diploma or less favor the plans, 44 percent to 36 percent.
“A lot of the stronger supporters of expanded gambling tend to be people with high school diplomas, because they’re looking for the jobs,” Barrow said. However, “those are also the least likely people to turn out for an election.”
The Globe poll does not include enough East Boston residents to create a statistically significant sample, though the limited survey results from East Boston are generally in line with the citywide results. A plurality of East Boston residents in the survey favor a citywide vote on a Suffolk Downs casino proposal, said Andrew E. Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center.
“Even the people of East Boston seem to realize that putting a casino at Suffolk Downs is much bigger than a backyard issue,” said Smith.
In a ward-only referendum campaign, Suffolk Downs probably would enjoy a vast financial advantage over opponents, he said, though opponents may be able to organize neighborhood and religious groups into a formidable resistance. “There is a moral aspect of casino opposition that is not there with the supporters,” said Smith.
Smith suggested Suffolk Downs might have an easier time in a citywide vote, appealing to neighborhoods less likely to be concerned with traffic or other potential downsides of an East Boston casino.
--more--"
"Everett strikes deal with Steve Wynn for casino" by Kathy McCabe | Globe Staff, April 26, 2013
EVERETT — Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr. announced details Thursday of an agreement with Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn that would generate millions of dollars in revenue, along with thousands of jobs, if Wynn secures a license to build a $1.2 billion resort casino on the Mystic River.
“We’re very optimistic about this development for Everett,” DeMaria said at a press conference early Thursday evening. “We think we’ve struck a good deal for the community.”
The agreement calls for a one-time $30 million payment, to be paid during construction of a gleaming, bronze 19-story resort Wynn proposes to build on the former site of a Monsanto chemical factory.
The money would be paid into a so-called Community Enhancement Fund and would probably be spent on capital improvements, including parks and repairs to public buildings in the city, DeMaria said.
Annual payments would be $25.2 million, including $20 million in real estate taxes, $5 million to be spent on police and fire protection, and $250,000 in support of local community groups. Those payments will increase by 2.5 percent per year, according to a summary of the agreement.
Wynn has also agreed to give priority to Everett residents for jobs at the resort, which along with a casino, would include a 550-room hotel and upscale shops and restaurants.
“Everett residents need jobs, and they could use help with their taxes,” DeMaria said.
The $20 million real estate tax payment alone would translate into “pretty much one-third more in taxes” to the city’s tax base, DeMaria said.
In a statement, Wynn Resorts called the agreement a “significant milestone for the company and [it] brings [the] proposed Wynn Everett Resort project a step closer to fruition.”
Residents of Everett gathered at the Connolly Center Thursday night to talk about the proposed casino, and some raised concerns over traffic, jobs, and tax revenues.
But other residents, who were given baseball caps with Wynn’s signature logo, said that a Las Vegas-style resort is just what the blue collar city needs.
“I think this is one of the greatest things that could ever happen to the city of Everett,” said Vinnie Ragucci, adding that his family has lived in Everett since 1898. “If anyone thinks this is a game being played, it’s not. Wynn is here to win.”
--more--"
UPDATE: Everett casino developer proposes traffic plan
