Lost their place at the table:
"Caesars dumped from Suffolk Downs casino plan" by Mark Arsenault | Globe staff, October 19, 2013
The stunning shake-up at Suffolk Downs comes less than three weeks before voters in East Boston and Revere decide the fate of the casino proposal in referendums and could provide casino opponents new ammunition to attack the project.
Well, I gue$$ you know on which $ide my agenda-pu$hing flag$hit $tands.
State casino investigators, charged with keeping people of questionable character out of the Massachusetts gambling industry, raised several concerns about the company, including a business relationship with a person alleged to have family members involved in organized crime outside the United States, said people familiar with the content of the investigators’ report.
In the ca$ino bu$ine$$? You gotta be kidding!
The report, provided to Suffolk Downs late Friday, is not yet public. Redacted versions of the background reports generally become public the day the state gambling commission addresses the findings of each investigation at a public hearing. A hearing for Suffolk Downs is expected within two weeks....
Web addition:
Celeste Myers, head of the anti-casino group No Eastie Casino, questioned how a vote could go forward on Nov. 5 without the residents knowing who would operate the casino.
“This project has been about as transparent as pea soup,” she said.
Back to your regularly scheduled article:
Caesars loses a chance to win a piece of one of the most attractive emerging gambling markets in the United States. The move comes four months after South Korea rejected a casino bid in which Caesars was a major partner, due to concerns over the company’s high debt, according to the Reuters news agency.
Earlier I was told Massachusetts isn't that much of a market, but whatever.
For the state gambling commission, a new board just 18 months old, establishing standards that would force out such a major industry player could cement the state’s reputation as the toughest US jurisdiction in which to qualify for a gambling license.
In the commission’s background investigations to date, the five-member panel has already disqualified one bidder, Ourway Realty, the initial applicant at Plainridge Racecourse, after state investigators discovered that a key member of the company had taken more than $1 million from the struggling track’s money room.
How much is that costing us?
Five applicants have passed background checks: Penn National Gaming, Cordish Cos., Raynham Park and partner Greenwood Racing, Mohegan Sun, and Rush Street Gaming.
Related: Leominster Offers a Cordish Invitation to Slots Parlor
Rush Street abandoned its slot parlor bid in Millbury and currently is not an active applicant.
They are now!
"Hard Rock and Rush Street are strong candidates to replace Caesars for several reasons. Both companies are former Massachusetts casino applicants, already well known to state investigators. Rush Street, run by Chicago billionaire Neil Bluhm, has already passed its state background check. Hard Rock pursued a possible site in downtown Springfield, before proposing a casino in West Springfield on the grounds of the Big E fair. But West Springfield voters said no, defeating the proposal at a September referendum by 10 percentage points.
That was a surprise to me.
See: Casinos Already Costing Massachusetts
Why in the world wouldn't you want a casino in your town?
Caesars’ lousy weekend continued into Monday, as the company declared in a Securities and Exchange filing that the US Treasury Department is investigating possible money laundering allegations at the company’s Las Vegas flagship hotel, Caesars Palace, according to a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal."
Also see: Caesars-Suffolk split shows casino board is doing its job
Yeah, we are only going to get the highest class of casino criminals here.
Even among those approved for a license, the commission has grilled casino executives over hiring practices, as well as business and personal relationships. By coming down hard on companies for old or relatively small concerns, the commission has seemed to leave itself little leeway to go easy on an applicant with a significant problem.
Caesars is a massive company, which owns or runs 54 casinos in 13 states and six countries, according to the company. It operates 39 casinos in the United States, including its Las Vegas flagship, Caesars Palace.
Caesars — led by chief executive Gary Loveman, who lives outside Boston — joined Suffolk Downs as a partner in 2011, bringing a household name in the gambling business to the Depression-era racetrack on the East Boston-Revere city line. Caesars acquired a small stake in the venture, about 4.2 percent, but had planned to earn lucrative fees running the resort.
The Suffolk Downs partnership includes Richard Fields, a casino developer and former Donald Trump associate; Joseph O’Donnell, founder of Boston Culinary Group; and others with small shares.
Related: Plenty of Seats Available at Mass. Gaming Tables
A New York property investment firm with about 20 percent of the project, Vornado Realty Trust, declined last spring to participate in the background checks. In March, the gambling commission let the company transfer its shares to a blind trust, with the understanding Vornado would divest from the project.
Related: Last Bet On the Boston Globe
Suffolk Downs is competing with a Wynn Resorts proposal in Everett and a Foxwoods project in Milford. The gambling commission expects to choose a winner in early 2014.
It looks like we have found a wynner!
--more--"
Why have a meaningless vote then?
"Caesars ouster puts casino vote in doubt; Casino chain’s boss says state’s regulators have excessive demands" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, October 20, 2013
A day after the stunning withdrawal of gambling giant Caesars Entertainment from a Suffolk Downs casino bid, the city is exploring options to delay a November referendum on the project, and Caesars’ top executive blasted state regulators for establishing “unprecedented” licensing standards.
“It’s going to be very difficult for sophisticated, multi-jurisdictional operators to tolerate the environment this commission has created,” said Caesars chief executive Gary Loveman, speaking of the five-member state gambling commission.
What do they call that in the gaming world, a sore lo$er?
Caesars, one of the biggest names in the casino industry, dropped out of the East Boston casino venture Friday, after the partnership learned that state investigators had recommended Caesars be disqualified from participating in the competition for the Greater Boston casino resort license. Suffolk Downs formally asked Caesars to withdraw, and their two-year partnership will be legally severed in the coming days.
Suffolk Downs will seek a new casino operator and push ahead with its application.
Meanwhile, Mayor Thomas M. Menino will consult with the gambling commission and Secretary of State William Galvin about the city’s legal options for postponing the Nov. 5 East Boston referendum on the project, if Suffolk Downs cannot find a new partner quickly, said spokeswoman Dot Joyce....
The revelation that one of the biggest names in the business may have been unsuitable to bid in Massachusetts quickly grabbed the attention of the industry in Las Vegas, said Roger Gros, a casino expert and publisher.
“It has raised some eyebrows,” he said.
Caesars’ exit could also pose a danger that prominent casino operators may decide doing business in Massachusetts is too difficult, Gros said. “People could walk away and [Massachusetts] could end up with second-rate casino companies.”
At least they wouldn't be fir$t rate, right? Those of us who never wanted those cash-grabbing criminals (and so much more) here are hardly $ympathetic. Ca$inos are not the $ign of a healthy economy. They are sign of a cla$$ of people with way too much wealth.
Companies still awaiting background checks in Massachusetts include: Wynn Resorts, which has proposed a casino in Everett; Foxwoods, which is part of a Milford casino proposal; and MGM, which wants to build a casino in downtown Springfield....
Caesars had intended to use the boutique hotel company Gansevoort Hotel Group brand, but investigators raised red flags about an owner of Gansevoort, who was alleged to have ties to Russian mobsters in a 2012 New York Post article....
Meaning it is part of the Jewish mafia that is organized crime now, not the stereotyped imagery of goodfella godfathers promoted by my jewsmedia.
In addition to the Gansevoort connection, investigators raised issue with Caesars’ dealings with Terrance Watanabe, a wealthy high-roller who about six years ago lost more than $100 million at Caesars Palace and another of the company’s casinos, according to people familiar with the report. Watanabe had accused the company of plying him with booze and pain killers to keep him gambling, according to a 2009 Wall Street Journal article.
C'mon, get into the $pirit of things!
In East Boston, casino opponents quickly jumped on Caesars’ sudden exit as evidence voters cannot trust Suffolk Downs....
Poor Caesars was attacked and a$$aulted by opponents!
--more--"
Who are those people anyway?
"Clergy try to fend off a casino in East Boston" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, October 01, 2013
More than 30 local religious leaders from an assortment of faiths have formed a new group to oppose a casino at Suffolk Downs, promising to pray, preach, and canvass to defeat the project when it comes to a vote in East Boston on Nov. 5.
Religious nutca$es! Certainly God will be calling them home soon. Bla$phemers!
“A casino in East Boston is probably one of the worst things that could happen to our community,” said the Rev. Thomas S. Domurat, pastor of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, who predicted that a casino would increase gambling addiction, personal bankruptcies, and traffic on neighborhood streets. “It is my hope that all of East Boston will stand together, as churches and businesses are doing today, in opposition to casino gambling in our community.”
No, no, $tate that sanctioned them and the casino industry would never let that happen.
Btw, doesn't the church have casino and bingo nights to raise funds? They get state exemptions for them if I recall.
Domurat and several other founding members of the group, calling themselves Friends of East Boston, announced their no-budget campaign against the casino at a press conference Monday, conducted in Spanish and English, in the basement of the Central Assembly of God Church in East Boston.
The Friends of East Boston comprises local clergy, businesspeople, and members of nonprofit groups who have been meeting quietly over the summer to discuss strategies for defeating the gambling project, according to the group.
Pedro Morales, 40, a Harvard Divinity School student from East Boston who is coordinating the effort, said the group “has not raised one dollar” to defeat the casino and does not expect to raise a lot of money for a campaign.
“You’re not going to fight a casino with money,” he said, chuckling at the notion. “You’re not going to fight Goliath with Goliath’s tools.”
He said the group will combat the casino by repeating the message that “East Boston can do better” than a gambling business.
“Every single Sunday, in every single church, from every single pastor, the people will hear that message,” he said.
Isn't that illegal?
The group intends to collect more than 5,000 signatures in East Boston on a petition asking Suffolk Downs to voluntarily withdraw its casino proposal. “We’re going to offer them a graceful way out,” said Morales, in an interview.
Suffolk Downs, with partner Caesars Entertainment, has planned a $1 billion gambling resort at the track, with hotels, shopping, restaurants, a spa, and other amenities, as well as Las Vegas-style slot machines and table games.
That's out now.
The developers have promoted the project as a boon for the neighborhood that will create 4,000 permanent jobs and will provide the city of Boston at least $32 million a year in revenue.
Those are wildly inflated e$timates.
The project is competing for the sole Greater Boston casino license with a Wynn Resorts casino proposal on the Mystic River waterfront in Everett and with a Foxwoods project in suburban Milford. Only one of the competitors can win the license.
The announcement of a new anticasino group comes at a critical time for the Suffolk Downs project, just one month before it goes before the voters. No casino applicant can win a license unless the voters of the host community back the project at the ballot box.
Suffolk Downs, which straddles the East Boston-Revere city line, must win support in both communities. The Boston vote will be confined to the voting ward of East Boston, as permitted under the 2011 casino law.
The vote is scheduled for the date of the mayoral final election, which should guarantee a healthy turnout.
Citywide polling on the Suffolk Downs proposal shows opinions are divided. A recent Globe poll suggested 53 percent of likely Boston voters supported the casino. The poll did not include enough respondents from East Boston to draw conclusions about the level of support in the neighborhood that will decide the fate of the project.
Wynn Resorts won the support of Everett voters in June. Milford votes Nov. 19.
For underfunded casino opponents, including No Eastie Casino, winning elections with little or no money is a monumental task against corporate giants with access to as much money as needed to finance sophisticated political campaigns.
Money doesn't just talk, it $creams!
That is why nearly every anticasino group, religious or not, talks about the fight in David vs. Goliath terms.
“They can’t out-money a casino,” said Maurice Cunningham, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “But you have to be able to get your message out, and that does take money.”
One advantage the new anti-casino group could provide is a “ready-made organization” for casino opponents, he said. “You do have serious-minded people who go to church and absorb these messages. The potential is there.”
Suffolk Downs declined Monday to comment on the formation of the group.
--more--"
Related: Casino foes rally against Suffolk Downs plan
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Forum in Plainville backs slots
Suffolk Downs casino project has become a mess
Sheldon Adelson, we really need you now
