"Mohegan Sun, Suffolk Downs join in Revere; Team set in bid for casino" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, November 27, 2013
The new partners came together as each was seeking a second chance to win a Massachusetts resort casino license.
On Nov. 5, voters in Palmer narrowly rejected a $1 billion Mohegan Sun casino proposal, after the company had spent several years pitching its plans and trying to build support. A recount on Tuesday confirmed the project’s defeat.
Suffolk Downs was similarly spurned by voters it had romanced for years.
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The prospects for saving the bid are unclear. It is still an open question whether Revere’s Nov. 5 vote legally qualifies as an endorsement of a substantially revised, Revere-only project. The state gambling commission — and then perhaps a court — will decide the matter.
Mohegan Sun brings a well-known name and familiarity with the New England gambling market, and, critically, the stamp of approval from the gambling commission. The commission has already deemed Mohegan a suitable bidder, after reviewing the results of a lengthy background check into the company.
It was the background check process that broke up Suffolk Downs’ long partnership with Caesars. The track dropped Caesars in October over concerns that the Las Vegas gambling giant would fail the background check.
State investigators had raised red flags over several items, including a licensing deal with a hotel chain owned in part by a businessman allegedly tied to Russian mobsters. Coming just three weeks before the referendum, the sudden divorce from Caesars may have turned the East Boston electorate against the project....
And then there was Milford.
