I don't blame them.
"Caesars files suit against state gambling chief" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, December 13, 2013
Las Vegas gambling giant Caesars Entertainment has launched a federal suit against the state’s top casino regulator, accusing him of manipulating an investigation that ended its bid for the prized Eastern Massachusetts casino license.
The lawsuit, filed late Wednesday, contends that Stephen Crosby, chairman of the state gambling commission, “intentionally and wrongfully singled out” Caesars for “adverse treatment” in order to help a former business associate who would benefit if a competing project in Everett won the license.
And he didn't tell anyone about it until questions were raised.
Specifically, Caesars argues that Crosby caused state investigators to issue an unflattering background report on the gambling firm, a onetime partner in a $1 billion Suffolk Downs casino proposal. Based on that report, issued in October, Suffolk Downs dropped Caesars from the project, costing the casino company a lucrative opportunity and tainting the firm as potentially “unsuitable” to hold a license, the ultimate scarlet letter in the highly regulated gambling industry.
The commission called the lawsuit “without merit” and defended the independence of its Investigations and Enforcement Bureau....
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So who do you think is going to wynn the license?
"Amid furor, gambling panel OK’s revised Everett land deal" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff, December 13, 2013
State gambling regulators cleared the way Friday for Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn to buy land in Everett for his proposed $1.3 billion casino, amid revelations about the land’s possible owners that emerged from salacious jailhouse transcripts.
During the past several months, gambling commission investigators performing a background check on Wynn Resorts have reviewed thousands of pages of documents, interviewed dozens of people, and listened to hours of recordings in an effort to determine if hidden partners with criminal histories own shares in the land on the Mystic River where Wynn wants to build a hotel casino.
It's a criminal indu$try fer cryin' out loud! That's why we don't want them here.
Investigators found that Charles A. Lightbody, a felon with an alleged hidden interest in the land, has repeatedly bragged about his plans to conceal his stake in the property, according to transcripts of profanity-laced prison phone recordings released Friday.
The recordings were made during Lightbody’s conversations with Darin Bufalino, a longtime organized crime figure now serving a state prison sentence.
The connection between Lightbody and Bufalino came to light as part of a review that a commission investigator described as “one of the most complex and convoluted fact patterns to put on paper.”
Investigators say they found “no evidence whatsoever’’ that Wynn officials knew about any hidden ownership in the Everett property. Based on that finding, the state gambling commission Friday approved Wynn’s plan to address concerns that convicted criminals may profit through the sale of the land to a gambling business.
Under this plan, Wynn slashed the purchase price he would pay for the land from $75 million to a market rate price of $35 million, based on an extensive appraisal of the property. Environmental cleanup of the former Monsanto chemical site is estimated to be about $10 million, which will be placed into an escrow account under the deal Wynn officials outlined Friday.
That deal leaves the sellers with a profit of about $25 million. If there are any undisclosed stakeholders, they would receive no extra benefit from selling the land to a wealthy casino company, rather than, say, a big-box retail store.
Wynn Resorts expects to pay for additional environmental cleanup of polluted sediment in the Mystic River related to the property and more cleanup work on the land if needed to accommodate an underground parking garage, Wynn officials told the gambling commission Friday.
The sellers, who have maintained they have no secret partners, did not want to accept such a steep cut in the original purchase price, but “if we terminated the agreement and went away, the best they could do is [sell the land] for fair market value,” Kim Sinatra, Wynn Resorts general counsel, told the commission.
In approving the arrangement, commissioners said they were convinced the casino company was not involved in any deception, and credited Wynn for responding quickly after state investigators in the summer raised red flags about potential secret owners in the property.
The commission’s approval of the revised land deal removes a threat to Wynn’s plans, and allows him to move ahead in the competition for the Greater Boston resort casino license.
Wynn Resorts must still pass the full background check; the commission has set a hearing for Monday to review the full state report on the international company.
The only other potential competitor for the Greater Boston casino license is Mohegan Sun, which has proposed a casino on about 40 acres of the Suffolk Downs racetrack property in Revere, near the Boston city line. The project faces a referendum vote in Revere, probably in February.
The state investigation suggests the Everett landowner, FBT Everett Realty — which includes listed partners Dustin DeNunzio, Paul Lohnes, and Anthony Gattineri — withheld information from Wynn and from state investigators and “provided false and deceptive information and documents.”
Investigators also found evidence “that at least one of the sellers, that is, Charles Lightbody, possessed a significant criminal history and took affirmative steps to conceal his role and interest in the transaction so as to avoid jeopardizing the sale of the property” to Wynn, according to state documents.
The highlight of the investigative report into the Everett property are the transcripts of calls recorded in late 2012 between Lightbody and Bufalino, the enforcer for a crime family, in which the men discuss Wynn’s planned purchase of an option to buy the land in Everett.
On December 5, 2012, as Wynn was negotiating the deal, Lightbody assured Bufalino that “we’ve got Steve Wynn in our corner . . . We took on Wynn, now Wynn is supposed to start paying up $100,000 a month December 14,” a reference to the monthly fee to maintain the option rights on the land.
I'm so glad casinos are coming here.
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Gambling commission chairman Stephen Crosby recused himself from any role in the review of the land deal because of a past business association with Lohnes, one of the owners of the land. On Wednesday, another gambling company, Caesars Entertainment, filed a federal lawsuit against Crosby, accusing him of discriminating against the company because he was predisposed to favor the Everett project that would benefit Lohnes.
Caesars was dropped from the Suffolk Downs project in October, after commission investigators issued an unflattering background report on the company.
Crosby and the commission have said the lawsuit is “without merit.”
Wynn chose the Everett site in late 2012, after local opposition in Foxborough persuaded him to abandon plans to build a casino near Gillette Stadium.
Why would anyone not want a casino in town?
The developer said he liked the Everett parcel for its proximity to the Mystic River and for the skyline views of Boston.
Wynn signed an option to buy the land a year ago, and last June Everett voters overwhelmingly endorsed Wynn’s plans to develop a casino hotel there....
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"Felons talked on tape about how to profit from Everett casino plan" by Andrea Estes | Globe Staff, December 14, 2013
Weeks before Steve Wynn signed a deal to pay Everett landowners $75 million to build a casino on their land, Charles A. Lightbody bragged to his friend, jailed mob enforcer Darin Bufalino, that he was about to make a fortune.
“It’s gonna be a real home run if we can get the permits through,” said Lightbody to Bufalino, who was serving time in state prison for attempted extortion and conspiracy. ”You’ll own half the [expletive] city,” Lightbody said in Aug. 2012, hinting that Bufalino might be part of the deal, too.
On Friday, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted unanimously to approve a land deal designed to make sure Lightbody — a convicted felon himself — and other potential secret partners don’t make a fortune if Wynn receives the sole license to operate a casino in Eastern Massachusetts.
Wynn’s purchase price for the 29-acre parcel was reduced from $75 million to $35 million and the principal owners will be required to swear that no one else will make money off the sale. The owners — a group that originally included Lightbody though his name does not appear on documents — paid $8 million for the land just four years ago.
But Lightbody made clear in a conversation with Bufalino, whose taped phone conversations were subpoenaed by gaming commission investigators, that he would still profit from Wynn's casino — even if he got squeezed out of the land deal. He also detailed his plans to conceal his ownership from regulators.
Lightbody has bought an option to buy the nearby King Arthur’s strip club on Beacham Street if the casino is built, according to two Everett property owners.
“The other thing around the corner that goes with a casino I own,” Lightbody boasted in one of his conversations with Bufalino. “It’s the best thing you can have with a casino. There’s only two things, women and booze, right around the corner. [Expletive] locked it up. Locked up tight as a drum.”
Commission investigators could not determine whether Bufalino was in on the Everett land deal, too, but confirmed the two men are “close” and that Lightbody had deposited money in Bufalino’s prison canteen account
Before Lightbody’s ownership of the proposed Everett casino site was disclosed by the Globe last month, he was best known for opposing the casino project at Suffolk Downs; he was charged with punching a supporter.
The commission OK’d the new land deal agreement even after its investigators found that the owners of the land, FBT Everett Realty principals Dustin DeNunzio, Paul Lohnes, and Anthony Gattineri, deceived the commission by not disclosing Lightbody’s 12.5 percent ownership in the land — and by backdating documents to make it look as if Lightbody was out of the deal sooner than he actually was.
The board chairman, Stephen Crosby, was not present for Friday’s hearing. He announced he was recusing himself from any discussions of the land earlier this month after the Globe reported that he was once a business partner of Lohnes, who owns a 50 percent interest in the land....
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Related: Wynn suitable to hold casino license, panel says
"Mohegan Sun claims to gross more gambling revenue than any other facility in the Western Hemisphere, which means visitors lose more here than anywhere else."
How do you like those odds?
“We’re going to drive a tremendous amount of prosperity for this city and lead to a huge upswing in the economic situation around here.”
And the pot is growing.
"The right casino plan could win a vote in Fall River, which, given the mixed track record of casino referendums this year, is a top concern of gambling executives. “Who knows what other twists and turns this process could take?”
One like this?
"N.J. judge approves shutdown of Atlantic City casino" by Wayne Parry | Associated Press, December 24, 2013
CAMDEN, N.J. — A slowdown brought on by the rapid proliferation of casino gambling in the Northeast claimed its first victim in New Jersey on Monday when a federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale and shutdown of the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.
And we haven't even started construction yet.
The casino, which opened in 1980 as the Golden Nugget and featured then-owner Steve Wynn bringing fresh towels to Frank Sinatra in its commercials, will shut its doors Jan. 13....
Two rival casino companies with a presence in Atlantic City, Tropicana Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment, will buy the casino for $23.4 million, essentially strip it for parts and shut it down. The Tropicana will take the slot machines and table games, while Caesars will get the hotel.
Neither has any interest in operating the business in Atlantic City’s now diminished market....
Time to fold.
Competition is a fact of life now for Atlantic City’s casinos, said David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
The Atlantic Club thus became the first Atlantic City casino to close due to the downward spiral touched off seven years ago by the arrival of casinos in neighboring Pennsylvania, which for the first time will now have more casinos (12) than Atlantic City....
Could Foxwoods one day be bankrupt because of what Massachusetts has done?
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