"State panel selects Wynn casino over plan for Revere" by Mark Arsenault | Globe staff September 16, 2014
Developer Steve Wynn, whose glitzy hotels line the famous Las Vegas strip, snatched the biggest prize in the Massachusetts casino sweepstakes Tuesday, defeating a locally backed project by Mohegan Sun at Suffolk Downs to claim the lucrative Greater Boston casino license.
After five days of nail-biting deliberations, the state gambling commission voted 3 to 1 in favor of Wynn’s vision to turn a forlorn plot of polluted land on the Mystic River, just north of Boston in Everett, into a gleaming $1.6 billion gambling resort.
Suffolk Downs management signaled immediately after the vote that the Depression-era racetrack on the Revere-East Boston city line would close, an outcome that would have seemed inconceivable when the state casino law was passed in 2011. At the time, many considered the track’s politically connected ownership a bigger favorite to win than Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont.
But Wynn’s proposal was just bigger and richer, capturing the license on economic factors. Wynn offered a stronger development financing plan, a much larger construction investment, and a bigger projected workforce and payroll....
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Related: Patrick and Walsh Clash on Casino Commission
"Mohegan Sun says gambling panel tilted toward Wynn" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff September 18, 2014
A new Globe polls shows casino supporters expanding their advantage over opponents who back a proposed repeal of the state casino law. Voters will decide the issue in November.
The fix is in!
The poll suggests that 55 percent of likely voters want to keep the 2011 law that legalized casinos in Massachusetts, while 36 percent favor repeal. The poll of 407 likely voters, conducted September 14-16, has a margin of error of 4.85 percent.
The poll numbers suggests a shift from a Globe poll in late August, in which casino supporters held a narrower lead, 51 percent to 42 percent.
Casino opponents have criticized the commission’s decision to pick a winner before the November repeal referendum and have challenged casino executives to political debates.
“We look forward to presenting our side to Massachusetts voters and trust the casino bosses won’t shy away from standing up for their industry and join us to debate the true costs and supposed benefits of casino gambling,” John Ribeiro, chairman of the Repeal the Casino Deal campaign, said in a statement.
With the state’s most lucrative casino license in hand, executives from Wynn Resorts said Wednesday that they were eager to begin the next phase of the project, including mending their rocky relationship with Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston.
“We can’t wait to get started,” Robert DeSalvio, Wynn senior vice president of development, said after signing a licensing agreement with the commission....
They can't wait, pot clinics can.
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"Gambling panel’s decision spells end for Suffolk Downs races" by Nestor Ramos, Michael Levenson and Travis Andersen | Globe staff September 17, 2014
REVERE — It was supposed to be one more heart-pounding Suffolk Downs comeback after nearly 80 years of them: An embattled racetrack charges from 10 lengths behind to win.
That hope was trampled Tuesday, when state gambling commissioners voted to back a rival casino in Everett, shunning a plan to build a Mohegan Sun casino on the Suffolk Downs grounds in Revere.
In the wake of the decision, Suffolk Downs officials quickly announced their intention to wind down racing operations at the last thoroughbred track in the New England and promised to meet with employees in the coming days to discuss details. The impending demise was felt deeply, both by those who looked to the racetrack for their livelihood and by those who came to gamble a little bit of their own on a horse with a bounce to its step....
I've had enough of the agenda-pu$hing no$talgia.
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Related:
In casino battle, one big winner and a long list of losers
Track workers face transition; gaming panel should help
Suffolk Downs slams panel’s ‘empty posturing’
For Suffolk Downs, days are numbered
As Suffolk Downs winds down, an end to a way of life
Whoa, there’s no rush to close Suffolk Downs
Suffolk Downs could extend racing into October
Suffolk Downs says last day of racing will be Oct. 4
There is always a $ilver lining.
What did Everett really win?
Clarity.
"After casino license victory, Steve Wynn takes conciliatory tone" by Mark Arsenault | Globe Staff September 21, 2014
It seemed like a different Steve Wynn during a Globe interview Friday at Bricco restaurant in the North End than the brash CEO who quarreled in public with Massachusetts regulators last year, and skewered his opponent’s project with biting criticism before the state gambling commission.
He sounded conciliatory on Friday, grateful to have won the opportunity to build in the Boston region, and eager to reboot a chilly relationship with Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston.
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The ramifications of Wynn’s selection are already being felt: Suffolk Downs management announced that New England’s last thoroughbred racetrack track will close, ending an era after 79 years.
At the same time, the commission’s vote elevated the 72-year-old Wynn, a celebrity businessman and a living symbol of Las Vegas glitz, into one of Massachusetts’ most important corporate figures, who in several years would be one of the state’s largest employers....
There is still a political impediment for the project: Question 3 on the November ballot would repeal the state’s casino law and ban the industry from the state....
Supporters will win the vote because “God is on [their] side.”
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I didn't know God was a gambler, although I gue$$ that explains casino night.
Casino law ad focuses on jobs
Like in New Jersey?
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Newport rejects agreement with casino developers
Horse racing fans on edge as deadline looms
State seeks to keep door open for thoroughbred racing
It doesn't matter what voters say, and it has become so damn obviou$ what intere$ts for which government $erves.
I'm out of ideas.
