Massachusetts House Bill 4070, filed by Rep. Susan Williams Gifford, which would allow the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) to issue a full casino license or slot parlor license in Wareham, has been condemned by the state senator who also represents the area. A change in Bay State gaming law would be required for the project to happen.
The Notos Group has said it would like to invest $300 million in a mixed-use project there. The development firm is led by the O’Connell family of Quincy, who developed the Marina Bay complex and Granite Links Golf Club in that city.
The state’s 2011 gaming expansion act limited the number of commercial casinos to four, including one slots parlor. The slots license—the kind of license Notos is after—has already been given to the Plainridge Park casino in Plainville.
Notos founder Thomas O’Connell told South Coast Today, “We believe that our proposal is the ideal size for Southeastern Massachusetts, but our only goal in supporting Rep. Gifford’s bill is to be able to compete. The legislation does not favor any specific project or developer.”
The MGC would be authorized by the bill to entertain proposals and accept one of them within Region C, which encompasses the southeastern part of the state.
City officials, including the Wareham Town Administrator Derek Sullivan and member of the town’s Redevelopment Authority Richard Swenson, told committee members the slots parlor would give the economically challenged city a shot in the arm as well as help to revive the state’s moribund thoroughbred racing industry, which gets some money from casino revenues, but has so far not been able to revive after its last racetrack shut down near Boston.
Sullivan declared, “We believe that Region C, and in this case Wareham, deserves the opportunity to put forth a proposal that is the right fit for the region, one that will succeed and one that will be built.” He added, “Wareham deserves the opportunity because such a project would be transformative for our economically disadvantaged community.”
Senator Marc Pacheco, who represents Wareham, disagrees. He told the committee, “We are now having legislation filed to go way beyond what our collective vision was about three destination-based casinos and I don’t want to see Southeastern Massachusetts, Region C, treated differently than the other regions.” He added, “I think this legislation actually corrupts the process and legislation like it corrupts the process until we have completed the vision that we had for the commonwealth.”
He said his office has gotten numerous phone calls from people asking why the Notos group was getting special treatment, or whether lawmakers had cut a deal “to try to change the rules for one developer that wants to come through and not do the full destination-based casino.”
Swenson said studies have shown that the area can’t support a Las Vegas-style casino, but would be able to support a more modest slots parlor.
The commission has had difficulties in issuing a license for Region C, which includes the town of Taunton, where the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has been trying to get permission to build the $1 billion First Light Resort and Casino, but has been stymied by a federal court ruling in a case brought by residents who opposed it.
When the Wampanoag casino was still viable, the commission declined to issue the state’s fourth license to a developer wanting to build at the Brockton Fairgrounds, which is just a few miles from Taunton, because it didn’t want to saturate the gaming market and hobble the tribal casino.
