The Massachusetts Gaming Commission last week began “host community” hearings in Revere and Everett in anticipation of awarding a Boston Metro casino license later this summer.
The first hearing was held in Revere.
Revere’s Mayor Dan Rizzo called the Mohegan Sun’s proposal for his city, “the right project at the best site.” Revere would be paid up to $30 million annually in payments from the casino. The city’s voters approved of the plan in February. A previous plan, a partnership of Suffolk Downs and Caesars Entertainment that would have included part of East Boston and Revere was rejected by Boston voters in November shortly after Caesars was forced to step down. This forced Suffolk Downs to partner with the Mohegan tribe.
Supporters of the Revere facility point to a just-released Boston Globe poll that shows that 20 percent of respondents favor a Boston area casino in Revere, compared to 7 percent support for Everett, 39 percent who don’t care and 29 percent who don’t want a casino in the area.
Another poll, commissioned by the Mohegan Sun, shows 50 percent favoring its casino plan, with 22 percent supporting the Wynn proposal.
Opponents called the project, “just a casino at Suffolk Downs,” a reference to the fact that the casino resort would be adjacent to the racetrack, on property owned by the Downs. No Eastie Casino, which led the defeat of a similar proposal in Boston, argues that Boston voters should have a vote on this proposal as well.
The elephant in the room of these hearings was the just announced decision by the Supreme Judicial Court that an initiative that would repeal the gaming expansion law would be allowed on the November ballot.
Mitchell Etess, chief executive officer of the Mohegan Sun, after testifying at the hearing, said his company intended to be part of the campaign to fight the measure.
During his testimony he called the rival Wynn plan “a cookie-cutter design,” that was repeated at other Wynn properties. He emphasized that the Mohegan proposal was specially designed for Revere. He noted that the project, with its two hotels and casino plus many non-gaming amenities would preserve the racetrack as a viable business.
A representative of Brigade Capital Management, the tribe’s financial backer in the venture, spoke against the accusation that Brigade is a hedge fund, an accusations made by the Unite Here! labor union.
In the second of the meetings both Wynn and the Mohegans detailed traffic plans to mitigate their casinos’ effects on local roads. The Mohegans plan to spend $45 million in road improvements, while Wynn proposes spending $50 million. Some of the mitigations include encouraging the use of mass transit by employees and staggered work shifts.
While his proposal is before the commission, Wynn is lobbying to have a requirement removed that forces him to build a child care center onsite, because his casino would be built on top of a former chemical plant that is considered too contaminated for tots.
The law authorizing the casinos requires the commission to take such things as onsite day care programs into account when evaluating a proposal. According to Wynn, such day care centers are not the industry standard.
Southeastern Casino Zone
Officials in the historic whaling town of New Bedford want the gaming commission to extend the deadline for filing for a casino license for the Southeastern casino zone (Region C), but not to push it back to March 2015, as the panel has been considering. Instead they are asking for a November deadline.
The commission is worried that no viable proposals will come forth unless it provides for more. They have said they want to push the deadline back from September 23 to March.
The city disagrees and last week sent a letter to the panel that said, “The city suggests that the deadline for Region C should be extended to enable current applicants additional time to negotiate agreements with host communities and to allow the required referendum election to be held at the general election on November 4, 2014.”
Mayor Jon Mitchell provided covering fire for this proposal with a statement that said a longer wait would “undermine the competitive environment in Region C” by giving the other regions longer to establish their casinos, hurting its competitiveness.
Meantime, the town of Somerset has announced its availability as a casino source in the Southeastern zone. The Board of Selectmen voted to hire the Boston legal firm of Considine & Furney to help it attract a casino developer to the town.
Council Chairman Donald Setters advised people not to get excited. “This is just a first step,” he said, according to the Herald News. The council made available a 100-acre site for the law firm to offer to potential developers.
Somerset is a newcomer to wooing of casino developers. The towns of Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton and Middleboro have pursued such options for several years.
Reportedly Fall River has stopped talking to Foxwoods Resort about a casino in that town.
Springfield Casino
Even while it awaits the outcome in five month of the casino repeal vote, MGM Springfield is touting the benefits of its site. It is also discounting naysayers who claim that the region is nearing or has arrived at gambling saturation.
A recent University of Nevada Center for Gaming Research concluded that gaming profits are up in the region, but that individual casinos are struggling to keep their profits from declining.
The $800 million casino resort on 14.5 acres is aiming at leveraging the many entertainment venues available in the South End and environs. According to spokesman Carole Brennan, “Our project is additionally enhanced by the many existing tourism amenities throughout Springfield and the Western Massachusetts. With something for everyone, MGM will bring a world-class entertainment, retail and dining resort to Springfield that we believe will result in a transformative development that exceeds expectations.”
The commitment to partner with local entertainment venues as MassMutual Center and CityStage is spelled out in the host community agreement between Springfield and MGM.
MGM has created a term called “inside-out casino” to describe how they plan to make it easy for visitors to enjoy its non-gaming amenities without having to walk through gaming areas.
The Wall Street Journal report that referenced the university study also discussed the tendency among gaming jurisdictions to stop milking their cash cows and to start butchering them in order to squeeze out more money. The Journal noted that while some jurisdictions have squeezed more money out of individual casinos with higher taxes, this has sometimes led to smaller profits; a solution the Journal calls an “unworkable business model.”
The Springfield host community agreement with MGM commits the developer to pay $15 million upfront and $25 million and individual payments for improvements to riverfront properties.
