The Massachusetts Gaming Commission was scheduled this week to consider whether to move forward on reigniting the bidding process for a casino in the southeastern part of the state, aka Region C.
Massachusetts Gaming Commission Executive Director Edward Bedrosian was on tap to update the panel on what its options might be since the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s efforts to regain its federal trust status has so far not advanced in Congress.
This isn’t the first time the commission has been briefed on this issue. In December Bedrosian answered some questions and promised to brief them in January.
Two years ago the commission turned down a bid by Mass Gaming & Entertainment for a $700 million casino in the Brockton Fairgrounds. The company, a subsidiary of Rush Street Gaming, had since then asked to be reconsidered in light of the Mashpee tribes’ legal problems. The legal challenge to the tribe was at least partially funded by Rush Street.
Last June MGE sent a letter to the MGC claiming that it is “ready to start” and able to pay the $85 million license fee. Since one of the main reasons for the 2011 Gaming Expansion Act was to generate job, MGE noted that its project would create 2,000 construction jobs and 1,800 permanent positions. It would also pay its host city $13 million a year and the state $70 million in taxes, according to the company’s estimates.
Encore Boston Harbor
At the same meeting the commission was expected to meet behind closed doors to discuss the lawsuit by former Wynn Resorts CEO and founder Steve Wynn, who is suing in a Nevada court to prevent records of a sexual harassment claim against him from being published as part of the commissions’ investigative report on the company’s continued suitability to operate the Encore Boston Harbor that it is near completing along the Mystic River in Everett.
MGM Springfield
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission learned last week that the $960 million MGM Springfield earned about $21.6 million in December, which was $335,311 more than in November. Of that, $14,255,518 came from slots and $7,327,706 from tables.
November’s revenues were $21,247,914.09, compared to $22,242,742.41 in October.
President and CEO Michael Mathis told the MGC “We’ve had an extraordinary response to the opening of our resort and bringing the first integrated luxury resort and entertainment destination to New England,” the statement reads. “We had a tremendously successful opening week, welcoming more than 150,000 visitors over our first weekend alone.”
Meanwhile, crime around the new casino has had a successful first few months as well, having risen by about 300 percent since it opened.
Although police claimed in October that crime rates remained flat near the casino, local reporters found a different pattern. ABC news’s “5 Investigates” examined Massachusetts State Police data the last three months of the year and found that there were 208 crimes reported inside the casino. This included 16 robberies, five assaults, and two sexual offenses, adding up to 120 arrests.
This compares to 115 incidents reported the first year of Plainridge Park’s operation, which included the entire 2018.
The 5 Investigates team determined that 22 crimes were reported in the area in the first three months before the casino opened, but 115 in the five months after. Which adds up to a 300 percent increase.
Of course, the MGM Springfield operates in a much larger city and has more visitors than Plainville, where the state’s first casino is located. Also, Springfield had a high crime rate before the casino was built. It has in the past been ranked as the second most dangerous city in the northeast and most dangerous in New England.
Nevertheless, the rise in crime in the immediate area of the casino has set off alarms among some legislators from the area. Studies of the effects of casinos on crime rates have reached different results, but Springfield itself will begin to contribute to those figures since Massachusetts state law has set aside a portion of casino taxes for ongoing studies of the effects of casinos on the state and near host cities.
The studies will track criminal activity, the unemployment rate, property values and other measurements of community well-being, year after year.
