“When you’re viewed sort of as skeptically legitimate, there’s a divide. And it translated into very bad public programs, so there was not really a good investment in housing and all of the other lifestyle issues that make a community evolve.”
—Wynn Resorts co-founder Elaine Wynn, commenting that failures in the public sector contributed greatly to the decline of the Atlantic City gaming industry
“Trading Caesars now would be, alas, gambling, a sort of four-dimensional hypercube of metagambling. Gambling on gambling.”
—Columnist Rafi Farber, writing on the CalvinAyre.com website that Caesars Entertainment’s up-and-down court drama makes buying Caesars stock a risky proposition
“From what I thought was a frank discussion, it is incomprehensible to me why, when meeting with President of MGM Resorts International, William Hornbuckle and President of MGM Springfield, Mike Mathis to speak about the redesign to the hotel that the changes to other amenities were never mentioned.”
—Mayor Domenic Sarno of Springfield, Massachusetts, reacting to an announcement by MGM Springfield that the footprint of its casino resort will be reduced 14 percent
“Massachusetts dragged its feet for years due to strong political opposition to casinos, and with internet gambling coming on strong, may have missed the boat entirely. When we did give the green light, we tied the industry up in enough red tape to strangle it in the crib.”
—Jon Keller, writing for CBS Boston, commenting on the delays that have plagued the ramp up of casino gaming in Massachusetts
“If it comes, it comes but I just can’t support this,” Morrison said. “I don’t see it as a positive. It may be initially a positive, but in the long run I think it’s going to produce more problems for our town.”
—Anita Morrison, the lone member of the East Hartford, Connecticut city council to vote against the idea of bidding to host a tribal satellite casino in an old defunct cinema
“Connecticut is not sitting by idly. Connecticut is moving quite aggressively to protect its markets.”
—Lee C. Erdmann, acting town manager of Enfield, Connecticut, commenting on the number of cities presenting proposals to operate a satellite casino near the border with Massachusetts, near Hartford
“We are ideally positioned to go into Hartford and attack. We know how to do that. And we can go well down into Connecticut. We’re not going to go peacefully.”
—William Hornbuckle, president of MGM Resorts, commenting on the ability of the MGM Springfield, Massachusetts casino’s ability to compete successfully in the Connecticut market if the state builds a satellite casino along the border with the Bay State
