Big changes were announced last week for Wynn Resorts and the casino planned by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. With a new name and a closer date for groundbreaking, Wynn promises to change the dynamics of Massachusetts gaming. But the tribe will not be denied.
Wynn Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn dismissed the environmental appeal by Somerville Mayor JoeCurtatone as “more of an irritation,” than something that would delay the groundbreaking for his Everett casino very long.
The cost of the casino is now acknowledged to be $2 billion, rather than the $1.8 that had been cited for some months. Of that, Wynn has already spent $300 million.
The new name for the project is Wynn Boston Harbor, something of a misnomer since the casino will face onto the Mystic River, rather than the harbor. Wynn acknowledged the inaccuracy, but noted that it would be harder to market a casino in Everett. “We were trying to expand its appeal,” said Wynn. Besides, head, the casino was “connected to it with the Mystic River.”
Wynn told a Q&A press conference last week that he expects to break ground in July and open it in early 2019. That is different from what his team told reporters last month, when it was announced that the appeal would cause an indefinite delay of possibly a year.
Curtatone’s appeal will be heard by the state environmental agency in June. Wynn said he thought that the appeal raised “nothing substantive” and declared that he was “done paying” local officials. “Look, the building’s going to get built, give or take a month or two,” he insisted.
Wynn was equally sanguine about the threat posed by the Taunton casino, saying that he “could care less about Taunton,” adding, “We thrive when there’s lots of activity. I’m happy to compete with any tribe and wish them all the best.” He added that he has never competed in a monopoly market.
Instead he unveiled two new architectural models of the resort, implementing suggestions made by the commission at the time he won the license in 2014. The tower is a smooth glass tower of the signature Wynn casino in Las Vegas. It replaces the more blocky version that the commission did not like.
Wynn predicted that his casino resort would employ about 4,000 people, making him one of the largest employers in the city. “I find this sort of participation on our part,” he said, “to be narcotically exciting.”
During 40-minute press conference Suffolk Construction’s John Fish estimated that construction of the mega-casino resort would take up to 30 months, which would mean it would open in late 2018.
Steven Wynn has labored for seven years to build a casino in the Boston metro area, which is one of the largest untapped gaming markets in the U.S. He has persevered with the trademark Wynn toughness and included a nasty war of words with the mayor of Boston, Martin J. Walsh, which ended in Walsh’s almost complete capitulation in return for some additional money from the casino mogul.
Now, a few months after he was calling Walsh as irresponsible, Wynn declared, “We’re happy neighbors now, and Mayor Walsh and I are on the same page.”
His remaining obstacle is Curtatone, a mayor that Wynn insisted he would not pay off, adding “The chances of the mayor of Somerville getting any extra money from us are zero.” He added, “We’re not paying a dime. We’re done paying.”
Wynn has already agreed to pay Somerville $650,000 annually, however Curtatone wants to see that raised to $1.5 million.
He reduced Curtatone’s concerns about air quality to a bit of auditory humor, blowing a raspberry through the microphone while exclaiming, “Air quality? You gotta be kidding me. You know better than that. That’s a silly question. Air quality?”
The mayor’s appeal of the environmental permit issued by the state cites the exhaust that will be generated by thousands of cars driving to and from the casino. This is a threat to nearby residents, says Curtatone.
In a statement issued after Wynn’s press conference he said, “This isn’t about competition, it’s about Wynn being a responsible neighbor. Assembly Row underwent a far more rigorous review and has done far more to provide community benefits and reduce traffic impacts.”
On March 8 representatives of several Bay State environmental groups held a press conference joined by Wynn Everett President Bob DeSalvio and asked that Curtatone drop his environmental appeal that prevents the Department of Environmental Protection from granting Wynn the permit to proceed with environmental remediation, such as dredging the Mystic River and restoring the natural shoreline.
The environmental groups included the Boston Harbor Association, Mystic River Watershed Association (MRWA), and the Environmental League of Massachusetts. They noted that Wynn was doing environmental remediation that was not required, without hitting the taxpayers for it.
EkOngKar Singh Khalsa, executive director of the MRWA, quoted by the Boston Globe, declared, “We recognized that this project could transform the Mystic River here and perhaps throughout the area.”
When the state gaming commission listened to a presentation by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe touting their own proposed $500 million First Light Casino and Resort they heard criticism of the efforts of rival Mass Gaming & Entertainment and its owner Neil Bluhm, to obtain a license to operate in the same area, on the Brockton Fairgrounds.
The meeting took place in Taunton, on the land that the federal government put into trust for the tribe last year.
Cedric Cromwell, chairman of the Mashpees, told the commission, “Neil Bluhm and team, they are going to lie to you, and say we are not funded.” He added, “You have the No. 1 gaming company in the world that dwarfs Neil Bluhm. Well-established, the Genting Group is the biggest, the most powerful, and the strongest. We are funded. We are moving forward.”
He added, “To all the doubters out there, sorry, we’re going to get this thing built.”
“Genting is putting up millions and millions and millions, and has never stopped believing in our goal,” he said. While it has long been known that Genting was a backer of the tribe, it’s exact role has not been spelled out before. The company operates 50 casinos worldwide, including some of the world’s largest.
The commission has said it will decide on March 31 whether to issue a commercial license to Mass Gaming. The tribe opposes doing that and has hinted that it might challenge such a decision in court.
Cromwell criticized the commission for meeting with Bluhm’s group, calling it a violation of the 2011 law that authorized casino gaming in the state. That law set aside a preferred place for the tribe—as long as it met certain conditions. At the point where the commission opened bidding to commercial developers the tribe had not met all of those conditions—although by late last year it had done so. The commission worried that the region would not benefit quickly enough if it waited for the tribe to achieve its final condition: putting land into trust.
Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby acknowledged that the commission and the tribe disagree over the interpretation of the 2011 law. He said that the tribe’s casino would be a key factor in deciding whether to award a license to Brockton.
“We will consider all circumstances in deciding whether to award the license, especially the status of the tribe,” he said.
The tribe achieved federal recognition in 2007. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) last September put 151 acres in East Taunton into trust for the tribe. Opponents, including Mass Gaming, a subsidiary of Bluhm’s Rush Street Gaming, have challenged that decision in court. Bluhm proposes a $677 million casino resort that would be in direct competition with the tribal casino.
The Mashpees have teamed up with the Genting Group, the largest casino developer in the world, based in Malaysia. Mashpee Chairman Cedric Cromwell exuded self-confidence in pointing out this fact and predicted that any competition was “going to have a lot of problems” and would eventually need to “come together and figure out when they are going to close down.”
Cromwell called Bluhm’s efforts to stop the tribe’s casino so that his casino can move forward, “immoral.”
Genting Massachusetts President Kevin C. Jones told the commission, “Genting will operate the tribal casino on behalf of the tribe,” said Kevin C. Jones, president of Genting Massachusetts. “We will operate the casino while helping to build up the capacity of the tribe to operate it themselves. Our role is to work ourselves out of a job on behalf of the tribe.”
Noting the large pile of drawings associated with the project, Jones added, “In the last 18 months, we have spent $20 million getting these drawings done. That’s what it costs to start a project like this.”
Mashpee Vice Chairman Jessie Little Doe Baird explained how the casino would help raise his people out of poverty. “Right now we have a drop-out rate for the tribal citizens of 48 percent. We have an unemployment rate of 49 percent,” he said. “This is going to be a major lift up for this community, that we are trying to help ourselves be self-sustainable, not ask for anyone else to support us but to support ourselves.”
Despite the announcement that Genting Group would operate the casino, Mass Gaming continues to insist that the casino will have trouble obtaining financing. It doubled down on that assertion last week, releasing this statement after the commission hearing: “Based on market research and extensive experience, MG&E believes that the commonwealth’s best bet is with a Brockton casino resort. The commonwealth will collect more gaming tax revenue with a Brockton casino resort, with or without a Taunton casino, and in fact, will collect the most gaming tax revenue with the proposed Brockton casino resort and without a Taunton casino.”
Mass Gaming also asserts that the lawsuit has a firm legal basis. It challenges the fact that the BIA put land into trust for the tribe, saying that this violates the 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar that said that tribes recognized after 1934 cannot put land into trust. The tribe maintains, and the BIA agrees, that the tribe had a relationship with the state and the federal government going back to colonial days.
The tribe plans to break ground on April 5 in the former industrial park. The project will be developed in four phases. The first would open in the summer of 2017, with the last, including three hotels, a parking garage and a water park, done by 2022. Renderings show two rectangular glass hotel towers, and a casino with a much lower profile. A rendering of a traditional Wampanoag wetu dwelling will greet visitors at the main entry.
Besides a casino with 3,000 slots and 150 table games, the resort will have a 600-room hotel. The tribe has hired contractors Dimeo Construction Co., the Penta Building Group and Talako Construction LLC for the project.
The tribe estimates that when completed the casino will employ 3,500 workers. It will pay the city of Taunton $8 million a year.
Jones agreed that the June 2017 timetable is aggressive and “very, very, fast”, but called it “doable.” He added, “We have a long history of doing fast-tracking on casinos.”
According to the terms of the tribal state gaming compact, if the tribe operates without competition in the southeastern casino zone (Region C) it must pay the state 17 percent of its profits. If a competing commercial casino is allowed, the tribe must pay nothing, although the commercial casino will have to pay 25 percent of its profits.
The tribe recently brought forward lawmakers who said that when they voted for the 2011 gaming expansion, it was with the understanding that there would be only one casino in the southeast of the state—an Indian casino.
“We wanted to make sure they would be the casino that would be recognized,” said one lawmaker.
“We don’t want to see two casinos in Region C,” said Rep. Shaunna O’Connell, whose district includes Taunton. “What you see in front of you is reality. This will be the one casino in Region C.”
The Brockton casino proponents made the point that the state could collect more from it than from the tribal casino: “The commonwealth will collect more gaming tax revenue with a Brockton casino resort, with or without a Taunton casino, and in fact, will collect the most gaming tax revenue with the proposed Brockton casino resort and without a Taunton casino,” said the group. “Massachusetts Gaming and Entertainment has presented their plan for a $675 investment in a resort casino to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that will generate more than $70 million a year in net tax revenue for the state. We have yet to hear any specifics from the tribe on this project and will hold off on commenting on the project until we have seen those.”
Mass Gaming will have one more opportunity to address the commission before it makes its decision at the end of March.
