Revere Says Yes! A casino dream team in the making? By Shirley Leung | GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 27, 2013 Both lost big votes on Nov. 5, but now fate brings together Mohegan Sun and Suffolk Downs. It could turn out to be the best possible outcome, if not a face-saving move, for both. Mohegan Sun garners a lot of respect in the casino industry, and perhaps more importantly, it’s a known quantity to us, being just over the border in Connecticut. The casino run by the Mohegan Indian tribe has successfully siphoned about $3 billion from Massachusetts gamblers since opening in 1996. And we really do love it down there: Massachusetts residents make up 18.5 percent of Mohegan’s patrons, according to the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass-Dartmouth. Mohegan wanted to build a $1 billion casino in Palmer, a plan narrowly rejected by residents. Suffolk Downs proposed building a casino on its property, which straddles two cities. Revere, by a wide margin, voted yes, but East Boston, overwhelmingly voted no. Suffolk promptly moved its casino proposal to the Revere side of the aging horse track, but still did not have an operator after dropping Caesars just before the vote. Suffolk, once the shoo-in for the Boston license, and Mohegan, the lead horse for the western license, found themselves suddenly both out of luck. Yes, it’s as muddy as the fine print on a lottery ticket. But bear with me here. A Suffolk Downs-Mohegan bid would almost certainly pose a formidable challenge to Steve Wynn’s $1.3 billion proposal in Everett on the Mystic River. And after all the twists and turns, we now would have attracted the best of the best to vie for the biggest purse of all in the race for our gaming licenses. Still, this being Massachusetts, and involving casinos, it’s a sloppy track at best. Let’s first talk about Wynn. Love him. He builds, hands down, the best looking and most entertaining casinos in the world from his humbly named Wynn Las Vegas to the Bellagio (which he has since sold). He would dazzle us with a world-class casino, which our politicians had in mind when they legalized gambling. But Wynn is also famously mercurial. He yanked his casino proposal out of Philadelphia earlier this month. Will he do the same in Boston? In his lone appearance before our gaming commission in October, Wynn let us know how difficult it is to do business in Massachusetts and wondered if we were being too hard on casino applicants. “You are young and inexperienced, and this is tricky,” Wynn told the commission, which formed in 2012. He has yet to pass the suitability test with the commission. Last week my colleagues reported authorities are investigating whether a businessman with an extensive criminal record has a hidden ownership stake in Wynn’s Everett land. For the record, a Wynn representative said the Vegas impresario remains “committed to Boston.” Mohegan Sun, which has passed its state background check, is best in class for different reasons. The tribe can’t out-wow Wynn, but Mohegan Sun executives run a tight ship in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Atlantic City, where they manage the Resorts Casino. While the quality of casinos with Suffolk’s original partner, Caesars, varies from location to location, Wynn and Mohegan both run top-notch properties. “Steve Wynn — it’s a home run every time,” said casino consultant Gary Green. “Mohegan is the same way.” Which one should the commission pick? “If I were a municipality, I would want to go with stability,” said Green who worked with Wynn early in his career. “Wynn is terrific operator, but he’s a temperamental little boy.” Now the pressure is on the gaming commission to make a decision on the legality of a Suffolk Downs’ Revere-only proposal. The question to be resolved: Did Revere’s Nov. 5 vote represent a valid endorsement of a new plan? Those rooting for a casino at the racetrack would say yes, arguing that Revere approved gaming in general with the specifics to be determined by its mayor under an amendable host agreement. The No Eastie Casino group disagrees. If Suffolk wants to move its gaming palace, Revere must vote again, according to the group’s interpretation of the law. “Our objection is to the retrofit of this vote,” said Matt Cameron, an East Boston lawyer representing the group. “We’re defending our vote and our community. This is just as bad as the East Boston plan.” Mohegan Sun and Suffolk Downs might have thought their luck ran out in Massachusetts, but they may go from long shots to even money. Shirley Leung can be reached at sleung@globe. Follow her on Twitter @leung.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 12:00:32 +0000
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