Who believes they will stop?

Auburn, Milford, Suffolk Downs, East Boston, Palmer, Fall River, New Bedford, Plainville, Raynham, Brimfield, Charlton, Marlboro, Holyoke, Springfield, Middleboro, Mashpee, Sands, Caesars, Genting, Mohegan Sun, KG Urban, Foundation .....

Who believes they will stop?



Observers betting on 3 sites, but …
By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

After a casino bill passes, a gambling commission is empanelled and the multimillion-dollar bids are evaluated, regional resort-style casino licenses will be awarded to Mohegan Sun in Palmer, Caesars Entertainment in East Boston and to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe somewhere in Plymouth or Bristol counties, industry and political observers are betting.

The odds-on favorites for the one slot parlor license, which can go anywhere in the state, are the former racetracks in Plainville and Taunton, either of which could be stocked with slots and open for business quickly, thus pumping revenue into state coffers with minimal delay, observers said.

But landowners in Central Massachusetts and elsewhere eyeing a potential jackpot property sale to a deep-pocketed casino company are conceding nothing yet.

Palmer businessman David J. Callahan dealt himself into the running just this past week, offering up his land in Brimfield as a potential location for a casino. Vincent P. Iuliano Sr. also hasn't given up on his hopes to lure a gambling hall to his land in Charlton.

“We're still hoping we'll be able to get a slot parlor and hotel complex. I have one client talking to us right now. It's not over for Charlton yet,” Mr. Iuliano said. “We've had a lot of activity, but everybody's sitting on the fence right now.”

Marlboro was floated as a potential location years ago by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Those proposing to build a casino in Milford, coordinated by the Las Vegas consulting firm Warner Gaming, are said to be still seriously considering a bid, despite being up against the politically and financially formidable $600 million casino proposal for Suffolk Downs in East Boston. The Suffolk Downs plan is backed by gambling giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas.

Penn National Gaming Inc., the Pennsylvania casino company that once had eyed Auburn or the Blackstone Valley, appears to have folded its hand in the eastern region and instead shifted its attentions to a site in Springfield in the hopes of winning the western region license, observers said.

The casino legislation working its way through the Statehouse would divide the state into three regions and allow a resort-style casino in each. Bidders on the licenses would have to pony up a nonrefundable $350,000 application fee, show they have plenty of money and experience running a casino and that they have approval of voters in the host community. The successful bidders for the licenses will be required to deposit at least $50 million in an escrow account to prove they have the financing to follow through on their bids.

“You have to look at who really has a casino developer really interested. It's one thing to say, ‘I had somebody give me a phone call or come to look at my land.' As the process continues, we'll see who is really serious and who's just kind of entertaining the idea,” said state Rep. Paul K. Frost, R-Auburn, who is on the conference committee tasked with resolving differences between the final House and Senate versions of the casino bill.

Clyde W. Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, agreed that many of the potential casino sites floated by landowners and others won't result in formal bids.

Beyond the requirement for the deep pockets to build a casino, the bidders will have to show in their bids that they have the experience and capacity to run one. That all but rules out anybody who doesn't have an established casino operator on board by next year, Mr. Barrow said.

The proposals that do have established casino operators lined up have an added advantage in that they've already been working public opinion in the proposed host communities, he added.

In the western region, Mohegan Sun has a long-term lease on property in Palmer and has staffed an office there for more than two years.

Even so, Mr. Barrow noted that Penn National Gaming, the casino company that had considered locations in the Blackstone Valley, said last week in a quarterly earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts that it intends to compete for the western region license against Mohegan Sun's established proposal.

“No doubt there will be a number of competitors, we've always anticipated there will be. These are important licenses,” said Paul I. Brody, vice president of development for Mohegan Sun.

Asked to handicap the competition for the eastern region license, Mr. Brody, like many observers, put his money on Suffolk Downs — which his company no doubt would welcome as it puts a competing casino just about as far away from Palmer as possible.

“As an interested observer, and I have no inside track here, I've followed the saga of the gaming bill and the locations for the last several years, and I'm certainly handicapping it to be Boston,” Mr. Brody said.

In the southeastern region, it's all but certain the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe will get the third license because it might otherwise get federal approval to build a casino eventually anyway. The tribe, backed by the Malaysian conglomerate Genting Group, has courted potential sites in Middleboro and Fall River without success and is now said to be looking at land in Bridgewater.

The eastern region lumps Central Massachusetts in with Metro Boston. With the Suffolk Downs proposal enjoying strong political backing on Beacon Hill and financial backing from Las Vegas in the form of Caesars Entertainment, the casino sites floated in Worcester Country over the years are thought to be long shots at best.

“This whole thing was gerrymandered for Suffolk Downs from the beginning. Everybody knows that,” said Kathleen Norbut, a prominent casino and slots opponent and former Monson selectman.

But a local landowner, with the right backing, might have a shot at upsetting the racetracks for the one slot machine parlor license to be awarded statewide, Mr. Frost said.

“It could still go to one of the racetracks. They already have an infrastructure in place, and they would certainly have some advantages in their bids, but that doesn't mean that somebody from Worcester County or Central Massachusetts might not have a bid that blows their socks off,” he said.

The casino bill will provide for the formation of a state gambling commission, which in turn will award the licenses.

Mr. Barrow expects the formation of the commission and hiring of staff to take about six months if the legislation passes as expected. The license application process likely would take about three months, he said, and casinos could be built in as little as a year depending on the scope of the projects.