Gaming investigators raise questions about Foxwoods
By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
susan.spencer@telegram.com
BOSTON — Massachusetts Gaming Commission members today wrestled with untangling the governance and financial control of a proposed Foxwoods casino in Milford.
At an adjudicatory hearing on the suitability of the resort casino's applicant, Crossroads Massachusetts LLC, the commission's Investigations and Enforcement Bureau Director Karen Wells said a glaring issue for the applicant is that they haven't identified a 55 percent equity owner yet.
The commission's staff report did not include a recommendation because without the majority investor it was deemed incomplete. However, information on the 10 entities and 12 individuals listed as qualifiers was presented, in the event the commission chose to proceed with the applicant.
Ms. Wells said, "From our perspective, it has to be thorough and it has to be complete. I'm kind of throwing my hands up here because I don't know what to tell you."
Scott Butera, Foxwoods Massachusetts's president and CEO, said it is in negotiations with two potential majority partners.
In summary, the commission's background report raised concerns about the inability of Crossroads Massachusetts to identify its planned majority owner and financial sources and the suitability of Crossroads' principal organizer, David Nunes.
Further, it questioned the ability of the applicant to run a successful gaming operation in Massachusetts given its difficulty in finding an additional equity interest and the current debt load and declining revenues of Foxwoods in Connecticut.
Commission staff raised additional concerns about the legitimacy of the provision in the operating agreement giving Foxwoods MA LLC exclusive and irrevocable control over the proposed casino.
During the morning session, commissioners tried to understand the relationship among Crossroads, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council and its gaming enterprise and Foxwoods Massachusetts.
Also, on Tuesday Hopkinton town officials expressed dismay that the commission had not made available sufficient information about the background of Crossroads' qualifiers.
In a letter sent by town counsel J. Raymond Miyares, officials wrote: "Rather than assisting the applicant in obscuring the complex web of relationships that comprise its proposal, the Commission should have been shining a light on these matters, so that the public – and particularly the communities that are being asked to shoulder the burden of hosting or surrounding the facility – can make the informed assessments possible of the applicant's suitability."
Mr. Miyares also noted that Gaming Commission representatives had not contacted officials in Norwich, Conn., "who have had to endure the consequences of Foxwoods' instability, mismanagement and lack of integrity for almost three decades."
BOSTON — Massachusetts Gaming Commission members today wrestled with untangling the governance and financial control of a proposed Foxwoods casino in Milford.
At an adjudicatory hearing on the suitability of the resort casino's applicant, Crossroads Massachusetts LLC, the commission's Investigations and Enforcement Bureau Director Karen Wells said a glaring issue for the applicant is that they haven't identified a 55 percent equity owner yet.
The commission's staff report did not include a recommendation because without the majority investor it was deemed incomplete. However, information on the 10 entities and 12 individuals listed as qualifiers was presented, in the event the commission chose to proceed with the applicant.
Ms. Wells said, "From our perspective, it has to be thorough and it has to be complete. I'm kind of throwing my hands up here because I don't know what to tell you."
Scott Butera, Foxwoods Massachusetts's president and CEO, said it is in negotiations with two potential majority partners.
In summary, the commission's background report raised concerns about the inability of Crossroads Massachusetts to identify its planned majority owner and financial sources and the suitability of Crossroads' principal organizer, David Nunes.
Further, it questioned the ability of the applicant to run a successful gaming operation in Massachusetts given its difficulty in finding an additional equity interest and the current debt load and declining revenues of Foxwoods in Connecticut.
Commission staff raised additional concerns about the legitimacy of the provision in the operating agreement giving Foxwoods MA LLC exclusive and irrevocable control over the proposed casino.
During the morning session, commissioners tried to understand the relationship among Crossroads, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council and its gaming enterprise and Foxwoods Massachusetts.
Also, on Tuesday Hopkinton town officials expressed dismay that the commission had not made available sufficient information about the background of Crossroads' qualifiers.
In a letter sent by town counsel J. Raymond Miyares, officials wrote: "Rather than assisting the applicant in obscuring the complex web of relationships that comprise its proposal, the Commission should have been shining a light on these matters, so that the public – and particularly the communities that are being asked to shoulder the burden of hosting or surrounding the facility – can make the informed assessments possible of the applicant's suitability."
Mr. Miyares also noted that Gaming Commission representatives had not contacted officials in Norwich, Conn., "who have had to endure the consequences of Foxwoods' instability, mismanagement and lack of integrity for almost three decades."
At an adjudicatory hearing on the suitability of the resort casino's applicant, Crossroads Massachusetts LLC, the commission's Investigations and Enforcement Bureau Director Karen Wells said a glaring issue for the applicant is that they haven't identified a 55 percent equity owner yet.
The commission's staff report did not include a recommendation because without the majority investor it was deemed incomplete. However, information on the 10 entities and 12 individuals listed as qualifiers was presented, in the event the commission chose to proceed with the applicant.
Ms. Wells said, "From our perspective, it has to be thorough and it has to be complete. I'm kind of throwing my hands up here because I don't know what to tell you."
Scott Butera, Foxwoods Massachusetts's president and CEO, said it is in negotiations with two potential majority partners.
In summary, the commission's background report raised concerns about the inability of Crossroads Massachusetts to identify its planned majority owner and financial sources and the suitability of Crossroads' principal organizer, David Nunes.
Further, it questioned the ability of the applicant to run a successful gaming operation in Massachusetts given its difficulty in finding an additional equity interest and the current debt load and declining revenues of Foxwoods in Connecticut.
Commission staff raised additional concerns about the legitimacy of the provision in the operating agreement giving Foxwoods MA LLC exclusive and irrevocable control over the proposed casino.
During the morning session, commissioners tried to understand the relationship among Crossroads, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council and its gaming enterprise and Foxwoods Massachusetts.
Also, on Tuesday Hopkinton town officials expressed dismay that the commission had not made available sufficient information about the background of Crossroads' qualifiers.
In a letter sent by town counsel J. Raymond Miyares, officials wrote: "Rather than assisting the applicant in obscuring the complex web of relationships that comprise its proposal, the Commission should have been shining a light on these matters, so that the public – and particularly the communities that are being asked to shoulder the burden of hosting or surrounding the facility – can make the informed assessments possible of the applicant's suitability."
Mr. Miyares also noted that Gaming Commission representatives had not contacted officials in Norwich, Conn., "who have had to endure the consequences of Foxwoods' instability, mismanagement and lack of integrity for almost three decades."
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