The only sensible solution!
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has extended the deadline to issue a commercial casino license in Southeastern Massachusetts until the end of March and will accept bids from new casino companies until Dec. 1.
During their meeting Thursday, commissioners never mentioned the effort to repeal the casino law, which is now on the Nov. 4 ballot, but the new deadlines give potential applicants time to see how that plays out. Earlier this week, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that voters should have an opportunity to vote on the repeal question.
The lone applicant in the region, KG Urban Enterprises, has not provided information about investors for a complete background check and was unlikely to meet the current Sept. 23 deadline or a July 12 deadline to have its suitability considered, Karen Wells, director of the commission's investigation and enforcement division, said.
With the new deadlines, commissioners are requiring KG Urban and any new applicants to provide "substantially complete" information for background checks by Dec. 1.
The deadline extension also could allow the loser in the Boston market — either Wynn Resorts or Mohegan Sun — to attempt to cut a deal in Southeastern Massachusetts, commissioners said.
KG Urban officials declined to comment and instead referred to the company's letter to the commission in anticipation of Thursday's vote.
"Allowing new applicants to late file a (phase 1) application would be unfairly prejudicial to existing applicants," Barry Gosin, one of the principals of KG Urban, wrote.
In his letter, Gosin supported an extension of the deadline, but for only 90 days and not the six months approved by the commission.
The commission also voted to allow applicants to include capitalized interest in the calculation of their minimum $500 million capital investments, noting the competitive nature of the region with a slot parlor slated for Plainville and two casinos in nearby Rhode Island. Commissioners stopped short of a proposal to include the purchase of land as part of the overall capital investment.
The decision to, in effect, lower the capital investment for a casino in the region had some commissioners wondering aloud if a casino can make it in Southeastern Massachusetts.
"If the market can't sustain a casino, then, we weren't told we had to do a casino here. It said we could do up to three," Chairman Stephen Crosby said. "Then the tribe comes along someday and, maybe, it pays us 17 percent rather than nothing."
Southeastern Massachusetts, known as Region C in the legislation that established gaming in the Bay State, is already behind two other regions of the state in the licensing process, in part, because of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's efforts to build a $500 million Indian casino in Taunton.
"The tribe remains focused on Project First Light," Paula Gates, a spokesman for the Mashpee Wampanoag, said in response to the commission vote.
The tribe is awaiting word on its application to have land in Mashpee and Taunton taken into trust.
The uncertainty has made it difficult for KG Urban to find financial backers and for a landowner in Bridgewater to attract a casino developer.
If a commercial casino is licensed in the region and the tribe gets federal permission to build a casino, the commercial venue would be at a competitive disadvantage. Commercial casinos are required to pay the state 25 percent of gross gambling revenue to the state.
Under a compact reached between the Mashpee Wampanoag and the state, the tribe would pay 17 percent of its gross gambling revenue to the state if it has the only casino in the region. If there is competition, the tribe pays zero.
The deadline extension buys the tribe time to get through the tangle of federal hurdles.
The commission received nearly a dozen comments from stakeholders in the region, the majority of them in favor of extending the deadline.
The Mashpee Wampanoag did not submit comments, but Cezar Froelich, an attorney for the city of Taunton, urged the commission not to extend the deadline or to open the region to potential bidders.
The market has shown that commercial casino companies are reluctant to enter the region with the tribe still a player.
"The winds are squarely behind the tribe's efforts to have its land-in-trust efforts approved," Froelich wrote. "There is nothing that has come before the commission other than the opinion of several 'experts' that could reasonably lead the commission to conclude the tribe will not have its application approved by the department."
City officials in New Bedford and Fall River supported deadline extensions, as did officials and the landowner in Bridgewater where there is no concrete proposal on the table. Both Fall River and Bridgewater officials suggested a tweak to the total investment required of potential developments, as well as a lowering of the application fees. New Bedford wanted the deadline to be after Nov. 14 so it could hold a citywide vote on Election Day, Nov. 4.
Follow George Brennan on Twitter: @gpb227.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment