Massachusetts: More Taxpayer Subsidies for the Failing Horse Racing Industry?

When the Predatory Gambling Legislation was passed, taxpayer $$$ was included to subsidize the failing race tracks. 

This seems rather bogus if no one can identify those who signed the initial Petition.

Don't tell anyone, but race tracks around the nation are losing money without TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES!   

Slots Could Be In Future at Suffolk Downs

September 10, 2015

By Seth Daniel

A mysterious ballot initiative proposal to add a second slot parlor to an existing Thoroughbred horse track has been certified for the 2016 ballot by Attorney General Maura Healey.

The ballot question is only titled ‘An Act Relative to Expanded Gaming’ and suggests that an additional Category 2 (slot parlor) license be granted to an establishment located on property that is:

• at least four acres in size.
• adjacent to and within 1,500 feet of a race track, including the track’s additional facilities, such as the track, grounds, paddocks, barns, auditorium, amphitheatre and bleachers.
• where a horse racing meeting may physically be held.
• where a horse racing meeting shall have been hosted.
• not separated from the race track by a highway or railway.

The very specific language only leaves a few options for the license, which would allow no more than 1,250 slot machines and no table games.

One of the locations most prominently put forward upon certification of the question is, in fact, Suffolk Downs. 

Other locations include the Brockton Fair, Marshfield, Northampton and, maybe, Great Barrington.

That said, the top talked about location, Suffolk Downs, said this week they had nothing to do with the ballot question.

“We want to be unequivocally clear it’s not us,” said Chip Tuttle, Suffolk Downs COO. “We’re as curious as anyone, especially to the extent that whoever is behind it may think they can take advantage of their proximity to our property. If that’s the case, they haven’t talked to us or asked us our opinion. Politically, it’s a peculiar maneuver and certainly no our style. While not everyone agreed that Suffolk Downs was the best sport for gaming in the Commonwealth, we tried to do everything in a way that was very transparent. Whoever filed this has taken great pains to shield their identity. We’re as curious as everyone.”

An e-mail address filed with the Attorney General’s Office in relation to the ballot initiative lists a Eugene A. McCain. No one at that address responded to inquiries from the Journal.

The AG’s Office certified the 22 petitions, including 20 proposed laws and two proposed constitutional amendments. The AG’s Office did not certify 10 of the initiative petitions because they did not meet the requirements outlined in Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution.

Proponents of each certified initiative petition must now gather and file the signatures of 64,750 registered voters by Dec. 2, 2015. Once the requisite signatures are obtained, the proposal is sent to the state Legislature to enact before the first Wednesday in May 2016. If the Legislature fails to enact the proposal, its proponents must gather another 10,792 signatures by early July 2016 to place the initiative on the November 2016 ballot. An initiative petition, if ultimately passed by the voters, becomes a state statute.

http://www.reverejournal.com/2015/09/10/slots-could-be-in-future-at-suffolk-downs/#

Developer eyeing Revere trailer park for slots parlor

Developer, not Suffolk Downs, pitching Revere trailer park site

JOANNE RATHE/GLOBE STAFF

Marisela Ayala, holding grandson Liam, said she and her family have been renting a unit in Lee’s Trailer Park, within a few miles of Suffolk Downs, for the last three months.

By Stephanie Ebbert and Andrea Estes GLOBE STAFF  SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

REVERE — To casino opponents, it had seemed obvious who was driving a proposed ballot initiative that would allow an additional slots parlor near a horse track in Massachusetts: Surely, the proponent must be Suffolk Downs, the sputtering racetrack that lost earlier bids for renewed relevance when its casino plans were dismissed.

But a Suffolk Downs official said unequivocally the track is not involved.

Instead, the man who is driving the campaign, Eugene McCain, has an agreement to buy the mobile-home property down the parkway from Suffolk Downs, according to an attorney for the current owner. It’s there, on the site of Lee’s Trailer Park, where he has proposed to build a slots parlor.

McCain, a real estate broker and developer with ties to Massachusetts who now lives in Phuket, Thailand, said he has been involved with real estate deals in California and Hawaii. He and two associates approached Revere officials in July, said John Festa, the city’s economic development director.

The men initially proposed building a hotel — a proposal that interested the city, Festa said. It wasn’t until the following day that McCain raised the prospect of slot machines, he said.

REVERE — To casino opponents, it had seemed obvious who was driving a proposed ballot initiative that would allow an additional slots parlor near a horse track in Massachusetts: Surely, the proponent must be Suffolk Downs, the sputtering racetrack that lost earlier bids for renewed relevance when its casino plans were dismissed.

But a Suffolk Downs official said unequivocally the track is not involved.Instead, the man who is driving the campaign, Eugene McCain, has an agreement to buy the mobile-home property down the parkway from Suffolk Downs, according to an attorney for the current owner. It’s there, on the site of Lee’s Trailer Park, where he has proposed to build a slots parlor.

Instead, the man who is driving the campaign, Eugene McCain, has an agreement to buy the mobile-home property down the parkway from Suffolk Downs, according to an attorney for the current owner. It’s there, on the site of Lee’s Trailer Park, where he has proposed to build a slots parlor.

McCain, a real estate broker and developer with ties to Massachusetts who now lives in Phuket, Thailand, said he has been involved with real estate deals in California and Hawaii. He and two associates approached Revere officials in July, said John Festa, the city’s economic development director.

The men initially proposed building a hotel — a proposal that interested the city, Festa said. It wasn’t until the following day that McCain raised the prospect of slot machines, he said.

“When McCain disclosed that the developers were also interested in a gaming development on the property, the city let them know that they were welcome to move forward with any credible hotel proposal, but that the city would NOT support gaming development at the site,” Festa said in a statement on the proposal.

In an e-mailed message, McCain said his plans are still in the exploratory stages, and Revere 

The men initially proposed building a hotel — a proposal that interested the city, Festa said. It wasn’t until the following day that McCain raised the prospect of slot machines, he said.

“When McCain disclosed that the developers were also interested in a gaming development on the property, the city let them know that they were welcome to move forward with any credible hotel proposal, but that the city would NOT support gaming development at the site,” Festa said in a statement on the proposal.

In an e-mailed message, McCain said his plans are still in the exploratory stages, and Revere is just one of several locations he is considering for hotel and mixed-use development. However, there are only a handful of locations — mainly local fairgrounds — that would meet the criteria he laid out in his gambling petition.

The ballot proposal would add a second slots casino license to the mix of three casinos and one slots parlor allowed by the state’s 2011 gaming law. The prospect of a second is still speculative, since McCain’s team would have a number of hurdles to clear.

First, they need to collect signatures from 64,750 registered voters to submit the petition initiative to the Legislature. Then, unless the Legislature adopts the measure on its own, they would have to collect signatures from another 10,792 voters to get it on the November 2016 ballot, where its approval by a majority of voters could make it law.

McCain’s slots proposal has opened up a new front for the fledgling casino industry in Massachusetts.

“If the commission were authorized to issue another slots license, we’d have to consider the full legal and legislative context, and would determine a process pursuant to that,” said Massachusetts Gaming Commission spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll. “It is not something we have ever contemplated.”

JOANNE RATHE/GLOBE STAFF

Developer Eugene McCain has an agreement to buy the mobile-home property down the parkway from Suffolk Downs.

The emergence of a new casino proposal had everyone from lobbyists to horsemen buzzing. McCain, whose name is on the ballot petition, was not known among local people in the casino industry, and the people who signed his initial petition weren’t familiar names.

The language of the ballot petition — which would allow for another slots license on a site of least 4 acres adjacent to a horse race track — seemed tailor-written for Suffolk Downs, which had pursued a casino even after East Boston voters rejected a proposal in 2013.

But chief operating officer Chip Tuttle categorically denied any involvement in the new venture.

“Not only is this not Suffolk Downs’ initiative, we were neither consulted nor advised, and we have no intention of supporting this measure in any way, shape, or form,” Tuttle told the Globe.

Representatives of two horsemen’s groups said they have their own plans to bring thoroughbred racing back to Massachusetts and are not working with McCain.

Still, McCain suggested a fondness for horse racing is at the heart of his proposal.

“This initiative is not only designed to safeguard thousands of jobs at tracks and farms across the Commonwealth but to also bring in new economic activity to local communities and the state,” he wrote.

“Thoroughbred races have a long and storied history here in Massachusetts — one that began with the opening of Suffolk Downs in East Boston in 1935.”

Casino opponents, while weary of the continued rounds, say they are ready for another battle.

“It’s kind of audacious that Mr. McCain thinks he can best the local residents and take another bite at it when the Gaming Commission didn’t see fit to grant the license to Suffolk Downs,” said Celeste Riebeiro Myers, spokeswoman for No Eastie Casino.

The Revere property that McCain is eyeing is a park with about 90 rented and privately owned mobile homes off Revere Beach Parkway. Joseph V. Cattoggio Jr., an attorney who represents the owner, confirmed that a group led by McCain has an option to buy the property that, according to Revere officials, expires in two months. He would not discuss the contingencies, and said the owner, William Settipane, was unaware of any casino proposal.

Settipane bought the trailer park in 2009 for $1.9 million, according to city assessor records. Two years ago, amid a flurry of plans for casinos and proposals for development around Suffolk Downs, he won a zoning change that would allow expanding the park’s potential uses beyond residential.

On Friday, some mobile home tenants were startled by the prospect of a casino moving in. The trailer park was the site of a murder in 2013, but some residents said, despite crime, it was still home.

“It’s keeping me and my daughter one step above homelessness,” said one tenant, who would not give her name. “We pretty much all want the park to be here.”

Anthony Wallace, who has lived in a double-wide trailer in the park for seven years, was skeptical of the proposal’s success.

“They’ve been talking about selling this place for years,” he said.

Andrea Estes can be reached at Andrea.Estes@globe.com. Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at Stephanie.Ebbert@ globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @StephanieEbbert.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/11/real-estate-developer-not-suffolk-downs-eyeing-revere-trailer-park-for-slots-parlor/fBmmtd1fRvrxufKkWnDBlI/story.html