Gambling Commission Genuflects....Again!

REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL is the only reasonable solution!

MASSACHUSETTS GAMING COMMISSION: New casino applicants allowed in S.E. region

Competition for a casino license in Southeastern Massachusetts is on track to get stiffer.

The state Gaming Commission voted last week to push back deadlines and allow more applicants for a Southeastern Massachusetts casino.



Gerry Tuoti
Wicked Local Newsbank Editor
Posted Jul. 4, 2014

State gambling officials pushed back the region’s licensure schedule last Thursday and voted to allow new applicants into the process.

“If we don’t extend the deadline, then we really are facing the possibility where we’re facing one application,” Gaming Commission member James McHugh said.

Competition, he added, “dramatically improves the quality of the product.”

The vote to allow new applicants to enter the process reverses the commission’s previous stance.

Commissioners unanimously voted to push the next application deadline from Sept. 30 back to Dec. 1. The second-phase application deadline will now be March 27, 2015. Thursday’s vote marks the second time the Southeastern Massachusetts deadline has been pushed back.

Before Thursday’s vote, the only developers allowed to seek a casino license in the region were those that had already met a previous application deadline. They included KG Urban, which hopes to build a casino in New Bedford, as well as applicants who applied but were not selected for licenses in other parts of the state.

Foxwoods, which has examined potential casino sites in Fall River and New Bedford, is among the developers that tried and failed to secure a license elsewhere in the state.

Applicants are required to pay a nonrefundable $400,000 fee and pass a background check,

An attorney representing Bridgewater-based Claremont Companies and Canadian-based Clarivest Group advocated opening the region to new commercial applicants.

“The Group wants to compete for the resort-casino license, as it has the resources and what it believes to be the best location to make the development a success,” Clarivest attorney Walter J. Sullivan Jr. wrote in a June 19 letter to the commission.

That letter states that Claremont had previously worked with an applicant that passed a background check but the partnership dissolved. The casino developer withdrew after the Gaming Commission voted in April to alter minimum casino investment thresholds, according to Claremont.

Bridgewater, Fall River and New Bedford, submitted letters favoring a deadline extension. New Bedford, though, only favored a “modest” extension that would not significantly delay licensure.

Attorneys representing the city of Taunton opposed the extension.

While KG Urban supported the extension, it opposed allowing new applicants.

KG Urban principal Barry Gosin wrote in a June 23 letter that allowing new applicants would be unfair to the existing applicants.

The 2011 casino law allows up to three commercial casinos in Massachusetts, divided by region. MGM Springfield has been conditionally approved for the Western Massachusetts license. Mohegan Sun and Wynn Resorts are competing for the license in the Boston region, with their proposals for Revere and Everett, respectively.

Southeastern Massachusetts, or Region C, is behind the other regions in the licensure process. It was initially closed to commercial applicants, as the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe pursued a tribal casino in Taunton through a federal process outside of the state application system. State officials were concerned the market couldn’t handle two casinos in the same region.

As the tribe hit delays in its pursuit of land sovereignty, the Gaming Commission opened the region to commercial applicants. The tribe says it is still on track with its casino plans.

“There is a unique factor in this region, no matter how likely or unlikely, of competition from the tribe,” commission member Enrique Zuniga said.

The Gaming Commission meeting was held the same day Boston Mayor Martin Walsh called for delaying the awarding of the Greater Boston casino license until after the state election in November. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that a petition seeking a repeal of the expanded gambling law qualifies for the November ballot.

Bridgewater casino may ride on Raynham slots outcome

Bridgewater casino may ride on Raynham slots outcome
By Rebecca Hyman

Wicked Local Bridgewater

Posted Nov 22, 2013

 

Bridgewater —

Claremont Companies Vice President Patrick Carney Jr. said his firm is unlikely to move forward with a casino proposal in Bridgewater if Raynham is awarded the state’s sole slots license.

“The slots license is going to decide a lot,” Carney said after the Bridgewater Town Council meeting Tuesday.

But Carney said he thinks all three slots contenders — Raynham, Plainville and Leominster — have an equal shot at the license, giving Raynham less than even odds of coming out on top.

Carney said he thinks the Massachusetts Gaming Commission would be unlikely to award two licenses so close together on the map as Raynham and Bridgewater.

And because of that it would be hard for Claremont to attract a partner for a Bridgewater casino if Raynham gets the slots license, he said.

The state’s Expanded Gaming Act of 2011, allows for a total of three commercial resort casinos and one slot parlor statewide.

The Gaming Commission hasn’t set an exact date but has said it expects to award the slots license sometime in January.

Claremont is in active talks with several potential casino operators to partner with on the project, Carney said.

Sept. 30 was the deadline for commercial applicants to submit their non-refundable $400,000 application fees to vie for the Southeastern Massachusetts casino license.

Claremont did not submit an application but announced its intention to “partner” with existing applicants to build a casino on its 171-acre site across from Lake Nippenicket in Bridgewater.

The developers who already applied for the other two regional casino licenses and the slots license are exempt from the deadline. And Claremont will be exempt as well if it teams up with any of the existing applicants on a Bridgewater casino.

September 30 was the Phase I deadline of the application process, which focuses on the suitability of the applicant. Phase II focuses on site-specific proposals and those applications are due between March and July, 2014 and must contain a completed host community agreement between the town and applicant and referendum approval by voters.

The Gaming Commission is expected to issue the license in November, 2014 — if it issues a commercial casino license in Southeastern Massachusetts at all.

The state gaming law gives the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, who hope to build a casino in East Taunton under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, exclusivity in the southeast region as long as it appears the tribe can meet federal requirements.

But the state Gaming Commission opened up the region to commercial bidders in April amid growing uncertainty the tribe would get federal approval to place land in trust.

At the same time, the commission has not yet determined whether it will actually award a commercial license in this region. Meanwhile, the Mashpee are free to continue pursuing a tribal casino under federal law, a scenario that could result in two casinos in Southeastern Massachusetts and four statewide.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/bridgewater/news/x2132759063/Bridgewater-casino-may-ride-on-Raynham-slots-outcome

Casino firms face complications in Southeastern Mass.

By Mark Arsenault

| Globe Staff May 13, 2013

The region remains a tricky bet for casino companies even after a ban on commercial development was lifted, specialists say.

Southeastern Massachusetts remains a tricky bet for casino companies even after a ban on commercial development was lifted, specialists say, citing disadvantages that could discourage investors and chill competition.

As the last of the state’s three regions to enter the bidding for a casino license, Southeastern Massachusetts is at least months behind Greater Boston and Western Massachusetts, where facilities are expected to open first.

“You are not only late to the game, but conceivably there could be two other casinos up and running,” said Carl Jenkins, managing director at the financial firm Duff & Phelps, who has studied the state’s gambling market. “What if those are just two over-the-top casinos? They’ll have an opportunity to grab market share and loyalty.”

The late start is only one problem. Potential applicants also face the possibility that a tribal casino will be developed in the region.

The southeast has been off-limits to commercial developers because a provision in the 2011 casino law delays commercial bidding to give the Mashpee Wampanoag time to make progress on a tribal casino, which would be approved under federal law.

The state gambling commission last month lifted the freeze because it was unsure when, or if, the tribe would overcome legal hurdles to developing a casino in Taunton.

But the commission will not consider awarding a commercial license in the southeast until well into 2014, and if the Mashpee show significant progress over the next year or so — as the tribe has predicted — the commission is not obligated to award the commercial license.

Clyde Barrow, a casino expert at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said the level of commercial competition that emerges in the region will depend, at least partly, on how the gambling industry rates the tribe’s chances of gaining federal approval for a casino. “If you’re skeptical of it, as a lot of people are, then it becomes an attractive opportunity, particularly for potential losers in the other regions,” Barrow said.

The 2011 casino law authorized three resort casinos, no more than one in each of three regions of the state. Bidding is underway in Greater Boston and in Western Massachusetts and the gambling commission is expected to award licenses in those regions in early 2014. Construction would then take between two and three years.

The commission wrestled for months over the fate of casino gambling in the region. Private developers and some public officials urged the commission to open the region to commercial bidders so the southeast would not fall too far behind the other regions; the tribe and its allies have asked for more patience.

Tribal casinos are developed under federal law and do not need state licenses. The Mashpee’s main issue is land: The tribe has asked the US Department of Interior to take its proposed Taunton casino property into trust for the tribe, which would make the land eligible to host tribal gambling.

But the department’s legal authority to take land into trust for many tribes is in question, because of a 2009 US Supreme Court ruling. Federal lawsuits that could clarify the matter may be years away from a decision.

Mashpee leaders maintain that they are making tremendous progress and there was no need for the commission to open the southeast to commercial bids.

“The idea of licensing a commercial casino in Southeastern Massachusetts rather than working cooperatively with our tribe is a bad idea for Massachusetts,” Cedric Cromwell, the tribe’s chairman, said in a statement. “Our tribal destination resort casino is coming, and we hope we will operate in partnership with the Commonwealth rather [than] in competition with it.”

But skeptics say the tribe is at least years away from getting eligible land, and may never get it.

The risk to commercial developers posed by the tribe “does create a little bit of a barrier or impediment,” said casino consultant Frank Fantini. Still, Greater Boston’s dense population should be enticing enough for developers to spend the time and effort required to seek a license, he said. “Boston’s a big metropolitan area, even if the southeast is somewhat removed from the city itself.”

The commission is expected this month to lay out a timetable for accepting and reviewing commercial applications in the southeast.

At least two companies with potential sites in the southeast are interested.

KG Urban Enterprises, which controls a site in New Bedford, has “every intention of applying for the commercial gaming license,” according to a statement from managing director Andrew M. Stern. “We’re extremely excited about working with the residents and elected officials of New Bedford to refine our waterfront redevelopment plan and submit a winning proposal — one that justifies the effort the commission put into opening the region to KG and everyone else who wishes to bid.”

KG had been trying through the courts to win the opportunity to bid on a casino license. The company sued the state in 2011, challenging language in the casino law that delayed bidding on a commercial license in the southeast to give the tribe a head start.

In Bridgewater, Claremont Companies, a real estate firm, controls 170 acres near the intersection of Interstate 495 and Route 24, which has drawn interest from casino operators, said Elias Patoucheas, Claremont president. He supports the gambling commission’s decision to open the region to commercial bidders.

“It gives us a chance here in Southeastern Mass. to compete,” he said. “That’s all we asked for.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/12/private-casino-companies-confront-late-start-other-challenges-southeastern-mass/SEN1FX9hmwKLOVIaCVv6tK/story.html

Mashpee Genting Tribe.......

Mashpee tribe forges on despite potential challengers

By George Brennan

gbrennan@capecodonline.com

April 23, 2013

 

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission's unanimous decision on Thursday to open Southeastern Massachusetts' casino license to commercial competition hasn't opened the floodgates of potential bidders — yet.

 

The commission doesn't expect to receive any inquiries until it puts out an actual request for applications, spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said. She said she's not sure when the commission will begin accepting applications but doesn't anticipate it will be on the panel's agenda Thursday.

 

Last week's vote ended the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's exclusive hold on Southeastern Massachusetts, known as Region C.

 

Despite Thursday's setback, Cedric Cromwell, tribal council chairman, wrote in a blog posted Saturday on the tribe's website that he plans to "redouble efforts" to win legislative support of the compact between the tribe and Gov. Deval Patrick. A special tribal council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday.

 

"Despite the commission's misguided decision, we will continue to move forward in partnership with the governor and the Legislature to build our destination resort casino in Taunton," he wrote.

 

The compact has been sent to legislative committee, but no hearing date has been set. It also requires approval of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, but requires action at the state level first. Under the terms agreed to by Patrick and the tribe, the tribe would not pay the state any money if a commercial casino is located in the same region as the Taunton facility.

 

Commissioners said the tribe can continue to pursue federal approvals while the state seeks applications from commercial bidders. The board also left the door open to pulling the plug on a commercial casino bid if the tribal project proceeds before a license is issued. That possibility was sharply criticized by potential developers when the so-called "dual track" was first proposed in December.

 

A casino developer would have to be willing to pay the $400,000 nonrefundable application fee and begin the costly process of negotiating a host community agreement while developing detailed plans for the project. Clyde Barrow, executive director of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis, has estimated that cost at $5 million.

Barrow could not be reached for comment Monday.

 

KG Urban Enterprises, which seeks to build a casino on the New Bedford waterfront and pushed for the region to be opened, has no further comment on its plans, Andy Paven, a spokesman for the company, said Monday. The company is suing the state and gaming commission in federal court over the special status given to the tribe in the casino legislation. A lawyer for the company has already said opening the region would not be enough to end the lawsuit.

 

Brooke Scannell, a spokeswoman for Cromwell, said no decision had been made as of Monday on the tribe's next steps.

 

Meanwhile, a landowner in the region said he is willing to talk to potential gambling partners interested in 170 acres in Bridgewater.

 

Elias Patoucheas, president of the Claremont Companies, said his company is willing to talk about a possible casino project on the land in the area of routes 495 and 24 in Bridgewater.

 

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130423/NEWS/304230331/-1/NEWSLETTER100

Wynn Resorts asked to dial down casino push

Wynn Resorts asked to dial down casino push
By Chris Cassidy

A firm hired by Wynn Resorts has been dialing Foxboro residents — during dinner and even Sunday’s Patriots [team stats] game — with selling points for the proposed high-roller’s palace by Gillette Stadium.

“The questions are asked to lead people with some hypothetical promises to see what’s it going to take to influence someone’s vote,” said Foxboro Selectman Lorraine Brue, who has been fielding calls from irked residents. Town officials have asked both Wynn and Kraft to halt their marketing campaign over the holidays, she said.

Wynn Resorts acknowledged hiring a firm “to ascertain a baseline of what Foxboro residents are thinking.”

The calls have tested out a variety of messages, asking callers if they’d be more or less likely to favor a casino if they knew tax revenue went to improve public schools or that a required police presence at the casino would decrease crime. Others stated that Steve Wynn would create a resort destination with “the character of Foxboro in mind” and that Massachusetts is losing jobs and revenue to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

Meanwhile, a red-faced Wynn executive apologized to Foxboro officials yesterday after the company accidentally invited the town manager and entire Board of Selectmen to join a private conference call with Wynn staffers, lobbyists and Kraft Group Vice President Dan Murphy — a meeting that likely would have violated the state’s Open Meeting Law.

“I would strongly urge that you have no further communication with the members of the Board of Selectmen except at a public meeting,” Foxboro Town Manager Kevin Paicos shot back in an e-mail to the Wynn exec.

The company immediately withdrew the invitation, but it nonetheless “set off fireworks,” as word spread across town yesterday, said Board of Selectmen Chairman Larry Harrington.

The invite was a “clerical error,” said a Wynn spokeswoman.

In an unrelated casino development, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is eyeing a potential casino site in Bridgewater owned by Claremont Corporation at the intersection of Route 24 and Interstate 495, according to Town Council President Scott Pitta. The tribe approached the town in early fall and details are “very, very preliminary,” Pitta said.

The Massachusetts Feeding Frenzy

Frantically pursuing the "Pot Of Gold," the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has successfully created swirls of interest and speculation.

Rumor had it that they were negotiating a land purchase of the Hassenagger property in Fall River, near the Copicut Reservoir, forgetting their IGA with Middleboro and that Gambling Investors still own property, neglecting to pay the fees.

Mashpee Tribe Casino Site Remains A Mystery As Bridgewater Developer Makes His Pitch
By: Geoff Spillane

The jockeying for position for three geographically-designated casino licenses in Massachusetts has begun, but the gaming plans of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe remain a closely guarded secret.

With New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft joining forces with Las Vegas casino mogul Stephen A. Wynn to pitch a high-end gaming and resort complex in Foxboro, just outside of the southeastern district, and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino joining the fray promoting Suffolk Downs as an optimal location, casino banter dominated the news in Massachusetts this week.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe maintained its strategy of silence, fueling speculation that it may have been blindsided by the Foxboro proposal backed by two of the nation’s wealthiest men.

However, the Enterprise confirmed this week the tribe has been in contact with a Bridgewater property owner and developer.

The Mashpee have preferential status for a casino license in southeastern Massachusetts, but the proposed Foxboro project, while officially in the central and eastern Massachusetts zone, could not be any closer to the tribe’s designated region. Two of Foxboro’s neighboring towns, North Attleboro and Mansfield in Bristol County, are considered part of the southeastern zone.

Clyde W. Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and an expert on gaming issues in New England, said this week he believes the Kraft-Wynn public display of affection in Foxboro last weekend caught the tribe off guard and “shook them up a bit.”

A spokesman for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe said there would be no interviews or statements regarding the Foxboro proposal.

Mr. Kraft, who referred to Mashpee as “one of his hometowns” at a Gillette Stadium event last week, owns property in Popponesset.

According to Dr. Barrow, Foxboro and Norfolk County are generally considered part of southeastern Massachusetts, but were not placed in that zone specifically because the legislature wanted to push a casino farther south, toward the cities of New Bedford and Fall River.

“The gaming commission, when appointed, will not want to see two casinos and a potential slot parlor at the former Raynham Park dog track located within minutes of each other. It defeats the purpose of zoning,” he said, adding that the commission would also not leave the entire northeast part of the state open to poaching of revenue from New Hampshire, which is expected to expand gaming.

The Foxboro location may face intense opposition from residents, as well as the National Football League, Dr. Barrow said.

While the location of the casino host city or town remains uncertain, one thing is clear—the tribe needs to act fast to maintain its competitive advantage. The tribe must procure land, receive a referendum vote of approval by citizens of the host community, and negotiate a compact with the governor by July 31, 2012.

The Enterprise confirmed this week that the tribe has scoped out a 170-acre parcel of land owned by the Claremont Companies in Bridgewater near the junction of Routes 495 and 24.

According to Elias Patoucheas, president of the Claremont Companies, a Bridgewater-based real estate development firm that specializes in resort and hotel development, the company has been in discussion with the tribe about the land, but no commitments have been made.

“The site is ideal for a gaming facility, for the tribe or a commercial casino operator. We have the only large site in southeastern Massachusetts with very close proximity to two major highway interchanges and are in the process of permitting the property for hotel, office, and retail development,” Mr. Patoucheas said.

The West Bridgewater town manager said this week that the town planner there received a call from the tribe about three months ago inquiring about potential sites, but has not heard anything since.

Another issue that may be delaying a location announcement from the tribe is the price of land. Mr. Barrow said that when landowners hear the words “tribe” and “casino” the asking price soars, since landowners think the tribe has a unlimited supply of cash, which it does not.

“Honestly, I don’t think the tribe is close to a deal. It would have leaked out by now,” Dr. Barrow said.