Plainville: The Blind being led

Combine one poor reporter and an uninformed Board of Selectmen and what do you get? [That reporter commented that the Foxborough Follies would attract foreign whales. Yeah! Right! And I have a PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE TO NOWHERE to sell.]

This is town leadership that was so fully uninformed about an industry about to steamroll them, that it wasn't until a concerned citizen shared widely available reports, that they were roused from their slumber.

And the lackluster board is at a loss and left stuttering about how to conduct an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis, such as other venues have done.

The names that were mentioned during a recent Plainville BOS meeting displayed their ignorance, one a widely known Casino Shill on the payroll of the Gambling Industry.

The citizens of the small town of Palmer determined that the annual cost to host a Gambling Monstrosity would be $19 MILLION to $39 MILLION. The logic seems lost on Plainville.

And bethcha they haven't read the INDEPENDENT COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS from New Hampshire or even meandered onto one of the informational sites such as United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts.

The Plainville BOS is easily led into bankruptcy and schmoozed by another Snake Oil Salesman.

Group wants take on racino costs
BY JIM HAND SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Saturday, April 7, 2012

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Slot machine foes fight Plainridge plans
PLAINVILLE - A citizens group opposed to slot machines at Plainridge Racecourse is asking that the town have a cost-benefit analysis done on gambling, but selectmen say they already intend to hire an expert to do the study.

The new group, "No Plainville Racino," is fighting a plan to bring about 1,250 slot machines to Plainridge.

The track has made clear it intends to apply for a state slot machine parlor or racino license, and has asked selectmen to start negotiating a local agreement.

Jennifer Crimmins Keen of Taunton Street said the group is opposed to a racino, but if one gets approved the group wants to make sure it's a good deal for the town.

A cost-benefit analysis would help determine if the expected revenue to the town from gambling would outweigh the cost of additional police and fire services, along with traffic and social problems, she said. "We want to make sure the town gets its fair share," she said.

The group has submitted a petition asking for a town meeting vote to approve a cost-benefit analysis.

The proposal reads:

"To see if the town will vote to require the board of selectmen to obtain an independent cost-benefit analysis about the impact of a slot machine parlor on the residents of Plainville. This analysis would be obtained prior to and-or concurrent with negotiations for a host community agreement for a Class 2 gaming license in Plainville, and made public prior to any town-wide referendum on any host community agreement."

But, selectmen Chairman Rob Rose said the board already plans to have such a study done.

He said Town Administrator Joseph Fernandes is talking to academics who have studied the gambling industry, asking advice on how to find a consultant to do the work for the town. "Basically, that is the whole crux of what is going to happen," he said.





Rose said a request for proposals will be published asking consultants to apply for the work.

The consultant will be paid for through Plainridge funds.

Keen said the group will also hold an open house April 29 at the senior center to provide residents with information about the impact of a racino.

She said the group fears that most residents consider the racino "a done deal" before it has been learned what kind of jobs gambling will provide and what negative impact it could have on the town.

Plainridge has opened a public information office on South Street to provide residents with information about its proposal, including plans to build a parking garage and larger facility.

Track President Gary Piontkowski said he intends to be as open as possible with residents as the application process progresses.

Sun Chronicle: Wynn and Kraft as 'UNDERDOGS' ?

Wynn and Kraft underdogs? Mr. Gouveia seems to think so. Poor man! He's probably a very nice person who consumed too much KoolAid from his home in Norton, where is is town moderator. Since this isn't his home town, what's his connection?

[Does anyone think it's curious that so many out-of-towners are participating in the PRO Foxborough Slot Barn facebook page? In Middleboro, the most vocal promoters were those who had some financial gain involved.]

How many places has Steve Wynn been kicked out of? Let me count the ways.....





Middleboro is wholly familiar with reporters who babble, yet don't grasp the issue and ignore the facts.



FACTS:




1. The line on the map got moved behind closed doors from the 2010 version of the Predatory Gambling legislation Governor Slot Barns vetoed. Did anyone notice? Surely not this reporter! Are you a little curious?



2. Then there's that PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE TO NOWHERE Governor Slot Barns kept pushing. See a connection?



3. And the silly commuter rail extension that will not only cost taxpayers gazillion dollars at a time the MBTA is mired in Big Dig debt, but municipalities along the route will get sucked into absorbing the annual loss, yet have no voice. Such a deal! That's surely cheaper than the + $500 MILLION Senator Petrucelli wants to spend for his buddies [Remember the report Senator Petrucelli refused to provide?].



4. There's that sticky little matter of the SEC investigation of Wynn for FCPA violations (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). Translation: Bribing foreign officials.



5. Kraft/Wynn is waving Millions as if that's a solution, ignoring a recent tax settlement, here: Caesars, Atlantic City settle tax appeal or even the many Gambling Industry whiners around the country, always looking for a bailout.



The small town of Palmer, MA appointed a 'Casino Study Committee' composed of town residents. When they determined that the ANNUAL cost to host a monster of this sort was $18 MILLION to $39 MILLION.



And Wynn is waving his magic wand and offering $10 MILLION to $15 MILLION?



That's why he's a good [wealthy] businessman when people fall for his slick and untrue presentation.










Hint: The wand doesn't work!




GOUVEIA: Foxboro selectmen guilty of tipping their hand on casino
Friday, April 6, 2012

Foxboro is a pretty tense place these days. But when you peel away the layers of emotion and passion which have fueled the casino debate for the last several months, the whole thing can and should be seen for what it truly is - a political situation that has been completely mishandled.

The odds of Steve Wynn ever getting a state license to build a casino across from Bob Kraft's Gillette Stadium are slim, and have been from the start. He has to negotiate a deal with selectmen, get the town to change the zoning, win a referendum vote and get Massachusetts to commit to infrastructure improvements along Route 1. Then he has to get the state to give the one available license to him, instead of the gambling facility that currently operates in the East Boston district represented by the Speaker of the Massachusetts House. Yeah - that's a longshot.

But they have begun the arduous process spelled out by state law. And while they certainly didn't expect the path to be an easy one, it is clear they did not anticipate being met with what amounts to open hostility by Foxboro's Board of Selectmen, at least not this early and this publicly. While they no doubt counted on tough negotiations, they seemed genuinely surprised when the town's highest board said it did not want to even talk to them.

They weren't the only ones. Many townspeople seemed at least a bit perplexed by their selectmen's unwillingness to listen to the Kraft and Wynn people, especially with $10 million to $15 million a year possibly on the line. It has led to a heightening of tensions between the town and its largest taxpayer, and between local residents as well.

Analyzing the situation politically, the selectmen have managed to turn a position of tremendous political strength into a glaring weakness. When the casino debate began, they and the town literally held almost all the cards. Kraft and Wynn had to come to them, on their turf and their terms. They even have to pay the town's cost to negotiate. Selectmen have tremendous power and influence in the process, but have inexplicably refused to use it.

Most of the current board clearly does not want a casino in town. So they have dug in their heels and tried to please what they see as the majority of voters by refusing to negotiate. In doing so, they have accomplished what Kraft and Wynn could not possibly have achieved on their own: They have made the Kraft and Wynn organizations look like sympathetic underdogs. This is a colossal political blunder. It simply makes no sense. It has put the town on the defensive when it should be in a position of complete control of the situation. And it has put the community through unnecessary turmoil.

All the selectmen had to do was agree to negotiate. Nowhere does it say they have to be lenient or easy in those negotiations. Given the long odds facing the Foxboro casino, they would have been in a position to make those odds even longer if they wished. They should be taking their time, asking for the moon and stars, and a deal which - if it ever ended up being a real possibility - would leave Foxboro in the strongest possible position.

Selectmen could have appeared to be very reasonable and fair, even if inside the negotiating room they were making outrageous demands and poisoning the process. They would have taken away the argument that Kraft and Wynn were being treated unfairly. There would have been no criticism that they were denying their citizens the ability to eventually vote on the matter.

Instead, they were bullied by a vocal anti-casino faction and their own town manager into a position of some popularity, but political and practical silliness. They created a damaging debate they simply did not need to have at this point. In trying to appear independent and strong, they hamstrung themselves and ceded the political high ground.

Selectmen should agree to negotiate, not because it's good for the Kraft/Wynn group but because it gives Foxboro the best chance to control any casino possibilities. The board has shot itself in the foot, but there is still time to limp to a smart political solution.

Bill Gouveia is a local columnist and a longtime area town official.

"The way to win money in a casino is to own one"

Can you feel the love? Don't you just want to invite this 'nice guy' into your community to plunder and pillage?

Let's ignore that when his father died, Steve Wynn paid off his Gambling Debts because his Dad was a Gambling Addict, yet those are the ones who enrich the younger Mr. Wynn.

The small town of Palmer, MA appointed the Palmer Casino Study Committee, a group of residents with no pre-conceived notions, that determined the annual cost to host a Slot Barn would be $18 MILLION to $39 MILLION, not including undetermined costs to bring water from the Quabbin.

Those are merely the town's costs, not including the community degradation, the costs of Gambling Addiction, increased crime, family destruction, increased personal bankruptcies, and the Gambling Industry's DIRTY LITTLE SECRET - SUICIDE from Gambling Addiction. [Check out the statistics of Las Vegas.]

As much as 90% of a Slot Barn's profits come from 10% of its patrons.

[You can provide an elegant name, cover it with expensive awnings and lavish furnishings, it's still a Slot Barn whose sole purpose is to suck discretionary income from the local economy, reminiscent of the Wizard.]

Gambling is poor public policy by lazy lawmakers devoid of ideas.

Wynn faces stiff odds
BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFFSunday, April 1, 2012
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Vegas casino magnate used to getting his way
Steve Wynn was a mere 10 years old when he first spied the city of his dreams: Las Vegas.

Wynn, the son of an East Coast bingo hall promoter with a love for the craps tables, was fascinated by what he saw beginning to take root in a desert town where sagebrush was about as common as gamblers' dreams of hitting it big.

His father, Michael Wynn, had come to Vegas in 1952 with dreams of putting a bingo parlor in one of the local casinos, but things didn't work out.

On one of his stays, the younger Wynn told an interviewer in 1983, his dad "used to go to bed with me, and then sneak out at night and shoot the dice at the Flamingo and the Sands."

The 70-year-old Wynn, who now proposes to build a $1 billion resort casino in Foxboro on Route 1 land owned by the Kraft Group, inherited all of his father's affection for Vegas and its high rollers, save one: He doesn't like to gamble. "The way to win money in a casino is to own one," Wynn has sometimes been quoted.

He's certainly followed his own advice.

Known today as a tycoon who ranks 491 on Forbes' list of the world's billionaires, the Connecticut-born Wynn took over the family's bingo business following his father's death in the early 1960s.

Over the years, he parlayed his business savvy, friendships and connections, first into a small stake in a foundering Vegas casino, and eventually into a legacy of prosperous hotels and gambling houses stretching from America's East Coast to Macao. Along the way, Wynn garnered much of the credit for re-imagining Las Vegas, and casino gambling, in general - transforming the images of both from guilty pleasures with implied Mob overtones to one of family amusement and outrageous spectacle.

Hotels featuring erupting volcanos or built in the shape of Egyptian pyramids and Venetian palaces in the erstwhile Sin City add to the impression of a slightly naughtier version of Disneyland, whose catchphrase is "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

Wynn also helped to shift the focus of the hotel-casino trade from dice to divas by cultivating top stars like Diana Ross and Frank Sinatra for his showrooms. Wynn and Sinatra even appeared together in a series of commercials for his Atlantic City hotel, with Wynn playing the straight man to a clowning Chairman of the Board.

Wynn also knows the finer things.

Although afflicted with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that is gradually stealing his eyesight, Wynn is a well known art collector who once bumped into a Picasso he owns, putting a hole in the canvas. He's since had the painting restored.

But Wynn's path hasn't always been easy.

In the '60s, Wynn invested in a small stake in Las Vegas' Frontier Hotel, where he became the slot manager. However, some of the existing investors turned out to have reputed connections to the Detroit mob.

Wynn was never accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the affair, but ended up selling out when the hotel was bought by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.

Wynn made a complete recovery, investing in and eventually becoming chairman of the historic Golden Nugget. It was just the beginning of a legendary career that continues to unfold.

In December 2011, Wynn's announcement, along with New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft, that he planned to develop a resort casino on Kraft land across from Gillette Stadium generated a tidal wave of media attention, followed by loud opposition from many Foxboro residents.

It wouldn't be the first time that Wynn proposals have met a less than inviting response.

In the 1990s, Wynn was among casino developers eyeing expanded gambling possibilities in Connecticut. Wynn broached proposals for luxury casinos first in Hartford and later in Bridgeport. Donald Trump was also among developers who saw potential in Connecticut gambling.

But the Meshantucket Pequot Nation, the tribe that opened Foxwoods, got the nod as the preferred developer, said state Rep. Steve Dargan, D-West Haven.

Ultimately, no urban casino was ever built.

"It was a huge deal here," recalled Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green. "There was intense lobbying on both sides."

According to news reports at the time, casino proponents spent more than $1 million in 1993 promoting expanded gaming in the form of mailings, brochures and broadcast commercials.

It didn't work.

It wasn't so much Wynn or any other single developer, Green said. The idea of expanding gambling into major cities never was fully accepted by the state's politicians, and found determined opposition among some residents.

Wynn fared no better in Philadelphia.

In 2010, Wynn announced an agreement to partner with other investors to develop a large casino on the Philly waterfront. The partnership would have included the Meshantucket Pequots, the original proponents of the project.

Only two months later, Wynn Resorts announced it was pulling out of the project, which would have cost an estimated $600 million and contained 3,000 slot machines.

A brief press release said the deal was not the right fit.

But with rare exception, Steve Wynn's casino and hotel ventures have met with success well beyond the dreams of most entrepreneurs.

Educated at private schools and the University of Pennsylvania, Wynn was well prepared to take on the business community when he arrived in Las Vegas, and was not deterred by competition or temporary setbacks.

After his short tenure at the Frontier, he bounced back with help from Vegas banker E. Parry Thomas, becoming chairman of the Golden Nugget at age 31.

Flush with success, he doubled down by opening a Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, where casino gambling had been newly legalized.

By the late 1980s, Wynn sold out to Bally's for a reported $440 million. But Wynn wasn't about to cash in and retire to the golf course.

Instead, he focused on plans for a new resort of his own invention: Las Vegas' 3,000-room Mirage, which featured an erupting volcano, imported fabrics on the furniture and unparalleled luxury throughout.

It was a huge hit.

Throughout his career, friends and employees say, Wynn has tended to be a detail guy who delves into particulars like the design of one of his hotel restaurants or choosing the imported stone used in a facade.

"He's a very honest guy who's dedicated to quality and mindful of the environment," said Frank Fahrenkopf, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association and former chairman of the Republican National Committee who has known Wynn for years.

But he can also be forceful to the point of testiness, something for which Wynn has developed something of a reputation.

In the 1980s, Wynn threatened to choke TV reporter Meredith Viera if a certain quote didn't end up in her final story. Then, he walked out of an interview when she brought up the subject of money laundering.

In a recent DVD distributed to 7,000 Foxboro homes, Wynn was solicitous and soft-spoken as he explained the details of his proposed Route 1 casino complex.

"He's a builder," said University of Nevada Las Vegas professor Steve Schwartz of the UNLV Center for Gaming Research. "He has a definite vision of what he wants to do. When people like that find that things don't to their way, they can get frustrated."

But as a businessman and creative visionary, Schwartz said, Wynn combines financial talent with an appreciation for the finer things needed to make his projects work.

"He's equally adept at both the financial aspects and the creative side," Schwartz said.

An employee at one of his hotels recently told a reporter how the billionaire businessman met with with employees directly to discuss how a particular part of the hotel should be rearranged.

Sparing neither details, nor dollars, Wynn has managed to make just about everything he builds sparkle.

In 1998, Wynn opened the spectacular Bellagio, its Italianate walls studded with masterpiece artworks collected by the casino entrepreneur, himself. He also opened a high-end resort casino in Biloxi, Miss.

Wynn ended up selling his Mirage Inc. gaming empire to MGM Grand for $4.4 billion in what has been described as a hostile takeover.

But, determined to remain a power in Las Vegas gambling, he bought the outdated Desert Inn. Wynn replaced the hotel with his signature Wynn Las Vegas, a glittering structure with all the patented Wynn luxury touches.

In 2008, he added the Encore, which matched the Wynn Las Vegas dazzle-for-dazzle.

Wynn Resorts was the awarded the highest rank in Fortune Magazine's 2012 Most Admired Companies list in the hotel, casino, resort category.

But Wynn's biggest gamble - and potentially his biggest payoff - came in recognizing the potential of gaming in Macau, a former Portuguese colony and now a Chinese special administrative region.

It's a place where pleasure, gambling and tourism are heavily promoted.

Wynn opened the Wynn Macau in 2006 while already planning a second casino.

There's no doubt that Wynn is delighted with the way things are going so far.

Even while blasting President Barack Obama's policies as "socialist" in a July 2011 conference call with financial analysts, he bubbled over with praise for his communist hosts.

"We find the political environment, the regulatory environment, the human resource environment that we're in to be absolutely delicious," Wynn said, according to a transcript published by the website Seeking Alpha.

As occurred when he helped to transform Las Vegas in the 1980s, recent events in China have made Wynn seem like something of an oracle.

Gaming hasn't just prospered in Macau, it's exploded.

According published figures, the take increased by a whopping 42 percent in 2011, alone, with the total exceeding $33 billion. That's more than five times the combined revenue of all gaming revenue generated on the Las Vegas Strip.

Macau contributes about three-quarters of Wynn Resorts' revenue, according to the Reuters news service.

Wynn Resorts' fortunes have skyrocketed right along with the expansion of gaming in Asia. According to the company's latest financial report, revenues jumped from $4.1 billion in 2010 to $5.2 million last year. Net income grew nearly fourfold from $160 million to $613 million.

But Wynn's triumphs haven't come without a fight - several of them, in fact.

In 1995, Wynn sued an author and publisher over an unauthorized biography because of a catalog listing for the book that allegedly implied connections with organized crime.

Wynn won a $3.1 million judgment against publisher Lyle Stuart, but the decision was later overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court.

Wynn was also involved in a legal battle with the late Clark County Sheriff John T. Moran during the 1990s, prompted by the sheriff's attempts to bar Wynn associate Charles Myerson from a key Vegas casino employee license.

Wynn sued and Moran eventually backed down, conceding in a news release that no unsuitable connections existed between Mirage Resorts and organized crime, according to Moran's obituary in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

The Las Vegas casino king is currently embroiled in even more bitter litigation involving friend and former partner Kazuo Okada.

Wynn and Okada, who owned a 20 percent stake in Wynn's company, went head-to-head after Okada started poking his nose into a $135 million gift from Wynn Resorts Macau to the University of Macau.

Wynn Resorts then forcibly redeemed Okada's shares at a steep discount after commissioning an investigation of Okada's dealings with Philippines gaming officials.

Okada is planning a casino in the Philippines that, once finished, theoretically would be in a position to compete with Wynn Macao for high-rolling Asian gamblers.

Both sides are pressing ahead with lawsuits.

Wynn faces the danger of potential piling on by shareholder suits, like the one filed recently by a Louisiana public employees pension fund charging the company's directors with actions injurious to the company, including the "waste of corporate assets."

That lawsuit also raises the question of a possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because of the University of Macau gift.

A spokeswoman for Wynn Resorts said the company had no comment.

Barron's, the financial newspaper, also dropped Wynn from its list of Top 30 corporate CEOs, citing the casino boss' acrimonious dealings with Okada.

The legal bickering so far hasn't dealt a bad hand to publicly traded Wynn Resorts stock, which has continued to rise, even as lawyers traded piles of legal documents.

While the Wynn empire was built around flashiness, Wynn and his supporters have taken pains to point out that a proposed Foxboro resort casino would be more subdued. Its lodge-style exterior, they say, would be in keeping with the project's New England surroundings.

Wynn said in the DVD to Foxboro residents that only a small portion of the resort would house a casino, and it would be isolated from dining facilities and other amenities.

With all his accomplishments, Wynn could be facing one of his most difficult challenges in trying to locate his destination resort in Foxboro.

Not only must Wynn overcome stiff competition to be awarded one of Massachusetts' three coveted casino licenses, his project would have to win approval from both Foxboro town meeting and a town-wide referendum in a community convulsed by controversy over casino gambling.

But according to the American Gaming Association's Fahrenkopf, one of the words that best describes his friend Wynn is "persistent."

If anyone thinks Steve Wynn is apt to fold his cards and walk away from a business deal he truly believes in, gaming industry observers have only four words of advice:

Don't bet on it.