Long Island residents voice opposition to proposed casino-style gambling parlor

Published January 16, 2015

Associated Press

 

 

 

WESTBURY, N.Y. – About one thousand Long Islanders packed a meeting to oppose a plan to build a casino-style gambling parlor in Westbury.

Westbury and Carole [sic]  Place residents and about two dozen elected officials argued that the proposed project would increase traffic on Old Country Road, spur crime and bring down property values.

The site of the proposed casino in a vacant Fortunoff Building is half-mile from 1,200 homes and less than a mile from three schools.

Newsday (http://nwsdy.li/1CuY4Bh ) says Westbury Mayor Peter Cavallaro said if OTB doesn't find another site, he'll file a lawsuit.

Suggested alternate locations included the Nassau Coliseum and Belmont Park racetrack.

The Nassau OTB says it will address the community's concerns. It says the casino would create 200 jobs and generate $150 million in annual revenue.
___
Information from: Newsday, http://www.newsday.com



http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/01/16/long-island-residents-voice-opposition-to-proposed-casino-style-gambling-parlor/

[VIDEO ON LINK]

More than 1,000 pack Westbury school to oppose casino-style gambling parlor at Fortunoff building

Updated January 15, 2015 10:54 PM
By ROBERT BRODSKY

 

 

 

Angry Westbury and Carle Place residents and officials packed a meeting with Nassau Off-Track Betting representatives at St. Brigid / Our Lady of Hope Regional School in Westbury on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, to oppose a plan to build a casino in the vacant Fortunoff building. (Credit: Newsday / Chuck Fadely)

 

 

More than 1,000 furious Nassau residents packed a Westbury elementary school Thursday night to voice their opposition to a plan to build a casino-style gambling parlor at the vacant Fortunoff building at The Source mall.

Westbury and Carle Place residents filled the auditorium at St. Brigid-Our Lady of Hope Regional School, standing wall-to-wall 10 rows deep to protest the plan by the Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. Many carried signs urging OTB to "Stop the CasiNo We Will Remember In November."

The residents and more than two dozen elected officials and civic leaders argued that the proposed gaming parlor will increase traffic on Old Country Road, spur crime and cause property values to plummet. The proposed casino is a half-mile from 1,220 homes and less than a mile from three schools.

Westbury Mayor Peter Cavallaro says Fortunoff was "selected because it was thought to be the path of least resistance." He said the towns are "certainly not the path of least resistance."

Cavallaro conceded it will be an "uphill battle" to stop the project but said if OTB did not find another site, he would file a lawsuit.

Several leaders suggested moving the casino to the Nassau Coliseum. That move would face resistance from Hofstra University and a developer that is spending more than $200 million to make it a sports-and-entertainment complex.

 

Others suggested Belmont Park racetrack. OTB officials have said that idea would not be approved by the State Gaming Commission because of its proximity to Aqueduct Racetrack and its massive racino.

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth called the proposed gaming site a "colossally bad idea." Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray said she was "pleading and cajoling" with OTB officials to select an alternative site.



Nassau OTB general counsel Arthur Walsh said the agency would address community concerns but told the crowd that the project "was for the benefit of the whole county." The audience then shouted him down with boos and catcalls.

 

OTB announced last month it was negotiating to purchase the Fortunoff building, which closed in 2009.

A contract is expected to be finalized by month's end and the facility could open by November,

Nassau OTB president Joe Cairo said. A price for the property has not been disclosed. The site would operate 20 hours a day and house up to 1,000 video slot machines and table games. Gambling would occupy 15 percent of the 200,000-square-foot building.

OTB projects that the gaming parlor would create 200 jobs and generate $150 million in annual revenue, including $68 million for state education and $20 million for Nassau.

Westbury and Carle Place residents have aggressively criticized the plan, creating social media pages, circulating petitions and erecting lawn signs.

"We have a ton of support and the great thing is we are all voters," said John Viscusi, a Westbury resident and an organizer against the casino.

 

Cairo said earlier that fears were misstated and the project would not increase crime. "We will make every effort to satisfy the community's concerns," Cairo said. "But, I don't expect 100 percent of people to agree with us."

Cairo said OTB has no intention of moving the location. OTBs are exempt from local zoning by state law, and VLT site selection requires only the approval of the State Gaming Commission.



http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/nassau-residents-pack-westbury-school-to-oppose-gambling-parlor-at-vacant-fortunoff-building-1.9813277


 

Massachusetts voters...

Massachusetts voters...

Repeal The Casino Deal

Former gubernatorial candidate Don Berwick takes on the casinos, stating that Question 3 isn't a close call. Read his thorough take down of the casino industry. http://bit.ly/1v50e5s

Casinos: A Losing Bet For Massachusetts

• Mon, Oct 27, 2014
• by Donald M. Berwick

Donald M. Berwick: "We have a chance in our state to invest in a declining industry that will harm our economy, reduce property values, kill more jobs than it adds, lower incomes, injure public safety, reduce net government revenues, increase a major mental health burden and selectively harm the poor. Or, we can stop it." (Mait Jüriado/flickr)

Casinos should have no place in Massachusetts, and Ballot Question 3 is our chance to stop them. (A “yes” vote on Question 3  TWEET says “no” to casinos and repeals the law that permits them.) If you care about the state’s economy, jobs and the overall health of our state, this is not a close call.

Consider first that the casino industry is in decline. Moody’s recently downgraded the industry’s outlook from “stable” to “negative.” Six out of 12 casinos in New Jersey have filed for bankruptcy; four large casinos in Atlantic City have closed this year, and another soon will. If Massachusetts tries to rely on casino revenue, it will become a stakeholder in the gambling industry itself, tied to failing casinos. Delaware has had to spend $8 million to bail out its casinos, and Rhode Island projects losses of over $422 million in casino revenue over the next five years.

If Massachusetts tries to rely on casino revenue, it will become a stakeholder in the gambling industry itself, tied to failing casinos.

Casinos harm their local economies. In its 3,000-page review of the economic toll that casinos take on their surrounding communities, the U. S. International Gambling Report series found consensus among 40 economists regarding casinos’ net negative effect on economic development. No research study not affiliated with the industry-funded American Gaming Association has found otherwise. The Massachusetts Restaurant Association, the Boston Business Journal and the Wall Street Journal oppose casinos.

In Atlantic City, one-third of retail businesses closed within four years of casinos’ arrival in 1978, when there were 311 taverns and restaurants. Twenty years later, there were 66.

In Norwich, Connecticut, median family income fell by $20,000 per year after a casino opened nearby. Mayor Wesley Johnson of Ledyard, Connecticut, the home of Foxwoods, says, “There has been no economic development spin-off from the casino.” And a study by the Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley estimates that average home values near a Western Massachusetts casino could fall by as much as $3,300.

What of the argument that casinos create jobs? “Bogus,” according to The Boston Business Journal, which debunked the claim that Massachusetts casinos will create 20,000 jobs, “…because the diversion of billions of dollars in one sector is destined to cause job losses in other sectors.” And, most of the jobs that casinos do provide rank among the worst paying in America, according to Forbes Magazine. A full-time gaming dealer, for example, has a median annual salary of $18,480.

Slot machines generate 60 to 90 percent of casino revenue, but money dropped into slots does not stay local: It’s shipped off to headquarters to the tune of $300,000 of foregone consumer spending per year, per slot machine. Those are dollars that are drained from and not returned to the local economy.

As a result of that drainage, according to University of Illinois researchers, one job is lost per slot machine every year.

Casino proponents claim that a Massachusetts casino will prevent “leakage” of government revenues to other states. It’s true that Massachusetts residents contributed approximately $77 million in gambling money to the Connecticut treasury in 2013. But only a fraction of that would be retained in Massachusetts if casinos opened here.

In fact, revenue projections for the Massachusetts casino deal are based largely on data from Las Vegas-style destination resort casinos, which bring in almost entirely outside money. Massachusetts casinos, in contrast, will draw mostly on local dollars, not dollars from other states.

Estimates of what casinos will add to state and local government revenues are inflated. Casinos in Massachusetts will cannibalize from the state lottery, which cities and towns depend on for discretionary funds for local services such as schools, police and fire protection, parks and public works. Even if every single gambling dollar now spent in Connecticut were to revert to Massachusetts, that would not make up for even a 10 percent decrease in lottery income. The former president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has stated that cities and towns will see no new revenues as a result of casinos.

Meanwhile, state and local expenditures would increase for law enforcement and public safety, the treatment of gambling addiction and its consequences, unemployment benefits and subsidies for businesses adversely affected by casinos, and a multimillion-dollar regulatory apparatus just to keep an eye on the casinos.

Casinos hurt public safety. In Norwich, Connecticut, Driving Under the Influence (DUI) arrests doubled after Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods opened; today, nearly 25 percent of drunk driving arrests in the area involve casino patrons. One national study found that, within a few years of opening, casinos account for about 8 percent of the crimes in the counties they occupy.

 

…money dropped into slots does not stay local: It’s shipped off to headquarters to the tune of $300,000 of foregone consumer spending per year, per slot machine.

Gambling addiction doubles within 10 miles of a casino. Casinos depend on gambling addiction and problem gamblers for their business success. They use marketing science to determine how best to attract those most likely to become addicted.

An estimated 20 to 40 percent of casino revenue comes from addicts. Overall, about 90 percent of casino profits come from 10 percent of their customers.

And gambling addiction can be devastating to addicts and their families. Gambling addicts have the highest rates of suicide of any addicted population, and personal bankruptcies rise by more than 18 percent in the area around a casino. Communities of color experience higher gambling addiction rates, even after adjusting for income, and casinos disproportionately harm the poor and vulnerable.

Some argue that this decision can and should be made city-by-city, not by state policy: “If Springfield wants a casino, it is Springfield’s right to have one.” This is not a matter for pure local choice, however, because the effects are not at all localized. The drunk-driving injuries and deaths won’t be confined to Springfield; nor will be the larger Massachusetts state budget costs, the mental health burdens, the net job losses, or damage to the state’s safety net. A Massachusetts city ought to have every right to build a local swimming pool but not to add a toxic chemical to our water supply or a casino to our Commonwealth.

So, what a deal! We have a chance in our state to invest in a declining industry that will harm our economy, reduce property values, kill more jobs than it adds, lower incomes, injure public safety, reduce net government revenues, increase a major mental health burden and selectively harm the poor.

Or, we can stop it.

Donald M. Berwick, MD, is president emeritus and senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston and is former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

http://cognoscenti.wbur.org/2014/10/27/no-to-casinos-yes-on-ballot-question-3-donald-m-berwick

 

Casinos: "We have all the money"

THE DECK IS STACKED AGAINST THE COMMONWEALTH








Casinos: "We have all the money"

Dear Friend:

As our campaign to turn back the casino culture in Massachusetts continues to grow, the media is starting to look more closely at our efforts - and our opponents!!

Yesterday's Boston Globe brings our challenge to the forefront and showcases just how the casino industry sees this race shaping up:

It’s Money vs the People, and the Casinos know it!!

In a rare moment of honesty, a casino leader told the Globe: “We have a great base and all the money.”

“And all the money.”

We’ve always known that we are David lining up for a fight against Goliath. We’ve known that since the moment we took on the casino industry and its supporters but we have fought together and we have won.

 

We need your support to make that happen. Please join us online, donate to our growing campaign, volunteer to help and join us on social media by tweeting and retweeting us.

As you saw last week, for the first time since the Globe has been measuring public sentiment on the casino question in June, casino supporters polled less than a majority. The more voters learn about the casino industry the more voters are rejecting the idea of Casinos in Massachusetts.

We know we aren’t going to be able to compete against the deep pockets of the casino industry, but we do need the resources to tell our story, to educate the public and to make sure we keep moving these numbers.

 

Please give us $10 for each percentage point we need to close the gap. That $100 – or $250, $500 or more – will be the fuel to help us grow our grassroots army to protect our state from the harm we know predatory casinos will bring.

The truth is, voters know we can do better than casinos. We will vote YES to Stop this Mess!!

Thank you for helping us turn this tide- join us today.

Sincerely,

John Ribeiro

Chairman, Repeal the Casino Deal

p.s. Please forward this message on to 10 of your friends to help spread the word!



Repeal the Casino Deal • P.O. Box 520162 • Winthrop, MA 02152

Caesars to shut Showboat Atlantic City casino-hotel

Caesars [formerly Harrah's] salivated to invade the Massachusetts market at Suffolk Downs and now has a pending lawsuit against the Gambling Commission.



Caesars to shut Showboat Atlantic City casino-hotel

Jun 27 2014, 10:30 ET | About: Caesars Entertainment (CZR)

• Caesars Entertainment (CZR +0.2%) says it will close the Showboat Atlantic City casino-hotel this summer, citing the high property-tax burden and increased competition in Atlantic City.
• CZR hasn't decided what to do with the property or land, which has a prominent position on the Atlantic City boardwalk.
• Despite the closure, CZR says it would remain the largest operator in Atlantic City, and it is developing a new meetings facility in the area as well as other revitalization efforts.

http://seekingalpha.com/news/1821053-caesars-to-shut-showboat-atlantic-city-casino-hotel?source=email_rt_mc_readmore&uprof=46

 

Anti-casino coalition releases study

Sarah Taddeo 1:24 p.m. EDT May 1, 2014

 

 

Western New York cities with casinos have higher tax and crime rates than those without, according to an analysis by a group opposing proposals to create a casino in the Rochester area.

Speaking on behalf of the No More Casinos Coalition on Thursday, former Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson unveiled statistics from Salamanca and Niagara Falls, showing that property tax rates went up by 16 percent and 17 percent, respectively, in those cities between 2002 and 2012. Seneca casinos opened in Salamanca in 2004, and in Niagara Falls in 2002.

Crime went up by 18 percent in Niagara Falls, though the only crimes studied were burglary, robbery and larceny. The No More Casinos Coalition facilitated the analysis, with help from city departments in both Salamanca and Niagara Falls.

Though the Seneca Nation pledges to hold down taxes in every potential development area, that promise is almost never validated, Johnson said. He mentioned several sites in Rochester's suburbs that are in talks about developing casinos, including the town of Henrietta and the Odenbach Shipyard in Greece.


Photos: Then & Now: Odenbach Shipbuilding Corp.

A potential buyer is a West Coast development group interested in turning the site in to a retail complex. (Photo: ANNETTE LEIN staff photographer)

 

       

 

"Everyone thinks that casinos will be a bonanza for their area, with jobs and tax rates," Johnson said.

 

"But these casinos have not delivered on their primary goals of increasing development and benefiting tax rates in the communities they serve."

Niagara Falls has had developmental challenges for years, and the city had hoped that a casino would bring tourism and revenue to the area, Johnson said. But the casino just brought higher taxes and crime, having the opposite effect, he said.

"Criminals go where the customers are," Johnson said. "We've seen enough warning signs for us to continue investigation into the building of casinos anywhere in Monroe County."

Casinos promise to bring jobs into development areas, but really they only provide low-level jobs, which are not the kind of jobs a city "wants to stake its economic turnaround on," Johnson said.
Johnson emphasized that the Seneca Nation is a "sovereign nation," and that it will continue to pepper the state with casinos if residents do not actively push back.

"This is not a witch hunt...it is based on their actions that have occurred in the past," Johnson said.

"They won't change things if everything continues to go their way."

Johnson invited attendees to the Monroe County legislature meeting on May 13 for further discussion
on this issue.



http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/05/01/anti-casino-coalition-releases-study/8559605/


 

Fiscal pain from Atlantic City's decline is countywide et al

Fiscal pain from Atlantic City's decline is countywide

By Suzette Parmley, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: March 30, 2014

ATLANTIC CITY - As the casino industry here flourished throughout the 1980s and '90s, it fueled rapid growth for surrounding communities, such as Mays Landing, Egg Harbor, and Ventnor.

Thanks to Atlantic City's draw, demand for housing skyrocketed throughout the Shore among casino employees and their families. New roads, schools, and shopping centers sprang up.

Things have come full circle. These same Shore towns are now having to support Atlantic City as tax revenue from the casinos dwindles - a trend that started in 2007 because of new gambling competition - and as property values plummet.

Of 23 Atlantic County municipalities, 22 had tax increases from 2012 to 2013, mainly because Atlantic City contributed less revenue to the county budget, according to data obtained from the Atlantic County Board of Taxation last week. Tax rates for 2014 are not yet available.
 

Corbin City had the smallest increase, at 1.6 percent, Atlantic City the largest, at 17.5 percent. But Atlantic City's municipal rate increase was partly offset by a 22 percent reduction in its county tax rate.

Egg Harbor Township was the exception. It was revalued last year for the first time since 1996, which significantly increased assessed values and lowered its tax rate 33 percent.

"Everything in Atlantic City lost value, partly because the casinos lost value, and with the jobs they've pared, there is less demand for housing and commercial properties in Atlantic City," said Keith Szendrey, of the county taxation board. "It has had an effect on properties in and around Atlantic City."

A significant blow

The countywide ripple comes from a one-two punch: Atlantic City is not generating nearly the same gambling revenue it once did, and a series of casino tax appeals have decreased the city's ability to raise revenue through property taxes.

Since 2007, tax appeals filed and won by the casinos have resulted in more than $270 million in refunds or tax credits.

"Just paying off the bonds will be a significant hit to their budget in coming years," Szendrey said.

The city is borrowing to pay off more than $100 million of the refunds.

But other county municipalities are taking a hit as well. In Ventnor, for instance, the tax rate increases 10 cents per $100 of assessed value from 2012 to 2013.

"Atlantic City is a curse and a blessing," said Ventnor's Mayor Michael Bagnell, who is halfway through his first four-year term. "When it's doing great, taxes for everybody else countywide are lower. Now it's faltering. Everyone else has to share the pain."

Atlantic City has been under a state fiscal monitor the last three years because of the adverse impact the casino tax appeals have had on city coffers. The new mayor, Don Guardian, submitted an application on March 14 seeking $20 million in state aid from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to help bridge the gap between revenue and spending in the budget year that starts July 1.

"We need this money," Guardian said as he presented a $262 million budget to City Council earlier this month. He said Atlantic City residents could expect a 47 percent tax increase - 65 cents per $100 of assessed value - because of decreased property values.

This comes after city residents absorbed a 22 percent tax increase last year.

The downturn

In the 1970s and 1980s, Atlantic City gaming revenue was growing every year, and the casinos were increasing in value in billions of dollars. Both have gone the other direction since 2008.

The reduction in assessed value because of the appeals allows the casinos to pay less toward county taxes. Atlantic City has been contributing less to Atlantic County's budget each year since 2008. Its share dropped from 38.5 percent that year to 28.7 percent in 2013, while other municipalities are paying a larger share.

The county tax rate went up more than 10 percent in Margate, Longport, and Ventnor last year, even though the county budget rose less than 2 percent.

"The drop in revenue among the casinos cost many of our residents a drop in income, whether it be from loss of work, reduced work, or loss of sales and service to the industry," Brigantine City Manager Jennifer Blumenthal said. "This is a hardship to our taxpayers, who are not only experiencing less income from the casino decline, but will now be paying more taxes."

Brigantine's tax rate went up 8.7 percent - from $1.20 per $100 of assessed value in 2012 to $1.30 per $100 of assessed value last year.

Margate homeowner and business owner Ed Berger is not taking his town's increased tax burden lightly either. Margate's tax rate went up 6.6 percent, from $1.37 per $100 of assessed value in 2012 to $1.46 last year.

"As long as the [Casino Reinvestment Development Authority] can spend millions of dollars on projects to bring Bass Pro Shops into town and help Tropicana build another $50 million expansion, there is no reason in the world for my taxes to go up," he said of recent projects in Atlantic City.

But there's a huge reason for taxes to rise.

Twenty-eight years - from 1978 to 2006 - of soaring gaming profits came to a halt as casino competition sprung up around the resort. Pennsylvania opened its first casino in late 2006.
Atlantic City had not prepared for the substantial drop in casino tax revenue. County tax officials say the city kept planning its annual budget as if it had the same revenue each year.

There are now 11 casinos here after the Atlantic Club closed in January. In 2006, the then dozen casinos were 81 percent of the city's ratable base. Last year, they were 61 percent.

City Tax Assessor Novelette Robinson said the decrease resulted from casino tax appeals and a significant number of residential and non-casino, commercial properties also filing successful appeals.

"Atlantic City is in a state of financial distress," said Michael Busler, professor of finance at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. "The substantial reduction in real estate values will continue to lower the city's revenue."

http://articles.philly.com/2014-03-30/news/48708562_1_atlantic-city-tax-rate-tax-revenue


State gaming commission needs to show consistency

In previous decisions, the commission has cited casino “oversaturation” in denying licenses. That was the case a few years back when the cities of Fort Dodge and Ottumwa joined Franklin, Tama and Lyon counties in seeking approval to build casinos. In the end, the commission granted only one of those wishes, approving a license for relatively out-of-the-way Lyon County in northwest Iowa. At the time, the commission cited oversaturation of the Iowa gaming market.

Now, commission members have yet another study that shows significant “cannibalization” of casino profits would occur should Cedar Rapids get the go-ahead.

Vegas Wire: Nevada gambling revenue down 14% for February Press of Atlantic City Nevada's gambling revenue in February plunged 13.7 percent, a decline blamed on a huge drop in baccarat winnings and a tough comparison from a ...

Nevada Casino Gambling Revenues Fall Almost 14% in February 2014

LegalUSPokerSites.com

Nevada casinos showed a combined drop of 13.7% in February 2014, compared to the same month last year. The decline is cause for concern in ...

 

 

 

Casino gambling was supposed to save Atlantic City.

Decline of Atlantic City Casinos Squeezes City

BY Robert Slavin
MAR 28, 2014

Casino gambling was supposed to save Atlantic City.

But with casinos sprouting throughout the northeast, to attract visitors the city is looking to its past for ideas, such as conventions and the lure of the seashore.

In the near-term however, the city's finances, closely linked to the fortunes of its casinos, look grim.

"There's a lot more competition for Atlantic City and it's not abating," said Howard Cure, director of municipal research at Evercore.

In 1976 New Jersey voters approved casino gambling in Atlantic City, spurring the opening of multiple casinos there starting in 1978. For many years, Atlantic City had the only casinos east of the Mississippi, drawing potential gamblers from throughout the eastern United States.

The city, on the ropes before the casinos came, became a one-industry town.

But starting in the late seventies Indian tribes started to gain approval to open gambling on their reservations. By the nineties states a few states including Delaware and West Virginia were approving casinos next to horse racing tracks.

In the 1990s, the small Mashantucket Pequot tribe opened what developed into one of the world's largest casino resorts in eastern Connecticut; the river of revenue that followed helped inspire an increase in both tribal and non-tribal gambling throughout the northeast.

Nearby states like Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York have followed suit in recent years and potential gamblers feel less and less reason to travel substantial distances to Atlantic City.

Atlantic City has no population to its east because of the Atlantic Ocean and little population within 60 miles to its west, said Michael Meczka, president of Meczka Marketing Research Consulting.

Slot machines account for 85% to 90% of most casino revenues, and the same slot machines found in Atlantic City are now available in casinos in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

So there's no real reason for slot machine gamblers to drive long distances, Meczka said.

Gross casino revenues in the city declined 41% to fiscal 2012 from fiscal 2006, said Moody's Investors Service analyst Vito Galluccio. The revenues were down an additional 6.1% in 2013.

While Atlantic City government does not directly receive gambling revenues, the decline of these revenues is nevertheless hammering the government's finances.

Property values throughout southern New Jersey are declining, Galluccio said. But due to declining patronage for Atlantic City's casinos, the decline is particularly acute in Atlantic City.

The casinos constitute 70% of the city's property tax base. One way of determining commercial property values is by the amount of profit that can be made on the site, Galluccio said. Now that the casinos are bringing in less revenues and profits, they can argue that their properties are not as valuable.

They have been making that argument, filing legal cases and succeeding through either court orders or settlements in forcing the city to lower the valuation of their properties, Galluccio said.

One of the largest casinos in Atlantic City, the Borgata, won a major tax appeal judgment for 2009 and 2010 in October 2013. It is still appealing taxes in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Five of the city's 13 casinos have pending property tax appeals.

Property values in Atlantic City have declined from more than $20 billion in 2010, to $14 billion in 2013, to about $11 billion in this year, said Atlantic City's director of revenue and finance, Michael Stinson.

Moody's downgraded Atlantic City to Baa2 from Baa1 in November and gave the city a negative outlook, which was due to its belief that "declining casino revenues and ongoing tax appeals will continue to reduce the city's taxable base and further strain the city's weak financial position and increase its debt burden to above-average levels," Galluccio said.

Standard and Poor's rates the city A-minus.

As of Dec. 31, the city had $261 million in debt, Stinson said.

The decline in property tax base has weakened the city government's finances, according to several observers.

As of Dec. 31, 2012, the city had a narrow $2.3 million current fund balance, Galluccio said. This was 0.9% of revenues. Due to property tax appeal losses, the city had a financial statement loss of $10 million to $11 million in 2013, Stinson said.

The city has been selling bonds to cover major property tax refunds. As of November Moody's projected that the city would have direct debt burden of 2% of full property valuation by the end of the first half of 2014. This would be double the United States median. The city's unfunded pension liability is also an above average 1.9 times operating revenue.

City residents elected a new mayor in November 2013. Mayor Don Guardian is applying to New Jersey for $10 million in Transitional Aid and $12.5 million in an Essential Services Grant.

The city has not yet adopted a 2014 budget and is operating on a continuing resolution extending 2013 funding levels. In his proposed budget, Guardian is not assuming the city will receive the aid and has proposed a 45% jump in the property tax rate, Stinson said. The goal is to increase the total property taxes received to $229 million from $199 million.

The New Jersey Local Finance Board now has approval rights over Atlantic City government's budget. While the city council will vote on it, the board has ultimate authority, Stinson said. The board is expected to vote on the budget in May or June, Stinson said.

Guardian told The Bond Buyer that he was optimistic that the state would approve the two grants for the city, reducing pressure on it. This would allow the city to not increase its tax rate as steeply.

While the city acknowledges its fiscal distress, it sees the future of the city's casino gambling differently than many outsiders. Cure, Galluccio, and Meczka are all pessimistic about the city's gambling future.

Stinson said he expects the Atlantic City casinos' total gambling revenues should stabilize in the next three years.

The recent introduction of online gambling in New Jersey, which is flowing through Atlantic City's casinos, has been less popular than most observers expected. Yet this may grow, helping the casinos and the online gambling is expected to lead to onsite gambling competitions of participants, Stinson said.

Guardian said he is also working diligently to expand the city's economy beyond gambling.

For several decades starting in the 1930s many conventions were held in Atlantic City, the mayor said. For a period at the end of the 20th century and in the past decade, hotel rooms were too booked for conventions to be held in the city. This is no longer the case during weekdays outside the summer season, he said.

Atlantic City's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority is creating a nonprofit organization to promote conventions in the city, Guardian said. The organization should be operating by early 2015.

While the city has some facilities for conventions, it lacks facilities with many smaller meeting areas, which some conventions prefer, Guardian said. Harrah's Casino is building a 200,000 square foot facility to serve this sort of convention.

The city is also trying to offer venues and events that are not found elsewhere, Guardian said. It recently drew many people to the city for an air show and a Miss America pageant. The city will host a major triathlon in June.

The authority has a five-year plan for the city, Galluccio said.

The authority is trying to capitalize on the city's golf courses and presence on the ocean and is trying to come up with other ideas to keep the city a popular destination.


http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/123_61/decline-of-atlantic-city-casinos-squeezes-city-1061143-1.html

Easton and Raynham Park struggling to reach a financial agreement on slots parlor

Easton and Raynham Park struggling to reach a financial agreement on slots parlor

By Jennifer Bray

Enterprise Staff Writer

Posted Jan 07, 2014

 

EASTON —

Easton, like other communities surrounding Raynham Park, is hoping to cash in on casino money.

But the clock is ticking as Easton and Raynham Park try to reach a deal.

Raynham Park is vying to be chosen as the state’s lone slots parlor. The proposed $227 million slots parlor at the former dog track sits just a 10th of a mile from Easton’s town line.

Fifty percent of the traffic generated from that gaming complex in Raynham would go through Easton, according to Raynham Park’s own traffic study.

The town of Easton has been negotiating with Raynham Park on terms of a potential surrounding community agreement. The agreement would entitle the town to money for dealing with issues stemming from the nearby slot parlor, such as more traffic. If a decision is not reached, both sides will go to arbitration.

The biggest sticking point right now is the amount of money the town would receive, said Easton Town Administrator David Colton.

“Our proposal is about $50,000 apart right now,” said Colton on Monday about the surrounding community agreement between the town and Raynham Park. “Fifty thousand dollars a year over 20 years is a lot of money,” he said.

Traffic is a major concern said Colton. “It’s not simply the volume of traffic, it’s the spin-off from the volume that affects the town in significant ways,” he said. “It creates the need for more traffic stops and the need for more police.”

Slots parlor traffic has the potential to bring more impaired drivers as well as more drivers who have let their licenses, insurance and registration lapse, said Colton.

Those traffic stops run longer since they require police to take the driver’s vehicle off the road, get it towed and bring the driver to the police station, Colton said.

The other traffic impact would be the intersections of Route 138 and 106, where much of the traffic is expected to travel, said Colton.

“They only have so much capacity and if that capacity is all used up by Raynham Park then what about growth in Easton? ” said Colton. “It constrains us and diminishes our ability to improve property and increase our tax base.”

There are some other sticking points that have not been ironed out yet as well, said Colton. The town wants a new police cruiser every five years, while Raynham Park only wants to buy a police cruiser one time, said Colton.

Colton’s other concern is the impact a casino could have on housing and property values. For that reason he wants Raynham Park to pay for a three-year housing study.

Trying to reach an agreement has been a time-consuming process, said Colton. “I think we have an agreement but the devil is in the details,” he said.

If a surrounding community agreement is reached between the town of Easton and Raynham Park it would then be voted on by the town’s selectmen.

“We’ve been working a long time toward this agreement,” said Easton Selectmen Chairman Colleen Corona. “We want to make sure we’ve done the best job we can insulating our community from the impacts of the proposal.”

Other towns that are working on surrounding community agreements with Raynham Park include Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Middleboro and Taunton.

In November, Raynham Park signed an agreement with Taunton that would guarantee the city $200,000 a year to mitigate the impact of the proposed slots parlor. Raynham, as the host community, would get approximately $1 million annually.

Officials from Rehoboth, Berkley and Lakeville are also worried about the impact of the casino, specifically the traffic. They are being labeled as “nearby communities” and will take a wait-and-see approach as Raynham Park develops “nearby community” agreements, said Tom Bonner, the vice president and general counsel for Greenwood Racing, which is partnering with Raynham Park in the proposed Parx Raynham slots parlor venture.

He said that Raynham Park and Stoughton have signed a nearby community agreement that calls for the two parties to meet again in the future to analyze the impact and negotiate mitigation payments if necessary.

The other two communities seeking the only license for slot machines are Plainville and Leominister.

The state Gaming Commission is expected to make a decision on the slots parlor by the end of February or in early March.

Three full-fledged casino licenses are allowed in Massachusetts under the gaming law.

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has proposed a casino in Taunton.

http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x110124721/Easton-and-Raynham-Park-struggling-to-reach-a-financial-agreement-on-slots-parlor?zc_p=1

 

Why Casinos are Becoming Like Landfills

Americans still love to gamble. They just don't want casinos near where they live

By Jon Marcus/Boston

Dec. 23, 2013

Milford, Massachusetts at the holidays looks a lot like Bedford Falls, the fictional setting of the classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Settled in 1662, the town of 27,000 still has working farms, its own daily newspaper, a baseball diamond behind the American Legion Hall and an annual picnic. On Memorial and Veteran’s days, parades run down a Main Street lined with white wooden churches and historic buildings made of red brick and locally quarried pink granite.

But it’s visions of Pottersville, the film’s alternate-universe world of greed, strip clubs, pawnshops, and hopelessness that have been on residents’ minds this season.

Wary of increased crime and traffic and depressed property values, Milford voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal for a $1 billion, 24-hour casino in November, becoming the sixth Massachusetts community to say no since voters statewide opened the way for three slot parlors or casinos in 2011.

“It didn’t take long to be convinced that this was not good for a small town,” says Steve Trettel, co-chair of the group Casino-Free Milford. “If you want to get right down to the root of it, that’s really it.”

While there’s been no slowdown in the pace at which states continue to approve adding or expanding casinos and slot machine parlors, they are starting to run into trouble finding places to put them.

In addition to the cities and towns in Massachusetts, which included a neighborhood in Boston, new or expanded gambling venues have been voted down in Portland, Oregon, Newport, Rhode Island and Biddeford, Lewiston, and Washington County, Maine. In early December, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick filed suit to block a native-American tribe from opening a casino on toney Martha’s Vineyard.

Across the nation, community and business interests are pushing back against the possibility of new casinos. In Central Florida, powerful interests including the Walt Disney Company, intent on preserving the region’s reputation as a family destination, have organized to prevent the state legislature from adding casinos there. Even in South Florida, which has been more accepting of gambling, local officials are raising concerns about plans to expand an existing casino operated by a Native American tribe, citing the potential for spillover traffic and crime.

A federal application submitted by another Native American tribe to build a casino in the upstate New York town Union Springs is being fought by a coalition that includes the state’s senior Senator, Chuck Schumer, on the grounds that it would bring unfair competition for local businesses. Even Massachusetts Governor Patrick, who signed the bill to legalize casinos there, has said that he would vote against one if it were ever proposed for the Berkshires town where he has a second home.

This resistance is not because Americans don’t want to gamble. In the last 10 years, the nationwide revenue from casino gambling has grown from $29 billion to more than $37 billion, according to the American Gaming Association, which represents the casino industry.

Massachusetts residents alone spent an estimated $850 million last year in casinos in neighboring states, according to the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

And 61 percent of them still like the idea of having casinos in the state, a survey by the Western New England University Polling Institute found.

They just don’t appear to want gambling near where they live. The same poll found that 55 percent of Bay State adults oppose casinos in their own communities.

“There is definitely some of that ‘not in my back yard’ going on,” says David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “It seems that people are comfortable with the idea of casinos, but once they get into the specifics of, this is where it’s going to go and this is what it’s going to look like and this is how it’s going to affect my commute, they may be having second thoughts.”

Not every community is hostile to casinos. Several in Massachusetts have voted to allow them, including one on the site of a former chemical plant and one at a former greyhound racing track. In Philadelphia and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, casinos have been approved to replace a hazardous waste site and an abandoned factory.

“What’s clearly going on here is that the communities that have approved these are much poorer communities” than the likes of Milford, says Richard McGowan, a professor of economics at Boston College and a casino expert. When they consider the alternatives—“a prison, a nuclear power plant—most people think that casinos overall are good for a community when they replace things that are tired or old,” says Bob Jarvis, a gaming expert and law professor at Nova Southeastern Law School in Florida.

Other casinos are in largely nonresidential neighborhoods of cities such as New Orleans, on remote tribal land free from the authority of voters and elected local officials, or in rural areas. But as more are proposed in densely populated states, gaming experts say, finding places to put them is becoming more contentious.

“Overall, people are not uncomfortable with gaming,” says Steve Rittvo, a principal with the casino consulting firm the Innovation Project Group. “But people also realize that you don’t necessarily need to be the host community to get that spinoff of the impacts of it.”


Read more: Massachusetts Casinos: Gambling's NIMBY Problem | TIME.com http://nation.time.com/2013/12/23/why-casinos-are-becoming-like-landfills/#ixzz2on3LgeaK

The Casino Halfway Moment

Guest Column: The Casino Halfway Moment

Wednesday, December 18, 2013
by No Casino Springfield

Expendable: “not worth saving”… “meant to be used or thrown away”…”open to sacrifice in the interest of gaining an objective.”

 

The gambling legislation of 2011, born of desperation in a struggling economy, laid bare that certain citizens and regions of Massachusetts were considered expendable. The government was allowing a certain percentage of its citizens to suffer to make up for revenue lost from the Great Recession.

 

Now, however, the climate is different. The green shoots of economic recovery are apparent, and revenues are back to pre-recession levels. Western Mass. towns like West Springfield and Palmer have resisted the temptation of a casino. The surrounding communities of West Springfield, Longmeadow, East Longmeadow and Holyoke have expressed their disapproval.

 

Pearl Buck wrote, “Every mistake has a halfway moment … when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.” There is now momentum to give all citizens, even “expendable” ones, that halfway moment to remedy the mistake that was the Expanded Gaming Act.

 

Much promotion time has been devoted to short-term positive impacts of casinos, such as construction jobs, leaving little time for discussion of the long-term irreversible impacts on Springfield and surrounding communities, namely gambling addiction, inequality, economic cannibalization and lowered property values.

 

Gambling addiction is thought to be even more prevalent than alcoholism, and its likelihood doubles for residents within 10 miles of a casino. A little math shows that 20,000 families in Greater Springfield will be devastated if a casino comes to town as they lose college savings, retirement accounts, and money for food and rent to today’s highly addictive slot machines, which are designed by psychologists to be played “to extinction”—until the last dollar is spent.

 

Casinos tend to prey on the poor. A 2005 survey found that disadvantaged neighborhoods have 10 times the addiction rates of advantaged neighborhoods. The inequality gap is at record levels, and casinos expand that gap, with money flowing from the poor to multi-billion-dollar corporations.

 

Academic studies show that local businesses suffer when casinos come to town. A Minnesota study showed that restaurant business within 30 miles of a casino dropped by 25 to 50 percent thanks to cheap casino alternatives subsidized by slot machines. This cannibalization explains an Illinois study that showed one or more jobs lost for every casino job created, and a Harvard study showing no change in unemployment rate after a casino opens. In fact, a 2007 survey found that just 17 percent of economists believe a casino produces more benefits than costs.

 

Homeowners stand to lose as property values drop in the vicinity of a casino, particularly along highly traveled roads. When Stephen Crosby, the chairman of the state Gaming Commission, was asked if he’d want a casino near him, he responded, “Not too close,” due to declining property values. Governor Patrick also said he would vote against a casino in his town.

 

We feel strongly that Greater Springfield is not expendable. Government’s role should not be to sponsor and even promote casino gambling at the expense of the expendable. Fortunately, there is hope of correcting this mistake in the form of the Repeal the Casino Deal effort. Over 90,000 signatures were collected to put a casino question on the November, 2014 ballot. After the question clears a legal hurdle, all citizens will have a say, and after hearing both sides, we believe voters will follow the lead of West Springfield and Palmer and make casinos expendable.•

http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=17452

Our Children deserve better than a slot barn

NoPlainvilleRacino

Testimony from a mother in Foxboro:

Dear Gaming Commission,

Our neighborhood in Foxboro is one mile away from Penn National’s proposed Plainridge Park Casino. As you know, research shows that communities within 10 miles of a casino will experience an increase in crime, drunk driving, and problem gambling and a significant loss in property value. ...

As a parent raising two small children in this area, I have been inspired by this quote by Nelson Mandela: “There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

Please take a look at the population density of the area surrounding the proposed Plainrdige Park Casino and pay particular attention to the number of children that live in this area. Any positives that may come about due to jobs and revenue to the town of Plainville are far outweighed by the negatives and in particular the negative impact on children.

The children in our area deserve much better than casinos.

Massachusetts Gaming Commission denies Sterling petition

Massachusetts Gaming Commission denies Sterling petition

Town argues that casino would affect traffic, police

BY CHRISTINE SMITH

STERLING CORRESPONDENT

 

Town Administrator Terri Ackerman expressed surprise last week after Sterling’s petition to be designated as a “surrounding community” of a gaming facility proposed for a site on Jungle Road in Leominster was denied.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission unanimously voted to deny the town’s petition at its public meeting held in Boston on Nov. 21. At the same meeting, state officials also voted against the City of Fitchburg’s petition but granted the Town of Bolton’s.

Elaine Driscoll, director of communications for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, said that Sterling’s “surrounding community” status was denied due to a “lack of identified impacts.”

Ackerman hesitated to make a full statement on the matter, but noted that she felt that the town had identified and documented a number of issues that Sterling officials believe would impact the town, which they had submitted to the state for review. She is currently seeking an explanation of the Commission’s decision.

Without the designation as a “surrounding community” Sterling cannot seek arbitration at the state level, forcing The Cordish Companies, also known as PPE Casino Resorts MA, LLC, the company proposing the slot facility, to pay annual mitigation fees to the town for any impact that the facility will have on the town.

It its petition to the state, the town had argued that the Sterling border’s onefourth mile proximity to the proposed slot facility on Jungle Road was significant and would mean additional traffic on town roads and place a strain on town emergency departments. However, Cordish stated that the location is on a dead-end street, with no access directly from Sterling.

The Gaming Commission had reviewed the August study by the Massachusetts Regional Planning Council, which “raised significant concerns about traffic on Route 117 in Lancaster and Bolton,” with recommendations to review the impact on both of those towns. The study made no mention of roads in Sterling.

An analysis conducted by consultants from Green International Affiliates, Inc., also reviewed by the Gaming Commission, said that traffic would most likely travel to and from the site on Interstate 190, rather than on Sterling’s town roads.

Green International noted there would be about an annual 22.5% increase, or another 2.33 million, in vehicles coming from south of the site and traveling the six-mile portion of Route 190 located within Sterling on their way to the slot parlor. Based on numbers that currently use the highway and a yearly average of 33 accidents on this stretch of road, Green International estimated the potential crashes would increase by less than one per year as a result of the increase.

Sterling officials had argued, however, that there would be negative impacts on Routes 12 and 62, as well as Chocksett and Pratts Junction roads, all of which service roads leading to the slot parlor and which are patrolled by officers of the Sterling Police Department. Town officials had also stated concern regarding Sterling’s responsibility in being first responders to accidents and incidents on I-190, which they feel will significantly increase as a result of the additional traffic flow.

Other concerns regarding the facility included the potential increases in larcenies and other crimes, reduction of property values, and a need for expanded social service programs as a result of problem gambling.

Ackerman had noted at the Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Nov. 20 that the town would continue to negotiate with Cordish, but that both parties have not reached common ground on “a lot of issues.”

The town is hoping to reach an agreement with the company for some amount of annual mitigation directly from Cordish.

Driscoll noted that a portion of revenues from the gaming facilities will be placed into a mitigation fund, which would be available for communities to tap into, “if impacts present themselves after licensing that were not originally anticipated.” She noted that towns could petition the state for these funds after preparing a clear analysis of impacts based on specific data.

Cordish received approval from voters in Leominster earlier this fall for a 125,000 square foot facility to contain 1,250 slot machines, three restaurants, and a small entertainment venue. However, Cordish still has to wait until the beginning of January, when the Gaming Commission is expected to announce which of three proposed slot parlors will receive the single state license.

The other two proposed slot parlors include locations in Raynham and Plainville.

A public hearing on the issue will be hosted by the Gaming Commission at Leominster City Hall on Dec. 3 from 4-6 p.m.  [Another 'public hearing' at a time inconvenient for most of the public]


http://www.thelandmark.com/news/2013-11-27/Sterling_News/Massachusetts_Gaming_Commission_denies_Sterling_pe.html

 

 

 

Bait & Switch Rejected

Gambling 'Experts' ignore that both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun produced a 'Bait & Switch' among other things. What was promoted was not reality. Neither project had adequate water, last minute changes revealed false promises.

At a time of declining revenues, gambling market saturation and overstated revenues, there was much to reject.

Suffolk Downs infrastructure is unworkable among numerous other issues.

The Gambling Industry simply can't believe the growing opposition doesn't want what it's offering - community destruction!

Talk about Sore Losers......



Voters thin field in Massachusetts casino sweepstakes
By Brian HallenbeckPublication: The Day

Published 11/24/2013

 

Milton Moore/The Day

 

What's with Massachusetts?
Why have voters in town after Commonwealth town declined to embrace casino projects that promised to enrich them, employ them, entertain them, all while "mitigating" the impacts of the potential bad stuff - traffic, crime, problem gambling?
We're not talking about nuclear waste storage facilities here.
Still, Bay Staters, at least the majority of them in West Springfield, Palmer, East Boston and Milford, have rejected casinos, while voters in grittier places like Everett, Springfield and Revere have approved them. With the deadline for final applications little more than five weeks away, not one surviving casino operator has been cleared to advance to Phase Two in the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's labyrinthine approval process.
"I'm not surprised," Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine, said of the string of referendum defeats. "The polls say people like casinos, but it's very much the not-in-my-backyard syndrome. They don't want one down the road from them."
That attitude might have contributed to Mohegan Sun's Nov. 5 failure in the western Massachusetts town of Palmer, where voters rejected a $1 billion proposal that included a water park and a retail component in addition to the usual gaming amenities. The 93-vote margin was close enough to warrant an upcoming recount, which isn't expected to change anything.
And, presumably, plenty of voters in Milford, southwest of Boston, similarly believed a $1 billion Foxwoods Massachusetts project would have had a negative impact on their quality of life. Sixty-five percent of those who cast ballots last week rejected the plan.
With the votes counted, the Casino-Free Milford group exhaled.
"From our very first meeting held around a kitchen table, we acknowledged that we would be fighting a David vs. Goliath battle," the group said in a statement. "We knew we would never be able to match the dollars of the Foxwoods campaign. We also knew that money does not buy you everything, and so we focused our efforts where they would count the most - on the people of Milford - by spreading our message slowly, friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor."
How's a casino operator supposed to counter such grassroots fervor?
"You always second-guess yourself," said Mitchell Etess, chief executive officer of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority. "We thought we ran a good campaign. There were things we could have emphasized more than we did, but I don't know. I don't think we'd do anything different if we had to do it over again."
The results in Palmer were particularly surprising given that residents there had backed the concept of a casino for years. However, polling about a month before the Election Day referendum indicated support for the Mohegan Sun plan had dwindled, according to some familiar with the process.
"There's still a tremendous amount of misconception in the world - certainly in Massachusetts - about what a casino really means," Etess said. "Apparently, operators have not been able to communicate the realities of what these places bring. We're still trying to overcome negative stigmas that have been around for ages and ages, despite the Wall Street-ization of the industry."
Which leads back to the not-in-my-backyard aspect of things. Plenty of data suggest Bay Staters like to gamble. It's long been documented that they constitute roughly a third of Foxwoods Resort Casino's customers and a fifth of Mohegan Sun's clientele. They also make up a big chunk of the crowd at Twin River, the Lincoln, R.I., facility that's gotten a boost from the July introduction of table games.
"It is interesting," said Peter Trombetta, a Moody's gaming analyst, that residents of a state that seems to have a propensity for gaming have whittled down the field for casino licenses to a very few.
"When you listen to the opposition's arguments, it's concerns over traffic, an increase in crime - issues that can be exacerbated in a neighborhood setting," he said. "… Some people who voted no may go to a casino in another city."
It may seem significant that the casino projects that won referendums are in urban areas, but it's unclear what conclusions can be drawn. What's known is that Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, champions of the destination "rural model" in southeastern Connecticut, sought to extend their brands into Massachusetts in rural (Palmer) and suburban (Milford) settings.
"People in the Northeast seem to be less interested in the destinations and more in convenience and location, so putting casinos in urban settings with high population densities has been more successful," said Trombetta, who cited Philadelphia's SugarHouse as an urban casino that has done well.
A tight economy tends to put the brakes on casino-goers, too.
"If you decrease consumers' discretionary income with higher payroll taxes, increased health care costs or high gasoline prices, people are going to stay closer to home," Trombetta said. "If their entertainment budget is to go out to see a show, they're less likely to drive for an hour and spend the night. That might be out of their budget."
Gros, on the other hand, believes casinos should be in places that are hard to reach.
"They haven't been successful in cities like New Orleans, Detroit, Cleveland," he said. "Most successful ones are in suburbs."
Will Bay State gamblers end up tossing dice in Springfield and Everett, the cities where voters approved casinos proposed by MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts? Given the way the gaming commission flagged Caesars Entertainment, an international operator that then withdrew from the Suffolk Downs project, it's an open question.
"Wynn's got the inside track in the east," said Gros, who doesn't believe Suffolk Downs will be able to move forward with a redesigned project that's located solely in Revere. The race track, which straddles Revere and East Boston, was rejected by East Boston voters.
Gros said Steve Wynn has had "some issues" and could run afoul the gaming commission's vetting process. "He abides by the laws in Macau, but they're not as strict there," Gros said.
MGM, the only remaining applicant in western Massachusetts, could also face questions, he said.
Some have suggested the Bay State's licensing process is too stringent and that the state could end up with no casinos as a result.
"For Massachusetts to turn its back on Caesars, MGM and Wynn would be crazy," Gros said. "You're going to end up with second-rate companies that are short on cash. And Wall Street's not going to want to invest in second-rate companies."
Mohegan Sun's Etess disagreed.
"I think they've done a good job," he said of the commission. "They've set up a process that can work. People have to remember that it's a privilege, not a right (to operate a casino in Massachusetts)."
Mohegan Sun and its partners passed the commission's "suitability" scrutiny with flying colors. Then came the referendum in Palmer.
b.hallenbeck@theday.com

http://www.theday.com/article/20131124/BIZ02/311249911/1018