A year ago, the first entrants into the young gaming industry in Massachusetts banded together to fight a ballot question that would have made casinos and slots parlors illegal.
Wynn Resorts, Penn National Gaming, and MGM Resorts raised more than $14 million to crush an anti-casino movement that raised less than $1 million. The industry won easily, with voters deciding by a 60-40 tally to keep casinos around.
Now the companies are lining up for a different cause that could find itself in front of voters next year: to keep another entrant from joining the market.
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The new guy is a developer named Eugene McCain who, according to The Boston Globe
, lives in Thailand and has agreed to buy a trailer park near the Suffolk Downs horse track in Revere. Suffolk Downs sought last year to become the site of a resort casino, and McCain’s proposed law sets parameters that would make his site a fit for the second slots parlor.
Wynn, which is licensed to build a resort casino in Everett, doesn’t want to see that happen. Nor does MGM, which plans to open a resort casino in Springfield. McCain is also facing opposition from Penn National, which holds the state’s only slots parlor license and opened earlier this year in Plainville.
“We don’t think a trailer park owner from Thailand, who has no affiliation to racing, should get to change the rules in the middle of the game by trying to add a slots parlor at a racetrack,” Eric Schippers, a Penn National senior vice president, said in a statement.
“MGM was thoughtful and deliberative in its decision to enter the Massachusetts market,” added MGM spokesperson Carole Brennan. “It relied on the 2011 law that established the framework for a license and capped the number of gaming facilities. Any amendment to this carefully crafted law, which took into account the market forces in the northeast, or ballot measure would alter the gaming landscape across the state and negatively impact all licensees.”
Wynn declined to comment, but filed documents to the attorney general’s office last month when that office was determining whether the ballot question could legally advance. Attorney General Maura Healey decided it could, but not before Wynn’s lawyers argued otherwise. Penn National filed a similar memorandum.
Two other potential casino developers in Massachusetts declined to comment. They are the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, which can build a casino without a license from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, and Mass Gaming & Entertainment, which is vying to build a resort in Brockton.
Meanwhile, Suffolk Downs, which so strongly desired a casino a year ago, has distanced itself from McCain’s proposal, denying any connection to or support for the initiative.
“We have been clear that Suffolk Downs has nothing to do with this ballot question and that we will not support it,” said Suffolk Downs spokesperson Chip Tuttle. “I don’t foresee any circumstances under which that would change.”
None of the companies would say whether they would campaign against McCain if his question made it to the ballot. That’s a long way off, anyway. He would need to first collect nearly 65,000 voter signatures by early December in order to advance the question.
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