
Ah, sweet victory: Steve Wynn’s Everett, Massachusetts casino can finally move ahead following a referendum vote supporting casinos passed last night.
Residents of Massachusetts have plumped for to uphold quick hits free slot machine the state’s three-year-old casino law, voting overwhelmingly in yesterday’s midterms in favor of maintaining the fledgling casino market, since the polls had predicted.
Somewhat confusingly, ‘no’ meant ‘yes’ for casinos on this ballot, as voters were asked perhaps the law is repealed, with 59.5 % to 40.5 percent deciding that no, it will never be repealed, meaning that yes, they desired gambling enterprises.
Some commentators have suggested that the language used in posing the question was deliberately muddled and designed to confuse.
Nonetheless, it is a victory for MGM and Wynn Resorts, who may have had their respective jobs provided the greenlight by regulators and who can now finally and definitely go forward with the licensing process, a privilege which is why they will fork out $85 million a piece before a single cornerstone is laid.
Not surprisingly, casino executives had been jubilant and anxious to emphasize what the casinos will do for their communities that are future.
‘Voters across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts today voiced their support of the 10,000 job that is permanent and significant financial benefits provided by the Gaming Act of 2011,’ said pleased MGM Chairman and CEO Jim Murren. ‘MGM Resorts International would like to thank the thousands of volunteers and supporters who comprehended exactly what is at stake and worked so hard to bring this historic opportunity to realization for themselves and their neighbors … we are now able to begin the task of rebuilding a great downtown, and igniting a renaissance in Western Massachusetts.’
The Next Big Step
MGM now plans to build an $800 million casino resort on a plot that is 14.5-acre downtown Springfield, with construction likely to begin into the springtime and a planned opening in the summertime of 2017.
Wynn Resorts, meanwhile, which fought a protracted bidding war with Mohegan Sun for the best to apply for the only real east Massachusetts license, the right it absolutely was granted just in early September, will go ahead with its plans to build a $1.6 billion casino for a contaminated former chemical plant in Everett, north of Boston. Wynn will spend millions to have the site cleaned up and decontaminated before construction ensues.
‘it,’ said Wynn Resorts Senior Vice President Robert DeSalvio while it has been a long process, the benefits to everyone in the Commonwealth will be worth.
Never ever in Doubt?
The third license was secured earlier in the year by Penn National Gaming, which quickly moved ahead having its plans to expand Plainridge Park harness racetrack right into a slots parlor, despite knowing there is a chance that the bill could possibly be repealed.
‘It’s a risk, however it’s a risk that is calculated’ said Jay Snowden, Penn National’s chief operating officer, several months back. ‘We’re confident we’ll prevail in november’
And he had been right, nevertheless the issue ended up being perhaps never truly in doubt. While the Repeal the Deal contingent was vocal, it lacked the funding of its powerful opponents, and the vote that is pro-casino led consistently in the polls.
According to recent campaign finance reports, ‘no’ (meaning yes) vote campaigners had raised nearly $12 million, most of it donated by casino organizations, while the ‘yes’ meaning no vote was in a position to raise simply $675,000.
MGM donated $2.5 million and Wynn Resorts $1 million, while Penn National topped the bill with $3.2 million. This was the explanation that the pro-casino effort ended up being in a position to spend $2 million on casino advertising in October alone, at an occasion whenever its opponents were a declaring a balance of $30,000 and debts of $400,000.
Nationwide Election Results May Affect US Online Gambling
Supporters of a Wynn casino in Everett celebrated the defeat of the casino repeal effort in Massachusetts. (Image: Barry Chin/Globe Staff)
Election 2014 didn’t feature a referendum on Internet gambling, nor did anything earth-shattering occur that will forever change the gaming landscape in the United States day.
Still, there were number of local results that were of interest to those who care about gambling issues, and one overarching storyline that could contour the motion regarding the debate over online gambling for the next two years.
That story that is big while you might have guessed, had been the Republican takeover of the Senate.
While results (including a runoff election and a decision by Independent Senator Angus King on which party to caucus with) will not be known for some time, the GOP has clinched at least 52 seats in the Senate, one significantly more than ended up being needed in order to just take the majority.
Republican Majority and Online Poker
While this shouldn’t incite panic among those who enjoy online gambling, the Republican majorities in both houses are well worth keeping an eye on. Thanks to a plank into the national platform that is republican the support of Las vegas, nevada Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson, the absolute most vocal voices opposed to online gambling tend to come through the GOP. The majority that is new lead supporters of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act to try to advance the bill in Congress.
However, the likelihood of such a bill passing are still rather slim. Not everyone in the Republican Party is in favor of an online gambling ban, and also many of those which can be may not think the issue is worth fighting over, as it really is hardly a major consideration among the list of public that is general. While those and only a ban could probably court support that is enough democratic offset the losses inside their own party, that is far from specific, and the possibility of a split within the GOP in the issue might be enough to avoid it from ever gaining any energy.
Massachusetts Casino Repeal Defeated Handily
In more local results, there were two ballot initiatives of great interest to the gaming industry, one on each coast. Regarding the East Coast, perhaps the gambling that is highest-profile of the year occurred in Massachusetts, where anti-casino activists were hoping to repeal a law that allowed for the certification and building of three resort gambling enterprises in the state, along with a slots parlor. As current polling suggested, the anti-casino forces came up well short, with 59 percent voting ‘No’ on the repeal.
Still, state officials acknowledged that the portion that is significant of population that ended up being against their efforts had made their sounds heard.
‘ We understand that approximately 41 percent voted in favor of the ballot effort [meaning for the repeal], and it is our job to continue to make the self-confidence of all the people in Massachusetts proponents and opponents alike,’ said Steve Crosby, chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
Meanwhile, voters in California rejected Proposition 48, a measure that would have permitted the North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians to build a major casino about 40 kilometers away from their reservation. Had the proposition passed, opponents stated it could have set a precedent tribes that are allowing build gaming facilities far beyond their lands.
‘This vote no puts the ball squarely in the state Legislature’s court: they now can make a policy that is consistent tribal gaming,’ said Cheryl Schmit, director of operate for California, a group opposing the proposition.
Some gubernatorial events may also have an effect on the future of both land-based and online gambling in various states. Perhaps most notably, the re-election of Florida governor Rick Scott in a race that is tight Democratic challenger Charlie Crist was regarded as a bad indication for on line gambling into the state, as Scott is a supporter of Adelson’s efforts to ban Internet gambling.
Chukchansi Gold Casino Tribal Leaders Turn Themselves In After Break-In
Tex McDonald, leader of the group that stormed the Chukchansi casino month that is last turns himself in. (Image: fresnobee.com)
Two council that is tribal faced with serious offenses relating to final month’s armed standoff during the Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino near Coarsegold, California have turned themselves in. The casino had been stormed by 20 armed men on October 9, the culmination of a power that is bizarre between rival factions vying for control of the casino.
No arrests were made at the scene, as the siege happened on tribal land, but Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz announced last Friday that 15 of the aggressors would be faced with serious felonies, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, attack with a firearm, attack with a life-threatening weapon, and battery inflicting serious injury.
The team’s leader, Tex McDonald, 64, and council that is fellow Vernon James King, 59, turned on their own in on Monday, accompanied several hours later on by two members for the security force that accompanied the group regarding the raid.
McDonald, who has previous convictions for assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats, is charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, attack by having a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, battery causing serious injury, and attack with a stun gun, and his bail has been set at $1 million. The other people face similar costs, with bail set at $800,000 for each.
Another safety guard was arrested Sunday, but at the time of writing, 10 people remain at large.
Disenrollment Controversy
The origin of the dispute among the Picayune Ranchera of Chukchansi Indians appears to connect to your controversial practice of ‘disenrollment,’ when a tribe strips certain members of their tribal status, hence doubting them the associated benefits, in cases like this make money from the casino.
Since 2003, hundreds of people have already been stripped of their tribal affiliations, including a few of the last native speakers of the Chukchansi language. This led up to a disputed election in 2012 and a schism inside the tribe between those that supported disenrollment and those bitterly opposed.
It seems the McDonald faction had been managing the casino from the base at a nearby business complex up until August, as soon as the rival faction, led by Reggie Lewis, a proponent of disenrollment and incumbent frontrunner of the council after the disputed election, occupied the tenth and 11th floors for the casino within the very early hours of the morning, efficiently taking it over.
Then in October, the Tribal Gaming Authority threatened to close the casino down and fine the tribe as much as $16 million, due to filing that is late of. This prompted the McDonald faction to act, in what they claim was an attempt to retrieve the audits and save the casino.
Criminal or Hero?
Also to some, despite the criminality of his tactics, McDonald is just a hero, a ‘patriot’ fighting for the nice of this tribe. ‘My clients went in to recover papers therefore the casino would not turn off,’ reported his attorney, adding that the faction represented the ‘duly constituted council that is tribal. They just took steps to protect the tribe.’
Others, however, don’t see quite the same heroic strategies in the break-in.
‘Calling Tex McDonald a patriot is like calling a dictator democratically elected,’ said Richard Verri, representing the Lewis group. ‘ The criminal justice system will determine whether or not the images caught on video associated with the illegal actions while the violence he committed upon a casino employee was legal or unlawful.’
Long lasting truth for the matter, McDonald now faces a ‘significant amount of time’ in state jail, in accordance with District Attorney Keitz. And meanwhile the casino remains shuttered by purchase of the judge that is federal with the consequence of lost revenue becoming devastating to the community.