Winners and Losers!

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Nov 5, 2013, 9:49pm EST Updated: Nov 6, 2013, 8:35am EST

Here are the big winners and losers in the 'no casino' votes in East Boston and Palmer

Jon Chesto

Managing Editor, Print- Boston Business Journal

Voters in East Boston and Palmer just handed major defeats to the casino industry.

Palmer voters narrowly rejected Mohegan Sun’s longstanding plans to build a casino resort in that town. Meanwhile, voters in East Boston defeated a host community agreement that would have set the stage for a casino resort to be built at the Suffolk Downs horse track. (Revere voters, however, approved the Suffolk Downs agreement for their city.)

Here’s a rundown of the big winners and losers from those two votes:

The winners in Palmer

Quaboag Valley Against Casinos: The opposition group in Palmer didn't seem as loud as the one in East Boston. And yet the message obviously resonated with voters, giving the opponents a surprising win over a well-financed opponent.

MGM Resorts International: MGM and city leaders in Springfield are celebrating, for now. MGM’s plan is the last resort casino plan left standing in competition for the Western Massachusetts license. But questions still remain about whether MGM will clear the Mass. Gaming Commission’s strict background checks.

Foxwoods: This is also a big victory for Mohegan Sun’s biggest rival. The operators of the original Connecticut casino have proposed a casino resort in Milford, which falls into the Greater Boston license region per the 2011 state law that legalized casino gaming. But Palmer’s less than an hour’s drive from Milford. That’s close enough for gaming regulators to worry about the overlap in the two casinos’ target markets, overlap that would minimize the projects’ revenue potential.

The losers in Palmer

Mohegan Sun: No out-of-state gaming operation has been plugging away at building support for a casino in Massachusetts for longer than the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority. Mohegan opened an office in town back in 2009, two years before casino gambling was even made legal by the Legislature. It’s not necessarily over yet: Mohegan says it will push for a recount, citing the close vote and technical problems with a voting machine.

Leon Dragone: The Palmer property owner has been trying to land a casino deal for years, and the Mohegan Sun proposal for roughly 150 acres he owns off the Mass. Pike seemed like his best bet.

Palmer town officials: Budgeting would have become easy once the casino opened in town, as it would have essentially doubled the property tax base with $15 million in new annual payments. Now, officials will be hard-pressed to find new large taxpayers to take the place of the industry that has left this town.

The winners in East Boston

No Eastie Casino: The opposition group’s momentum certainly was building on the way to Tuesday’s victory during the past month or so. There was that coalition of clergy in East Boston that threw its weight behind the cause. And then there was the withdrawal of Caesars Entertainment, the company that was supposed to operate the casino, after a few red flags went up during the Mass. Gaming Commission’s background checks. With no new operator named, the owners of the Suffolk Downs track were suddenly put at a big disadvantage.

Steve Wynn: The Las Vegas mogul must be smiling tonight, even if he was just publicly carping about how hard it is to get by the gaming commission’s suitability reviews. Is he still serious about his plan to build a Wynn Resorts casino in Everett, one that had been poised to compete directly with Suffolk Downs for the sole Boston area gaming license? It’s hard to know for sure, after those complaints. But this vote could embolden him to plow forward.

Foxwoods: The rejection of Suffolk Downs, once considered the odds-on favorite for the Boston-area casino, also bodes well for Foxwoods and its plan for a Milford casino. However, that project has its own referendum to face on Nov. 19, and there’s a well-organized opposition group in Milford hell-bent on stopping the plan for a casino off I-495.

The losers in East Boston

Richard Fields: When Fields bought a significant stake in Sterling Suffolk Racecourse in 2007, he was essentially betting the farm that casinos would be approved in Massachusetts, and that one would go up at Suffolk Downs. Suffolk didn’t necessarily concede defeat today. Chief operating officer Chip Tuttle issued a brief statement thanking Revere for the positive vote — the Suffolk Downs property straddles the Revere-Boston border —and thanking the supporters in Eastie. The track owners, Tuttle said, will “reassess our plans.” But this vote essentially makes Fields’ dream of a Boston casino an improbable one, at best. (Revere Mayor Dan Rizzo is still hoping a reshaped project could be built on his side of the city line.)

Tom Menino: The departing mayor didn’t pick a side in the race to succeed him, but he did pick a side in the casino issue. Menino has trumpeted the economic benefits that the track had promised — at least $32 million in payments to the city, up to 4,000 permanent jobs, among other things. But in the end, Menino’s legendary political machine couldn’t generate enough support during the last election that he needed it.

The local thoroughbred industry: Suffolk Downs officials say the track has been losing money for several years. As New England’s last thoroughbred racetrack, the casino project was seen as crucial to propping up Suffolk Downs’ operations. If Suffolk should close, there would be significant ripple effects among the businesses that support it throughout the region and the nearly 1,500 people who work in that industry.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass_roundup/2013/11/casino-votes-in-palmer-east-boston.html?page=all