The actions of the Mass. Gaming Commission almost a decade ago could be put under a new microscope after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Monday that a lower court should look more closely at the “highly unusual character of the commission’s actions” related to the award of a casino license to Wynn Resorts and the casino company’s purchase of land in Everett.
Wynn Resorts will sell its Everett resort casino to a San Diego real estate investment trust and use the windfall to pay for new developments and retire debt.
The two large resort-style casinos won approval from state regulators in no small part due to their perceived potential to be engines of economic development. A new study throws doubt on that hope.
State tax revenue from gambling began to trickle back in last month as the state’s slots parlor and two casinos reopened for the first time since March.
Hand sanitizer is one of the big winners at the Encore Boston Harbor Casino in the COVID-19 era.
Local officials and a developer pitched lawmakers Tuesday on a bill that would pave the way for a planned horse track and gambling facility in Wareham, but the state senator from the area slammed the bill as an attempt by a “self-serving” developer to be given special treatment.
The plans for a mixed-use development with a horse track and gambling hall in Wareham now envision a slots parlor at the site rather than a small-scale casino as originally envisioned when the project was announced last month.
A developer from the family behind the Marina Bay complex and Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy is expected Tuesday to announce plans for a mixed-use development in Wareham, and will ask the state legislature to change Massachusetts gaming law to allow the project to include “a gaming component.”
The three casinos in Massachusetts cumulatively generated $81.4 million in revenue last month from hundreds of millions in wagers and Encore Boston Harbor in Everett accounted for about 60 percent of it.
In the first eight days that Encore Boston Harbor was open, gamblers wagered more than $93.5 million on the slot machines alone at the Everett casino and the Wynn Resorts operation counted $16.79 million in total revenue, or more than $2 million a day.
Wynn Resorts on Tuesday paid the $35 million fine imposed on it by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the $500,000 fine imposed on CEO Matt Maddox, while the commission opened bids for an independent monitor to keep an eye on Wynn Resorts for five years.
“I wouldn’t lie to you, there are quite a few things I’m worried about. But I think we have them all under control,” Peter Campot, head of Wynn Resorts’ design and construction arm, told the Massachusetts Gaming Commission Wednesday.
The discussions between Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts around a possible sale of the soon-to-open Encore Boston Harbor casino in Everett are over and Wynn Resorts says it is committed to its Boston-area project.
MGM Springfield counted revenues of $21.82 million in April, a 15 percent decline from the roughly eight-month-old casino’s best revenue month in March according to numbers released by the state Gaming Commission.
Despite the company’s “failures” in handling sexual misconduct allegations against founder Steve Wynn, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will allow Wynn Resorts to keep the lucrative Boston-area casino license.
A month after holding hearings on the licensing suitability of Wynn Resorts, state gaming industry regulators are expected to give an update Wednesday on deliberations and possibly on the timing of its decision.
Members of the state Gaming Commission have turned their attention to deciding whether Wynn Resorts remains suitable to hold the lone Boston-area resort casino license, despite claims the company has remade itself following Steve Wynn’s departure.
Pledging that the company has undergone a “transformation” since Steve Wynn left the last year while embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations, Wynn Resorts on Tuesday set out to convince the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that it remains suitable to hold the lucrative Boston-area casino license.
As part of a compromise to have a lawsuit against it dismissed, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission agreed to exclude certain information its investigators gleaned about allegations involving former casino magnate Steve Wynn from its forthcoming investigative report and will return some of the documents it obtained.
Casino mogul Steve Wynn’s former company was fined a record $20 million by Nevada gambling regulators on Tuesday for failing to investigate claims of sexual misconduct made against him before he resigned a year ago.
