WCVB reports Revere voters have once again approved a Suffolk Downs casino, this time one entirely within their city limits and run by Mohegan Sun.
The vote doesn't guarantee the $1.3-billion resort casino will be built, but instead means the state gaming commission will now choose between Suffolk Downs and a competing Wynn proposal in Everett.
Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria dissed his neighbor to the east:
The Lynn Daily Item reports Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy is having a little trouble believing a Suffolk Downs traffic study that claims the resort casino planned for Revere will only add 18 cars a day to Lynn roads.
The Globe reports Mayor Walsh wants the state Gaming Commission to declare Boston a "host" community for the potential casinos in both Revere and Everett, which would let the city negotiate for the sort of benefits Boston would have gotten under the agreement with Suffolk Downs before East Boston voters rejected the idea of a casino within city limits.
WCVB reports that Mohegan Sun wants casino-only lanes in the Ted Williams for its Suffolk Downs casino.
Caesars Entertainment yesterday sued Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Steven Crosby, charging he sabotaged its bid to run a proposed Suffolk Downs casino because of his past relationship with a co-owner of the Everett land on which archrival Steve Wynn wants to build a casino.
The Globe reports the Connecticut casino is joining up with the racetrack as the proposed operator of the proposed only-in-Revere resort casino.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission says the folks behind Suffolk Downs are fine, upstanding people and can proceed with their application for a billion-dollar casino project on the East Boston/Revere line.
In a ruling released today, the commission did say Suffolk Downs will have to propose a new operator to replace Caesars Entertainment and do a better job of vetting that company first.
In one of their final debates, mayoral candidates John Connolly and Marty Walsh clashed on negative campaigning and negotiating with city unions, but otherwise continued to push similar ideas for a post-Menino world.
Both candidates, for example, said they would return vocational training to all city high schools, would make it a priority to find a qualified minority candidate for police commissioner and work to decentralize BPS and increase cooperation between BPS and charter schools. Connolly even acknowledged Walsh is qualified to be mayor - but added he's more qualified.
Suffolk Downs officials said today they were shocked to learn of the issues raised by a state investigation into operations at their proposed casino operator earlier this month - especially after learning state investigators had started asking questions about them several months earlier.
The state Gaming Commission today released a redacted copy of the 558-page investigative report that led Suffolk Downs to drop Caesars Entertainment as manager of its proposed casino last week.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Caesars Entertainment said Massachusetts gaming investigators raised red flags over three issues related to its proposed involvement in the Suffolk Downs project: One executive's past "employment by public companies in the internet gaming industry," the company's overall financial health, but most important, a "business relationship related to a license agreement for branding of a hotel that was entered into in 2013 (and recently terminated)."
WBUR reports the mayor might look at trying to delay the vote if Suffolk Downs doesn't have a managing company now that Caesars is out.
A no vote on Nov. 5 would kill the casino proposal, which also needs the approval of the state gaming commission.
Unless, of course, somebody at the gaming commission leaks a copy of its Caesars report to the Globe first. In a statement today, the commission has this to say about the report by its investigators that caused Suffolk Downs to decide not to have Caesars run its proposed casino:
Due to the content of recent media reports and the impending Host Community Agreement referenda on November 5th, the Commission, with the agreement of the applicant Suffolk Sterling, will release the redacted version as soon as it is completed, expected to be Wednesday, October 23d.
The announcement Friday night that Caesars Entertainment is withdrawing its stake in the Suffolk Downs effort to secure a casino license has been met with shock and wonder.
Nothing like a little Friday-evening bombshell: Suffolk Downs is giving casino giant Caesars the boot, just weeks before East Boston voters are supposed to decide whether to approve the idea of a $1-billion resort casino next to the racetrack.
In a letter to the casino operator (attached below), Suffolk Downs COO Chip Tuttle said an investigation by the state Gaming Commission's Investigations and Enforcement Bureau raised serious questions about Caesar's suitability to manage the casino and two hotels that Suffolk Downs wants to build.
Tuttle talks while cops keep order.
Suffolk Downs COO Chip Tuttle estimated tonight his company has spent about $1 million trying to convince East Boston residents to vote in favor of a casino at his racetrack. Organizers of No Eastie Casino in turns told members of the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Association they have spent less than $30,000 on their campaign against the proposal.
The Globe reports several black ministers endorsed John Connolly yesterday and notes how dramatic that was given that some of them were comparing him to, gasp, Louise Day Hicks just last year, after he publicly called for School Superintendent Carol Johnson to quit.
A group of East Boston religious leaders today launched a campaign against the proposed resort casino at Suffolk Downs. As their Web site says:
Because we believe God has something better for East Boston than a casino.
More specifically, the clergy members say the casino would leader to more crime, addiction, traffic, pollution and bankruptcy and higher insurance rates.
East Boston residents vote in a referendum on Nov. 5 whether to accept the proposed $1-billion casino.
The Globe has more on the clergy effort.
The Globe reports the city council agrees with Tom Menino - it voted 12-to-O'Malley today to limit the upcoming vote on the Suffolk Downs casino proposal to just East Boston residents.
OK, make that so ridiculously overoptimistic that one casino expert actually chuckled when he heard the numbers.
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