Massachusetts Pro-Casino Referendum Takes the Day

Ah, sweet victory: Steve Wynn’s Everett, Massachusetts casino can finally move forward after having a referendum vote supporting casinos passed night that is last.
Residents of Massachusetts have plumped for to uphold the state’s three-year-old casino law, voting overwhelmingly in yesterday’s midterms in favor of maintaining the fledgling casino market, as the polls had predicted.
Somewhat confusingly, ‘no’ meant ‘yes’ for casinos on this ballot, as voters were asked whether or not the law is repealed, with 59.5 percent to 40.5 percent deciding that no, it should not be repealed, meaning that yes, they wanted gambling enterprises.
Some commentators have recommended that the language used in posing the relevant question was deliberately muddled and created to confuse.
Nevertheless, it’s a victory for MGM and Wynn Resorts, who have had their respective jobs provided the greenlight by regulators and who can now finally and definitely move forward with the certification procedure, a privilege for which they will fork out $85 million an item before a single cornerstone is laid.
Not surprisingly, casino executives were 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 given 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 understood exactly what was 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 work of rebuilding a great downtown, and igniting a renaissance in Western Massachusetts.’
The Following Big Step
MGM now plans to construct an $800 million casino resort on a 14.5-acre plot in downtown Springfield, with construction most likely to begin in 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 proper to make an application for the only real east Massachusetts license, a right it absolutely was granted only in early September, will get ahead along with its plans to build a $1.6 billion casino on a contaminated former chemical plant in Everett, north of Boston. Wynn will spend millions to own the site cleaned up and decontaminated before construction ensues.
‘While it has been an extended procedure, the advantages to everyone else in the Commonwealth will be worth it,’ stated Wynn Resorts Senior Vice President Robert DeSalvio.
Never in Doubt?
The license that is third secured earlier in the day in the year by Penn National Gaming, which quickly moved ahead using its plans to expand Plainridge Park harness racetrack into a slots parlor, despite knowing there is a chance that the bill could be repealed.
‘It’s a risk, however it’s a risk that is calculated’ said Jay Snowden, Penn National’s chief operating officer, many months right back. ‘We’re confident we will prevail in November.’
And he had been right, but the issue was perhaps hardly ever really in doubt. While the Repeal the Deal contingent was vocal, it lacked the funding of its powerful opponents, and the pro-casino vote had led consistently in the polls.
In accordance with campaign that is recent 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 able 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 was able to invest $2 million on casino marketing in October alone, at a time when its opponents had been 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 Day 2014 didn’t feature a referendum on Internet gambling, nor did anything earth-shattering occur that will forever change the video gaming landscape slotsforfun-ca.com in america.
Still, there were number of neighborhood results that were of interest to people who care about gambling issues, and one overarching storyline which could contour the movement associated with the debate over online gambling for the following two years.
That story that is big as you could have guessed, had been the Republican takeover of the Senate.
The GOP has clinched at least 52 seats in the Senate, one more than was needed in order to take the majority while final results (including a runoff election and a decision by Independent Senator Angus King on which party to caucus with) won’t be known for some time.
Republican Majority and On The Web Poker
The Republican majorities in both houses are worth keeping an eye on while this shouldn’t incite panic among those who enjoy online gambling. Thanks to a plank in the national Republican platform and the support of 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 and 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, as well as many of those which can be cannot think the problem is well worth fighting over, as it is hardly a major consideration among the list of public that is general. While those and only a ban might be able to court support that is enough democratic offset the losses within their own party, that is far from specific, and the prospect of a split within the GOP in the issue may be enough to quit it from ever gaining any energy.
Massachusetts Casino Repeal Defeated Handily
Much more local results, there have been two ballot initiatives of great interest to the gaming industry, one on each coast. On the East Coast, perhaps the gambling that is highest-profile of the year took place 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 their state, along with a slots parlor. As present polling suggested, the anti-casino forces came up well short, with 59 percent voting ‘No’ on the repeal.
Still, state officials acknowledged that the significant part of the populace that had been against their efforts had made their sounds heard.
‘ We realize that approximately 41 percent voted in favor of the ballot initiative [meaning for the repeal], and it is our job to continue to earn the confidence of all the social 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 will have permitted the North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians to create a major casino about 40 kilometers away from their reservation. Had the proposition passed, opponents stated it could have set a precedent allowing tribes to 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 video gaming,’ said Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up for California, an organization opposing the proposition.
Some gubernatorial events may likewise have an impact on the future of both land-based and online gambling in different states. Perhaps many notably, the re-election of Florida governor Rick Scott in a tight battle over Democratic challenger Charlie Crist was regarded as a bad sign for on line gambling in the state, as Scott is a huge supporter of Adelson’s efforts to ban Web 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 charged 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 was stormed by 20 armed men on October 9, the culmination of the bizarre power struggle between competing factions vying for control of the casino.
No arrests had been made at the scene, since the siege occurred on tribal land, but Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz announced last Friday that 15 of the aggressors would be charged with severe felonies, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, attack by having a firearm, assault with a life-threatening weapon, and battery inflicting injury that is serious.
The team’s leader, Tex McDonald, 64, and council that is fellow Vernon James King, 59, switched on their own in on Monday, implemented several hours later on by two members of the security force that accompanied the group regarding the raid.
McDonald, who has past convictions for assault by having a deadly weapon and making criminal threats, is charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault with a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, battery causing severe injury, and attack with a stun gun, and his bail has been set at $1 million. The others face similar fees, with bail set at $800,000 for each.
Another safety guard was arrested Sunday, but during the time of writing, 10 people remain at large.
Disenrollment Controversy
The origin of the dispute among the Picayune Ranchera of Chukchansi Indians seems to relate towards the controversial practice of ‘disenrollment,’ in which a tribe strips certain members of their tribal status, thus denying them the associated advantages, in cases like this profit from the casino.
Since 2003, hundreds of people have been stripped of their tribal affiliations, including a few of the last native speakers of the Chukchansi language. This led to a election that is disputed 2012 and a schism in the tribe between those that supported disenrollment and those bitterly opposed.
It seems the McDonald faction was indeed managing the casino from its base at a nearby business complex up to August, once the rival faction, led by Reggie Lewis, a proponent of disenrollment and incumbent leader of the council following the disputed election, occupied the tenth and 11th floors associated with the casino into the early hours of the morning, effectively taking it over.
Then in October, the Tribal Gaming Authority threatened to close the casino down and fine the tribe up to $16 million, as a result of late filing of audits. This prompted the McDonald faction to work, 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 great for the tribe. ‘My clients went in to recover papers therefore the casino would not power down,’ claimed his lawyer, adding that the faction represented the ‘duly constituted council that is tribal. They just took steps to protect the tribe.’
Other people, however, don’t see quite similar heroic techniques in the break-in.
‘Calling Tex McDonald a patriot is like calling a dictator democratically elected,’ said Richard Verri, representing the Lewis group. ‘ The justice that is criminal will determine whether or otherwise not the images caught on video associated with the unlawful actions while the violence he committed upon a casino employee ended up being legal or unlawful.’
Regardless of the truth regarding the matter, McDonald now faces a ‘significant amount of the time’ in state jail, based on District Attorney Keitz. And meanwhile the casino remains shuttered by order of the federal judge, with the consequence of lost revenue becoming devastating to the community.