
Ah, sweet victory: Steve Wynn’s Everett, Massachusetts casino can finally progress after having a referendum vote supporting casinos passed away night that is last.
Residents of Massachusetts have selected to uphold the state’s three-year-old casino law, voting overwhelmingly in yesterday’s midterms in favor of maintaining the fledgling casino market, once the polls had predicted.
Somewhat confusingly, ‘no’ meant ‘yes’ for casinos on this ballot, as voters were asked perhaps the statutory legislation must be repealed, with 59.5 % to 40.5 percent deciding that no, it will never be repealed, meaning that yes, they desired casinos.
Some commentators have recommended that the language used in posing the relevant question was deliberately muddled and created to confuse.
However, it’s a victory for MGM and Wynn Resorts, who may have had their respective projects provided the greenlight by regulators and who can now finally and definitely move forward with the certification procedure, a privilege which is why quick hits slot machine free play they will fork out $85 million an item before a cornerstone that is single 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 permanent job opportunities and significant financial benefits given by the Gaming Act of 2011,’ said pleased MGM Chairman and CEO Jim Murren. ‘MGM Resorts International want to thank the thousands of volunteers and supporters who understood just what is at stake and worked so hard to bring this historic opportunity to realization we can now begin the task of rebuilding outstanding downtown, and igniting a renaissance in Western Massachusetts. for themselves and their neighbors …’
The Following Big Step
MGM now plans to build an $800 million casino resort on a plot that is 14.5-acre downtown Springfield, with construction most likely to begin into the spring and a scheduled opening in the summer of 2017.
Wynn Resorts, meanwhile, which fought a bidding that is protracted with Mohegan Sun for the right to make an application for the sole eastern Massachusetts license, the right it was granted only in early September, will go ahead having its plans to create a $1.6 billion casino on a contaminated former chemical plant in Everett, north of Boston. Wynn will spend millions to possess the site cleaned up and decontaminated before construction ensues.
‘While it has been a long procedure, the benefits to everyone else in the Commonwealth will be worth it,’ said Wynn Resorts Senior Vice President Robert DeSalvio.
Never ever in Doubt?
The third license was secured earlier in the year by Penn National Gaming, which quickly moved ahead with its plans to expand Plainridge Park harness racetrack into a slots parlor, despite knowing there was clearly a chance that the bill might be repealed.
‘It’s a risk, but it’s a calculated risk,’ said Jay Snowden, Penn National’s chief operating officer, several months right back. ‘We’re confident we’ll prevail in November.’
And he had been right, but the presssing 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.
Based on recent campaign finance reports, ‘no’ (meaning yes) vote campaigners had raised nearly $12 million, most of it donated by casino companies, while the ‘yes’ meaning no vote was able to raise just $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 effort that is pro-casino in a position to spend $2 million on casino advertising in October alone, at a period 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 beat of a 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 people who care about gambling problems, and one overarching storyline which could contour the movement associated with debate over online gambling for the following two years.
That story that is big while you may have guessed, was the Republican takeover of the Senate.
While benefits (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 the least 52 seats into the Senate, one a lot more than had been needed in order to take the majority.
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 within the national Republican platform and the support of Las vegas, nevada Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson, the absolute most vocal voices in opposition to online gambling tend in the future from the GOP. The new majority could lead supporters of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act to try and advance the bill in Congress.
However, the chances 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 that are may well not think the issue is well worth fighting over, as it really is hardly a significant consideration among the list of average man or woman. While those in favor of a ban might be able to court enough Democratic support to offset the losses in their own party, that’s far from specific, and the possibility of a split within the GOP in the issue may be enough to quit it from ever gaining any momentum.
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. On the East Coast, perhaps the gambling that is highest-profile of the 12 months happened 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 hawaii, along with a slots parlor. As recent 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 populace that was against their efforts had made their voices 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 would have allowed the North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians to construct a casino that is major 40 miles 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 gaming,’ said Cheryl Schmit, director of operate for California, friends opposing the proposition.
Some gubernatorial races may also provide an impact on the future of both land-based and gambling that is online different states. Perhaps many notably, the re-election of Florida governor Rick Scott in a race that is tight Democratic challenger Charlie Crist was regarded as a poor indication for on the web gambling in the state, as Scott has been a 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 last thirty days, turns himself in. (Image: fresnobee.com)
Two tribal council users charged with serious offenses relating to last month’s armed standoff at the Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino near Coarsegold, California have turned themselves in. The casino ended up being 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 took place 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, assault with a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, and battery inflicting serious injury.
The team’s leader, Tex McDonald, 64, and council that is fellow Vernon James King, 59, switched themselves in on Monday, implemented several hours later on by two members of the security force that accompanied the group in the raid.
McDonald, who has past beliefs for assault with a weapon that is deadly making criminal threats, is charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, attack by having a firearm, attack 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 during 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 relate towards the controversial practice of ‘disenrollment,’ in which a tribe strips certain members of their tribal status, thus doubting them the associated advantages, in this situation make money from the casino.
Since 2003, hundreds of users have already been stripped of their affiliations that are tribal including a few of the last native speakers of the Chukchansi language. This led up to a election that is disputed 2012 and a schism inside the tribe between those that supported disenrollment and those bitterly opposed.
This indicates the McDonald faction was indeed managing the casino from its base at a nearby business complex up until August, once 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 of the casino into 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?
And 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 documents so the casino wouldn’t turn off,’ reported his lawyer, adding that the faction represented the ‘duly constituted tribal council. They just took steps to protect the tribe.’
Others, however, don’t see quite the exact same tactics that are heroic 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 see whether or perhaps not the images caught on video associated with the unlawful actions plus the violence he committed upon a casino employee was legal or unlawful.’
Regardless of the truth of this matter, McDonald now faces a ‘significant amount of the time’ in state prison, based on District Attorney Keitz. And meanwhile the casino remains shuttered by purchase of a judge that is federal with the consequence of lost revenue becoming devastating to the community.