MA Casino Developments

It appears from Google Earth that the Wynn site is about 1300 feet across the river from the new Assembly Square Orange Line station. This is shorter than the 1600 or so feet from the PVD Airport Rail Station to the Terminal via skywalk. I suppose it is conceivable that Wynn, Assembly Sq., and the big box center could build a pedestrian crossing of the Mystic. Would need moving sidewalks, though.
 
Nice suggestion about the connection to the new Assembly Square Station. A little monorail train that goes back and forth would be cool too.
 
TheRifleman said:
That area in Everett would need extensive environmental cleanup which could cause serious delays of anything being built for a decade. (Even if Suffolk didn't get approved this area would never see a casino, to many negative factors play into the Everett casino, Traffic, chemical cleanup, the area is also on Boston land also next to Somerville which has evolved nicely over the last decade)

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There are many ways around contaminated soil. Everything would end up on grade or they would need to clean/remediate all soil disturbed or removed. I've also seen it where all soil removed is all put back in and never leaves the site. Capping the whole thing with pavement is usually the easiest thing. Perhaps some sub soil vents through the building, and some ground water filtering/treatment.

I don't like sprawling develoment like that in so called urban settings, but the option is always there, and it can be much cheaper than the alternative.
 
SeamusMcFly said:
There are many ways around contaminated soil. Everything would end up on grade or they would need to clean/remediate all soil disturbed or removed. I've also seen it where all soil removed is all put back in and never leaves the site. Capping the whole thing with pavement is usually the easiest thing. Perhaps some sub soil vents through the building, and some ground water filtering/treatment.

I don't like sprawling develoment like that in so called urban settings, but the option is always there, and it can be much cheaper than the alternative.
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The location for an Everett Casino is just not about the Contaminated Soil.

#1 Traffic (infrastructure is outdated as it is) Could never handle a billion dollar a casino.
#2 The Land is just not about Everett, Boston is involved. Too many pockets and opinions to satisfy.
#3 The land also borders Somerville which the Mayor of Somerville will be a strong opposition for this type of activity especially how far Somerville has evolved
#4 The casino is near Oil containers, The biggest energy grid on the coast. (not sure if thats even negative (but constant trucks are moving through this area 24 hours a day)
#5 Contaminated Soil

Just some of the negative factors this location faces. If I had to choose Suffolk would be a better location than Everett. Even if Wynn got the okay I don't think he would be able to move forward with the problems this area would face.

Everett Location would be extremely challenging
 
A little monorail train that goes back and forth would be cool too.
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It will need to work better than the one that used to connect the Wellington Orange Line station with the Station Landing parking garage. That got taken out after just a few years.
 
You guys inspired me to make a quick massing model:

MysticBridge_zpsb4496b42.png
 
I've been thinking, and I'm wondering if this would be a good idea... what about putting a resort casino out in Provincetown and giving the slot parlor licence to a ferry (complete with a bar, naturally) running from Boston to Provincetown?

I've never been out to P-town, and I don't know how this would fly. But seems like a decent idea?

EDIT: The ferry would get the licence because it would allow gambling within US waters. Unlike other casino boats where you must wait until you're 7 miles out to sea or whatever.
 
That presumes Provincetown actually wants such a thing. I think it would be absolutely antithetical to that town's culture.

I've never been out to P-town,
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If you had, you'd never make this proposal.

You'd have better odds of putting one in Lenox next door to Tanglewood.
 
Have you ever been on the fast ferry in rough waters?? Sea sickness as far as the eye can see! I presume you'd mean a slow ferry....which could take 3 hours from Boston.
 
As is, you can barely walk down Commercial St during the summer. Harbor cruise gambling sounds fun (and I'd probably do it myself), but P-Town would be a beyond miserable experience with that many more tourists.
 
P-Town has become a world of its own. I know the person that owns a good percentage of the commercial real estate in that area. We won't see a casino built in P-Town in my lifetime or probably yours.
 
Hyannis-ites can't even handle an off shore wind farm. There aren't enough pearls in the world to cover all the clutching that'd go on over a proposed casino.
 
The Mid/Outer Cape will never have a Casino. Notice that the Mashpee Wampanoag haven't brought up a casino on the Cape at all, preferring a location towards the South Shore or South Coast.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
The Mid/Outer Cape will never have a Casino. Notice that the Mashpee Wampanoag haven't brought up a casino on the Cape at all, preferring a location towards the South Shore or South Coast.
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If for no other reason, it's too remote. A casino needs to be close to a bigger airport than Hyannis, or at least close to a major interstate. Optimal location places it near both.
 
As casinos struggle, tribes seek more federal aid
As casinos struggle through downturn, Connecticut Indian gaming tribes seek more federal aid
By Michael Melia, Associated Press | Associated Press – 20 hrs

As a gaming slump squeezes profits at the casino, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns the enterprise, has received more assistance in the form of U.S. government grants. Documents obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act show that federal money provided annually for the five years ending in 2012 has risen to more than $4.5 million.


LEDYARD, Conn. (AP) -- Once the envy of Indian Country for its billion-dollar casino empire, the tribe that owns the Foxwoods Resort Casino has been struggling through a financial crisis and pursuing more revenue from an unlikely source: U.S. government grants.

The money provided annually to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation through the Interior Department and the Department of Health and Human Services has risen over the last five years to more than $4.5 million, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. One former tribal employee says department leaders were encouraged to offset dwindling resources by seeking more federal grants.

The Pequots, who once distributed stipends exceeding $100,000 annually to adult members, are not alone among gaming tribes seeking more federal aid. Several, including the owner of Foxwoods' rival Connecticut casino, the Mohegan Sun, say they have been pursuing more grants — a trend that critics find galling because the law that gave rise to Indian casinos was intended to help tribes become financially self-sufficient.

"The whole purpose of the 1988 law which authorized Indian casinos was to help federally-recognized tribes raise money to run their governments by building casinos on their reservations," said Robert Steele, a former Congressman from Connecticut. "I would argue strongly that federal money was meant for struggling tribes. Certainly the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans couldn't under any circumstances be put in that category."

As long as they have federal recognition, casino-owning tribes are eligible for the same grant programs as the larger tribes based on large, poverty-stricken reservations in the American West. The grants, which don't need to be paid back, support tribal governments by paying for programs such as health screenings, road maintenance and environmental preservation.

"The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is proud of the work they do with the use of federal funds when it comes to assisting the region and fellow Native Americans," said Bill Satti, a tribal spokesman, who said the grants have supported the tribe's medical clinic and repair work on local roadways.

Thomas Weissmuller, who was chief judge of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court until 2011, said that near the end of his tenure the tribal council said they had distributed too much money to members and urged department leaders to pursue more federal grants. He said there was resistance from some council members, who raised questions about the effects on sovereignty, but he was personally encouraged to pursue grants by officials including the tribal chairman, Rodney Butler.

Weissmuller said he was not comfortable seeking such assistance for the tribal court system because most of the issues it dealt with were related to the casino, which is essentially a commercial enterprise.

"A billion-dollar gaming enterprise should fully fund the tribal government," said Weissmuller, who said that he was forced out of the job by tribal officials who told him he did not appear to have the tribe's interests at heart on other matters.

The reversal of fortunes for the Pequots began around 2008, when Foxwoods completed a major, costly expansion with the 30-story MGM Grand hotel and casino just as the recession began to show its teeth. The following year the tribe defaulted on debt exceeding $2 billion.

Since then, the tribe of some 900 people in rural southeastern Connecticut has ended its member stipends. The Pequots have kept some other benefits in place, covering payments for members pursuing higher education and offering supplemental pay for tribal members taking entry-level jobs at the casino.

The federal grants provided to the Pequots through the Interior Department and its Bureau of Indian Affairs, meanwhile, rose from $1 million in 2008 to $2.7 million in 2011, with partial records for 2012 showing $1.7 million in grants for the year. Grants provided to the Pequots through the Indian Health Service, a division of Health and Human Services, increased gradually from $1.7 million in 2008 to $1.9 million in 2012. That money is to support health care services such as community health, nutrition, substance abuse treatment and pharmacy services.

The federal money opened the door to scrutiny by the FBI, whose investigation of tribal finances led to the January indictments of the tribe's treasurer, Steven Thomas, and his brother Michael Thomas, a former tribal chairman. The two are accused of stealing a combined $800,000 in tribal money and federal grants. The tribal council has expressed full confidence in its treasurer.

Mohegan Tribe officials said they took pride in refusing federal grants for years, in acknowledgment that there were needier tribes. But tribal officials said they had relaxed that position as their Mohegan Sun casino, like Foxwoods, has faced growing gambling competition from neighboring states.

"It's a sign of the times. Everybody is" seeking grants, Mohegan Chairman Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum said. "There's some that we qualify for and it helps us to keep everybody healthy and working. At the end of the day, why shouldn't we apply for it? If we get approved, it's always for a good cause, usually health or jobs created."

Tribal officials said they receive modest grants to contribute to the cost of health care for their 2,000 members.

The tribe that owns the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Michigan, one of the country's largest Indian casinos outside of Connecticut, has been aggressively pursuing grants in areas including environmental protection and health services as it struggles with the weak economy, according to Sylvia Murray, grants and contracts manager for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

Sam Deloria, director of the American Indian Graduate Center in Albuquerque, N.M., said he has no issue with tribes pursuing grants for which they are eligible. It's no different, he said, from the state of Alaska participating in federal programs despite the annual payouts to residents from the state's oil savings account.

As the federal money reflects financial distress for gaming tribes, however, he does worry that their struggles ultimately could have a ripple effect throughout Indian Country and affect the ability of tribes to participate in the marketplace.

"It has got to raise a set of issues that either in the courts, or in the Congress, or in the marketplace, eventually it will get people looking at tribal participation in business in a different light," he said.
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This is disturbing. Nothing more than bad management
 
TheRifleman said:
This is disturbing. Nothing more than bad management
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I suppose this was posted to show why casinos here might not be a good move. Aside from that I am continually bothered by government "grants" which don't need to be paid back whe someone is struggling, shortly after its mentioned that during the good days they are handing out $100k checks to every adult member. Which I'm sure was well over $4.5mil annually.

A helping hand is a helping hand, but a freebie of that magnitude sickens me in that type of situation. Similar in nature to government bailouts of banks only to have banks shortly there after hand out record bonuses.

Big middle finger from big banks and big chiefs.

Yup, I just shot from the hip. Took a page out of your book...
 
I work in media, and a public media advisory has just been posted: we're all going to see the Wynn Resort plans tomorrow.
 
Curious if anyone has been keeping up with the proposals out in Western MA, particularly the ones for Springfield. I'm intrigued by Penn National's pitch, as it involves restoring Springfield's Union Station.
 
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