Massachusetts Pro-Casino Referendum Takes the Day

Ah, sweet victory: Steve Wynn’s Everett, Massachusetts casino can finally move forward following a referendum vote supporting casinos passed away night that is last.
Residents of Massachusetts have opted 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, because the polls had predicted.
Somewhat confusingly, ‘no’ meant ‘yes’ for casinos on this ballot, as voters were asked or perhaps a law should be repealed, with 59.5 % to 40.5 percent deciding that no, it will not be repealed, meaning that yes, they wanted casinos.
Some commentators have recommended that the language used in posing the relevant question was deliberately muddled and created to confuse.
Nevertheless, it is a victory for MGM and Wynn Resorts, who have had their respective tasks given the greenlight by regulators and who can now finally and definitely move forward with the licensing procedure, a privilege which is why they will fork out $85 million a piece before a single cornerstone is set.
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 economic benefits provided 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 comprehended precisely what is 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 Next Big Step
MGM now plans to build an $800 million casino resort on a 14.5-acre plot in downtown Springfield, with construction likely to begin within the spring and a planned opening in the summertime of 2017.
Wynn Resorts, meanwhile, which fought a bidding that is protracted with Mohegan Sun for the proper to apply for the only eastern Massachusetts license, a right it was granted only in early September, will go ahead using 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 own the site cleaned up and decontaminated before construction ensues.
‘it,’ said Wynn Resorts Senior Vice President Robert DeSalvio while it has been a long process, the benefits to everyone in the Commonwealth will be worth.
Never in Doubt?
The third license was secured early in the day within the year by Penn National Gaming, which quickly moved ahead having its intends to expand Plainridge Park harness racetrack as a slots parlor, despite knowing there is a chance that the bill could possibly be repealed.
‘It’s a risk, nonetheless it’s a risk that is calculated’ said Jay Snowden, Penn National’s chief operating officer, several months straight back. ‘We’re confident we are going to prevail in November.’
And he was right, however the issue ended up being perhaps hardly ever really 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.
According to campaign that is recent reports, ‘no’ (meaning yes) vote campaigners had raised nearly $12 million, most of it donated by casino businesses, 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 had been the explanation that the pro-casino effort had been in a position to spend $2 million on casino marketing in October alone, at a time whenever its opponents were 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 Day 2014 didn’t feature a referendum on Internet gambling, nor did anything earth-shattering occur that will forever change the gaming landscape in the us.
Still, there were number of regional results that were of interest to those who worry about gambling problems, and one overarching storyline that could contour the movement of this debate over online gambling for the following two years.
That big story, as you may have guessed, had been the Republican takeover of the Senate.
While benefits (including a runoff election and a choice 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 in the Senate, one more than ended up being required in order to simply take the majority.
Republican Majority and On Line Poker
While this shouldn’t incite panic among those who enjoy online gambling, the Republican majorities in both houses are worth keeping track of. Thanks to a plank in the national Republican platform and the support of vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson, the most vocal voices opposed to online gambling tend in the future through the GOP. The new majority could lead supporters of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act to try to 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, and even a lot of those which are might not think the issue is well worth fighting over, as it’s hardly a major consideration among the list of public. While those in support of a ban might be able to court sufficient Democratic help to offset the losses in their own party, that’s far from specific, and the possibility of a split within the GOP on the issue could be enough to stop it from ever gaining any momentum.
Massachusetts Casino Repeal Defeated Handily
Much more local results, there have been two ballot initiatives of interest to the gaming industry, one on each coast. In the East Coast, perhaps the highest-profile gambling battle of the 12 months happened in Massachusetts, where anti-casino activists were hoping to repeal a law that allowed for the licensing and building of three resort casinos in hawaii, along side a slots parlor. As current 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 portion 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 effort [meaning for the repeal], and it’s also our job to keep to make the self-confidence of most the 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 could have permitted the North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians to build a casino that is major 40 miles away from their reservation. Had the proposition passed, opponents stated it might have set a precedent tribes that are allowing build video gaming facilities far beyond their lands.
‘This vote no puts the ball squarely in the state Legislature’s court: they now can make a consistent policy on tribal video gaming,’ said Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up for California, friends opposing the proposition.
Some gubernatorial races may also have an effect 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 poor indication for on the web gambling in the state, as Scott has become 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 final thirty days, 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 https://slotsforfun-ca.com/quick-hits-slot-review/ themselves in. The casino had been stormed by 20 armed men on October 9, the culmination of the strange power struggle between rival 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 faced with serious felonies, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault having a firearm, attack with a deadly weapon, and battery inflicting serious injury.
The group’s leader, Tex McDonald, 64, and other council member Vernon James King, 59, turned on their own in on Monday, followed several hours later by two members of the security force that accompanied the group on the raid.
McDonald, who has previous convictions for assault having a weapon that is deadly making criminal threats, is charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, attack having a firearm, attack with a lethal weapon, battery causing serious 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 connect to your controversial practice of ‘disenrollment,’ in which a tribe strips certain members of their tribal status, thus denying them the associated advantages, in this situation profit from the casino.
Since 2003, hundreds of users have been stripped of their affiliations that are tribal including some of the last native speakers of the Chukchansi language. This led up to a election that is disputed 2012 and a schism in the tribe between those that supported disenrollment and those bitterly opposed.
This indicates the McDonald faction was indeed managing the casino from the base at a business that is nearby up until August, as soon as the rival faction, led by Reggie Lewis, a proponent of disenrollment and incumbent leader of the council following a disputed election, occupied the tenth and 11th floors for the casino into the 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 up to $16 million, because of filing that is late of. This prompted the McDonald faction to act, in whatever 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 a hero, a ‘patriot’ fighting for the good for the tribe. ‘My clients went in to recover papers so that the casino wouldn’t shut down,’ reported his attorney, adding that the faction represented the ‘duly constituted tribal council. They simply took steps to protect the tribe.’
Others, 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 see whether or perhaps not the images caught on video associated with the illegal actions and also the violence he committed upon a casino employee ended up being legal or unlawful.’
Regardless of the truth of the matter, McDonald now faces a ‘significant amount of time’ in state jail, according to 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.
