Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket is competing for any Massachusetts casino license within the state’s central area, hoping to stem the losses that the Bay State’s three planned resort casinos will have around the largest gaming establishment in North America.

Although Connecticut rival Mohegan Sun is vying to get a license in Massachusetts’ western area, Foxwoods hopes to hit the jackpot having a proposal inside the central area, by partnering having a proposal in Worcester.

On paper at the least, the southern tier of Interstate 495 has the potential to develop into a new Las Vegas strip, with a huge number of slot machines and an array of glitzy restaurants, clubs and entertainment venues to go in addition to it.

But in reality, developers with hopes of turning Milford and Plainville into major gambling hubs face steep odds, from the potential of neighborhood opposition to deep-pocketed competitors at other places.

David Nunes, a veteran of your Massachusetts improvement scene, is hoping to snag the crown jewel with the state’s 3 casino licenses, covering Boston and substantially of eastern and central Massachusetts, with his proposal for a $700 million casino in Milford. Foxwoods Resort Casino, a four.7-million-square-foot casino in Ledyard, Conn., lately revealed that it has signed an agreement to function with Nunes in Milford.

Although Foxwoods’ 20 years of experience operating a resort casino in New England delivers a significant boost to Nunes, his competition couldn’t be additional formidable. It featues Las Vegas tycoon Steve Wynn, who has set up camp in Everett, and Boston’s Suffolk Downs racetrack, backed by a effective group of wealthy and politically wired investors.

A few miles down I-495 in Plainville, Plainridge Racecourse chief Gary Piontkowski and his group of regional investors also face competitors in their pursuit of a slots parlor license.

But the Plainridge group may possibly have some benefits, like community assistance and a head start on construction, obtaining currently begun a crucial part of their proposed slots complicated: securing permission to build a 1,000-car parking garage.

“The most important..along with the greatest benefit is speed to market,” Piontkowski stated. If he can get all essential approvals, he believes he can roll out slots in a matter months.
Casino Developers Target 495

If nothing at all else, what workplace developers have dubbed 495 South has grow to be a magnet for gambling developers scouting for areas since Massachusetts passed legislation in 2011 that gave a green light to three casinos in addition to a slots parlor.

The area’s somewhat affluent demographics, highway access and strategic position between Boston, Providence and Worcester have already been a major draw.

Prior to he landed in Everett, Wynn tried unsuccessfully to convince Foxborough to let him construct a billion-dollar gambling palace next door to Gillette Stadium.

Not far from the 495 corridor, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has laid out plans for any tribal casino in Taunton, though that strategy hinges on federal regulations governing Indian gaming.

Nunes desires to develop a 300,000-square-foot, Vegas-sized casino in the intersection of 495 and Route 16 in Milford.

Piontkowski, whose dozen-plus partners incorporate an Arizona racino mogul and the former owner of what’s now Rhode Island’s Twin River Casino in Lincoln, is taking a look at a smaller sized slots parlor plan that would feature 1,250 slot machines, but no hotels or other casino trappings.

If all three proposals had been to win approval, the 495 corridor could rival southeastern Connecticut, where Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods are just miles apart.

But offered that each and every faces its personal set of exclusive challenges, all the chips would have to fall into place completely for that to happen.
Diverse Projects, Distinctive Odds

Though it might be too early to get in touch with any one a front-runner, Piontkowski’s group has potentially important advantages more than some of the additional high-power competitors for the slots license.

In addition to his head start off on his parking garage, probably he greatest can be a relatively supportive community and town government.

The racetrack has been a significant presence in town for years, together with the owners possessing lobbied for state legislation that would enable them to roll out slot machines for properly additional than a decade.

The final substantial hurdle are going to be passing a town-wide referendum in Plainville, which is expected below the law.

Here once more, Plainridge has benefits as Plainville’s largest employer, with dozens of residents around the payroll.

“We have already been here for 15 years,” Piontkowski said. “We are the largest taxpayer, the biggest employer as well as the biggest charitable giver in town. We’re significant to this community.”

By contrast, most would-be casino developers can expect to face much more skeptical receptions, as Wynn found out soon after his Foxborough proposal stirred a fierce backlash at the polls final year when voters there elected anti-casino candidates to the Board of Selectmen. He soon abandoned his plans.

The Cordish Cos., a Maryland casino developer, has just entered the very first stages of placing collectively a proposal for any slots parlor around the North Shore, although Chicago billionaire Neil Bluhm is hunting for internet sites.

So, Plainridge’s capability to get up and operating promptly may enable its case, because the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is looking to award the slots license by September.

Considering that the licensing with the resort-style casinos will take longer, the commission has produced it clear it’s looking to get a slots parlor up initial to bring in the new revenues.

“They (Plainridge investors) are already making the investment – that is certainly going to present a robust case,” said Clyde Barrow, director with the Center for Policy Evaluation at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

That mentioned, Plainridge’s competitors for the slots license are all established players in the gaming sector. Cordish constructed the Maryland Live! Casino and Bluhm casinos in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, when the owner on the Philadelphia Park racino has teamed up with George Carney, owner of Raynham Park, to vie for the license. Considering the fact that 2010, Raynham Park has only been able to offer simulcasted dog racing right after voters banned wagering on live greyhound races in 2008.
No Enthusiasm In Milford?

Nunes and his group may face by far the most daunting challenge with their proposal for Milford.

Nunes is no stranger towards the volatile realities of small-town Massachusetts politics, having helped develop the Watertown Arsenal Mall. He’s also an old hand at casino politics, having worked within the early 2000s with the Aquinnah tribe in its bid to create a casino in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Nunes even teamed up with Donald Trump several years back when Trump briefly flirted with all the concept of creating a casino in Rhode Island.

But while Nunes has been nursing his Milford proposal for any couple of years, he’s a relative newcomer to town.

And whilst town officials happen to be open for the notion of a casino, they haven’t rushed to jump around the bandwagon either, waiting for Nunes to come forward with a formal proposal.

Meanwhile, Nunes faces a quadruple hurdle when it comes to getting a green light from Milford.

The developer will have to initially ink an agreement with town officials, then win over a majority of voters within a town referendum. Nevertheless it does not quit there – considering the fact that casinos and gambling are novel development utilizes for Milford, Nunes may also must win a two-thirds vote at Town Meeting to alter the zoning governing the sprawling tract of land he controls.

The only potentially saving grace is that Town Meeting members are elected, which would avert casino opponents from packing the hall.

Following that, Nunes must also come to some sort of mitigation agreement with Hopkinton along with other surrounding communities, with officials in these towns vocal in their skepticism and concern.

Nonetheless, Nunes believes the jobs and tax income his project could bring will in the end give him a winning hand in wooing the town. His proposed casino would transform a “fallow piece of land that would never ever produce taxes for them” to the “biggest revenue producer in their town’s history,” Nunes contended in an early February telephone interview.

If he can clear those hurdles, Nunes then gets a likelihood to go up against a number of the greatest players in the casino organization.

Whilst he knows the competitors is fierce, Nunes isn’t backing down.

In a jab at Suffolk Downs, Nunes contends his web-site out within the suburbs will be safer for gamblers to visit than the gambling resort proposed for the East Boston racetrack.

He argues his location, on undeveloped land that is sufficiently separated from industrial and residential locations, will aid hold out bad components.

“If you examine the crime statistics … our place on 495 is an oasis unto itself,” he stated.