Battle for Gambling Licenses
It’s amazing how many pages it takes to create a casino application. It’s the size of the book!
- Wynn Resorts wants to create a $1.3 billion resort casino on the Mystic River waterfront, so they submitted an 18,000-page book of an application to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. They have received 86% of the vote from public voting.
- Mohegan Sun sent over a 16,000-page application for their proposed creation of a 42-acre project at Suffolk Downs in Revere. “Mohegan Sun will create something very special in Revere.”, says Mitchell Etess, CEO of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority.
- MGM sent over a 7,000-page application for a casino in Springfield. This one looks like a brochure compared to the other two I mentioned above which are more like War and Peace in comparison! They have stated that they want to create a world-class residential, dining, retail, and entertainment district in downtown Springfield. “Our application demonstrates our ability to do so,” said Michael Mathis, 3VP of global gaming development.
Casino Applications – Reasons
These casino businesses are vying for the very limited Massachusetts gaming licenses, as there are only three available. So it’s a fierce competition! They spare no expense.
The competition for these licenses actually goes through a two-phase application process. There have been quite a number of other prospective casino companies that decided to no go further in the competition. They likely saw these monsters of application length and decided they weren’t willing to write so much.
“Those applications have a vast array of criteria in them,”
says Stephen Crosby, commission chairman.
“These applications are thousands of pages long and contain answers to 200 questions we’ve asked.”
The Massachusetts gambling commission will be posting these applications online and will name the winners of the licenses in May.
The next phase of the casino application process includes a public comment period with hearings where the public can give their opinions.
There’s an interesting situation going on in the casino application process for Southeastern Massachusetts. Only one company has passed the first licensing phase — KG New Bedford. But Foxwoods Resort Casino is looking into competing with KG New Bedford and make it a two horse race for that coveted license.
Interestingly, since Foxwoods Resort Casino has already been approved in another region for the first phase, will not need to clear the first phase for this region, since they’ve already passed the necessary criteria. It’s a one-time approval process for the first phase.
Casino Application Process
The final casino application process is going to focus on five main areas:
- project overview
- finances
- economic development
- building and site design
- mitigation for host communities
We’re looking forward to seeing who comes out the winners of this battle.