BOSTON—The City of Boston has filed an amended complaint against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that seeks to nullify the award of a Category 1 gaming license for the proposed $1.6-billion Wynn Everett casino to be built in the Boston suburb of Everett, MA.
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced on Thursday the latest court filing that expands the charges in its original civil complaint against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission filed on Jan. 5, 2015. The city's latest court action was filed on May 20.
In its amended complaint the city charges that the commission violated state gaming laws in the award of the gaming license to an affiliate of Wynn Resorts of Las Vegas in September 2014 over a rival bid by Mohegan Sun for a $1.3-billion casino to be built in Revere, MA at Suffolk Downs.
In the amended complaint, the city states: “The Commission's award of the license was the product of a corrupt process to favor Wynn, which deprived the citizens of Boston of their statutory right to vote on the proposed casino development and caused additional grave harm to the city's residents. The Commissioners have manipulated the gaming licensing process by (1) refusing to enforce mandatory provisions of the Expanded Gaming Act, (2) committing unauthorized acts outside the scope of their statutory authority, (3) violating the ethical provisions of the Expanded Gaming Act, and (4) adopting and implementing illegal regulations. Their conduct has irreparably tainted the gaming licensing process, and has demonstrated that they are unwilling and unable to fulfill their legal obligations as independent regulators.”
The litigation details a litany of allegations in connection with the award, including alleged improprieties in a land deal in Everett involving a former Monsanto Chemical plant. The city charges that Wynn officials knew convicted felons owned the land in question. In a statement, Wynn denied that it knew in advance of any issues in connection with the land purchase.
In the city's announcement on Thursday, Mayor Walsh said that the city had tried to negotiate a fair agreement with Wynn, but was unable to reach a deal. “This is a very important step in our ongoing efforts to protect the legal rights of the people of Charlestown and the City of Boston," Mayor Walsh said of the amended court action. "We have spent an enormous amount of time and effort on the casino issue from day one and it has always been our belief that Boston is a host community to this planned casino. The city is fighting this battle because the health, safety and welfare of Boston's residents will be jeopardized by Wynn's plans and it is clear that this is the only way to move forward to protect the rights of Boston's public and restore integrity to the gaming process."
The mayor said that the current legal access point to the proposed casino is through Horizon Way, which would require that entry and exit points to the property would go directly through the Charleston neighborhood. “This requires the vast majority of patrons to travel through Rutherford Avenue and Sullivan Square, an area that already faces severe traffic congestion, posing significant environmental and public safety harms. Additionally, Horizon Way is not zoned for a casino,” the mayor stated.
Massachusetts Gaming Commission spokesperson Elaine Driscoll released a statement in response to the amended city filing, which stated, ”Launching a personal assault on the five members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is a deeply disappointing and wholly unproductive approach to resolving important public policy issues. The Commission made each license award based solely on a thoughtful, objective and exhaustive evaluation of each gaming proposal. The Commissioners remain committed to the participatory, transparent and fair process that has been the touchstone of the Commission's work. And they remain hopeful that the parties can collaboratively resolve their differences and begin to realize the extraordinary benefits of jobs, economic development and revenue that the law was designed to produce.”
Wynn Resorts also released a statement critical of the city's expanded lawsuit, which stated, “All of these endless allegations are retread stories and are without merit. We are happy to be moving forward with our construction and site remediation planning. We had more than 800 people attend our construction job fair two weeks ago, so clearly there are many people interested in the revenue and job creation our project will bring to Everett.”
In response to the allegation in court papers by the city that the Wynn company knew in advance of issues surrounding the ownership in the Everett land deal, the firm states, “Wynn completed a compliance investigation of the property equity owners who were identified to the company. Later, during the course of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's suitability investigation of Wynn MA, LLC, the MGC Investigation and Enforcement Bureau (IEB) raised concerns about potential participants who had not been disclosed to Wynn. In cooperation with the IEB, Wynn amended the option agreement to clearly confirm ownership and to reduce the option price to reflect fair market value without casino use.”
The Wynn Everett casino resort, in addition to gaming space, will feature more than 600 hotel rooms, high-end retail and dining, ballroom and meeting space and a Harborwalk on a more than 30-acre site along the Mystic River. The resort is projected to create 4,000 construction jobs and 4,000 permanent jobs upon completion.
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