Wynn Files Libel Suit Against Casino Foe

BOSTON—In the ever escalating war of words and legal documents between Las Vegas-based developer Steve Wynn and Boston government officials, Wynn has filed suit charging libel against an unnamed opponent of his planned $1.7-billion Everett, MA casino.

Wynn Resorts chairman Steve Wynn filed a lawsuit on Monday in Suffolk County Superior Court. The suit, according to a report in the Boston Globe, charges the unnamed foe with libel for allegedly distributing to the media subpoenas issued in connection with the City of Boston's ongoing litigation against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's selection of Wynn Resorts' proposed casino project in Everett.

In a prepared statement, Wynn although not mentioning Boston Mayor Martin Walsh or his administration, lashed out at those that may have distributed the subpoenas to the press. “Although our commitment to Massachusetts is absolute and irrevocable, our tolerance for mean-spirited, libelous statements has exceeded any reasonable limit. Someone knowingly disseminated sham subpoenas containing falsehoods—outright lies—designed to interfere with our license granted by the Gaming Commission and defame our reputation," he says. "We intend to identify the malicious individuals who did this and call them to account.”

Wynn continues, “No individual or company who presents themselves honestly in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by any measure of fair play, should be subjected to the defamatory political abuse that we have experienced, and it is our intention to finally deal with it.”

Laura Oggeri, chief communications officer for the City of Boston, released a statement on behalf of the Walsh administration, which states, “We have not seen the lawsuit but the city did not provide these documents to the press.”

The latest legal filing just escalates what has been a nasty verbal and legal battle between Wynn and Boston Mayor Walsh who has complained about the traffic impacts the casino will have on sections of the city.

In late May the City of Boston filed an amended complaint against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that is seeking to nullify the award of a Category 1 gaming license for the proposed Wynn Everett casino.

That court filing expanded 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 charged 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 stated, “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 Gaming Commission and Wynn denied the charges leveled by the city and the commissoin stated that it hoped the city and Wynn could iron out their differences. Wynn Resorts in a statement in response to the May amended court filing, noted, “All of these endless allegations are retread stories and are without merit.”

In late August, The Wynn Resort in Everett won a critical state environmental approval when Matthew Beaton, secretary of energy and environmental affairs for The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, determined that the Second Supplemental Final Impact Report on the Wynn Resort “adequately and properly” complied with Massachusetts' environmental law.