Board Vote Formalizes Approval of Wynn’s Everett Casino
And now it’s official: The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has approved of Steve Wynn’s plan to build an Everett resort casino.
The unanimous vote Wednesday morning was more or less a formality, coming the day after the board voted 3-1 to to award the license to Wynn provided the company accept conditions the board had put on Wynn receiving the license over the past week.
The board voted after Wynn representatives said they agreed to the conditions, which included payments to the City of Boston, commitments to mitigate traffic at Sullivan Square, and a reconsideration of its design. A formal agreement was signed following the vote.
Wynn will not receive the license right away. It will be given the license, and pay the $85 million licensing fee, provided the state’s casino law survives a November ballot initiative to repeal it. This is the same plan the board put in place when voting to approve the MGM casino in Springfield earlier this year.
Wednesday’s very brief meeting also saw the board address a letter from Mohegan Sun, objecting to the process that saw Wynn defeat it in the competition for Greater Boston’s only casino license. In the letter, Mohegan Sun complained that it was not given as much of an opportunity as Wynn Tuesday to improve its offer. Commissioner James McHugh, who on Tuesday voiced his support for the Mohegan Sun proposal, dismissed the objections. McHugh said Tuesday’s discussions focused on conditions for receiving the license. Discussions focused more on Wynn because it faced more conditions, McHugh said, a result of Wynn not having reached a surrounding community agreement with Boston.
If everything runs on schedule, Wynn’s $1.6 billion resort is expected to open in 2017.
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