Wynn Says Boston Refused First Casino Payment
Wynn Resorts put up its first payment to the City of Boston Wednesday, but says the city did not accept the money.
“The check was delivered to the (Massachusetts) Gaming Commission offices to be held in escrow for the City, after the City refused to accept the check,’’ Wynn said in a press release.
The $1 million marks the first mitigation money from the Vegas gambling powerhouse to Boston. The payments were included as a condition for Wynn to receive the sole Boston-area casino license last year. They could total from between $56 million to $76 million once all’s told, and are largely intended to help mitigate the traffic effects at Sullivan Square in Charlestown from Wynn’s planned Everett resort.
On Monday, the city sued the gaming commission over the Wynn license. Part of the lawsuit focuses on the city’s continued efforts to gain a “host community’’ designation, which would put it in better position to negotiate a more lucrative agreement with Wynn.
Boston was denied host community status by the commission last year, and later pulled out of negotiations with Wynn on a surrounding community agreement. The gaming panel built the Sullivan Square payments into Wynn’s licensing agreement in September. The city had said it was still looking to strike a deal with Wynn, but said it had to this point “been unable to reach an agreement’’ in announcing the lawsuit on Monday.
The city declined to comment because of the pending litigation.
It wouldn’t have been a great look for the city to take a payment from Wynn while bringing suit against the gaming commission over that very company. And with the money in escrow, the city will still be able to eventually claim the money if the lawsuit fails. So if the city turned down the cash, it wouldn’t quite be a “we don’t want your stinkin’ money’’ kind of scenario, at least not to the extreme.
But asked whether Wynn expected the city to deny the $1 million payment, spokesperson Greg John said: “No, not really.’’
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