Which will open first: A Mass. casino or a medical marijuana facility?
The race for which will open first in Massachusetts—a casino or a medical marijuana dispensary—is down to the wire. And as they come down the stretch, the casino has the inside track.
Plainridge Park Casino will open to the public next Wednesday. The Penn National Gaming slots parlor in Plainville was licensed by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in early 2014.
Massachusetts casinos were first made legal in late 2011, following years and years of debate, when the state’s Expanded Gaming Act was passed. A few years (and a failed referendum) later, the state’s first gaming institution will open its doors.
Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration gave a waiver for some product testing to medical marijuana dispensary Alternative Therapies Group in Salem on Friday. The waiver means the dispensary, certified already, will be all clear to open—pending one final inspection from the state.
The medical marijuana licensing process has faced several roadblocks since Massachusetts voters strongly approved of the initiative in a 2012 ballot question.
The dispensary’s final inspection is expected to come soon, but officials did not give a date. Alternative Therapies Group has said it plans to open this summer.
While it looks like the casino will be first past the finish line of its long Massachusetts process, in fairness to medical marijuana, the gambling industry got a one-year head start.
Marijuana legalization, state by state
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