It's down to two communities in Southeastern Massachusetts that are still competing for a state casino license — the group pushing for a casino in Somerset has withdrawn its application.
Crossroads Massachusetts, the company that hoped to build a resort casino on town-owned land in Somerset, dropped out of the running for the license. The company had missed two deadlines to submit their plans for how they’d finance the project.
The remaining communities still vying for a casino are New Bedford and Brockton. Massachusetts Gaming Commission chair Stephen Crosby says that’s enough.
“We don’t want one," Crosby said. "I mean, the whole point is that one doesn’t put the pressure — we can still put pressure on a single applicant and we have enormous authority to make demands of an individual applicant. But the real competition comes when they’re competing with one another."
KG Urban Enterprises, which hopes to build in New Bedford, hasn’t submitted all their financial information yet, but the commission ruled today that their application is complete enough for them to move forward with the process. Voters in Brockton narrowly approved the plan to build on the fairgrounds there in a referendum earlier this week.
