Eleven prospective casino or slot parlor developers have paid the $400,000 fee and submitted phase one applications for a chance at three gaming licenses, while a few others are hoping for an extension of Tuesday’s deadline.
“For us it’s been great. For the last couple of days people have been running around, trying to get all their information together and line up their money. Somebody likened it to the end of a semester, when you have all the students running around trying to get their semester payments in,” Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby told reporters about an hour after the 5 p.m. deadline, as he announced the applicants.
The western region has four casino applicants: MGM Springfield, Hard Rock, Penn National, and Mohegan Sun. The eastern region has three casino applicants: Suffolk Downs, Wynn Resorts, and Crossroads Massachusetts.
The Gaming Commission is holding up on the application for a casino license in the southeast region while it awaits word on how the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is faring in its bid for a federal reservation in Taunton and an approved gaming compact.
Opening a new chapter after years of competition, Plainridge Racecourse, a harness horse racing track, and Raynham Park, a former dog track, are both vying for the lone slots parlor license.
Two applicants - Mass Gaming & Entertainment LLC, and PPE Casino Resorts - have not decided what region they are focused on or whether to vie for a casino or slots license.
That slots license will be the first gaming license issued, Crosby said.
“It’s anticipated that a slots parlor license will be awarded by the end of 2013, or perhaps a little sooner,” Crosby said. He said the first casino license would likely be awarded by the end of February 2014.
Other prospective developers have yet to turn in applications or fees, and are seeking to receive a new deadline for their applications.
“We have received some last-minute, literally last-minute correspondence within the last hour,” Crosby said. Asked how many hopeful applicants failed to meet the deadline and sought an extension, Crosby said “I think we have two that are kind of formal, that refer to our regs, and at least one or two others.”
Crosby said he believes the two late applicants seeking an extension are Paper City and Good Samaritan, both in Holyoke, and he said that the mayor of Chicopee had sent a fax, which appeared to be a request for an extension, but only one page came through of the two-page fax.
Casino opponent Celeste Myers said she was kicked out of the commission’s offices on State Street ahead of the press conference, and she is still hoping that casino projects can be defeated at the local level.
“The word on the street, as I talk to folks, one on one, in community forums, business owners, residents and the like, people have overwhelming concerns if they’re not 100 percent opposed to it,” said Myers, an East Boston resident, who stood on the street outside the meeting with a sign.
Crosby said that anyone who missed the deadline would need to receive a waiver from the commission.
“We have been very rigorous about Jan. 15, 5 o’clock being the deadline. We do have a process in our regs, which we wrote for this background-check phase where our deadlines can be waived, and if anybody applies to us formally for a waiver under that reg we will look at it and talk about it in a public meeting. Fundamentally, we’re adhering to the schedule,” Crosby said.
Asked about the prospect of extension requests delaying the licensing process, Crosby said, “I suppose it might slow things down. That would be one of the things we take into consideration.”
The first phase of application is focused on background investigations looking into the commercial entities, as well as the principals, and involving criminal background checks, financial due diligence and other tests.
“Investigations could take up to six months to complete,” Crosby said. He said, “We’re already well under way to writing the regulations for the phase two process, which will focus on the applicants’ actual site-specific plan. Phase two applications are expected to be released by the summer.”
At least $50,000 of each $400,000 fee is designated to be used by host and surrounding communities to negotiate with the applicant for the community agreements, Crosby said. The rest of the money will be used for the background investigations.
The phase two application process will include the requirement that the developer has received a host community agreement, a voters’ referendum on that host community agreement, and signed surrounding community agreements.
Springfield, which has applications from both MGM and Hard Rock, would be able to secure host community agreements with both those applicants, Crosby said.
Crosby said public versions of the applications would be made available at some point.
