Boston mayor announces suit against gaming board

BOSTON – The city is suing the Mass. Gaming Commission, challenging the commission’s awarding of the sole Boston-area casino license to a Wynn Resorts project in Everett, according to the Boston Globe’s website.
Mayor Marty Walsh has argued Boston should be considered a host community for the Wynn proposal – and for the proposed Mohegan Sun project in Revere that lost out on the casino license to Wynn – but was rebuffed by the gaming commission in that effort, the website said. Had Boston been considered a host community, residents of adjacent neighborhoods would have been able to vote on whether to allow the casinos to be built, and the city would have been able to negotiate lucrative agreements with the companies.
Walsh later reached a “surrounding community” agreement with Mohegan Sun, but failed to reach an agreement with Wynn. In the process of awarding Wynn the casino license, the gaming board built in some mitigation payments to Boston, but they paled in comparison to the Mohegan Sun haul.
The city’s lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, asserts that Boston deserves host-community status for providing access to the casino through Charlestown. Aside from the access road, the suit says that Sullivan Square and Rutherford Avenue will also take on new traffic from the casino. •

No posts to display