Massachusetts voters will decide whether to repeal the state’s 2011 casino laws after the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that the question will be allowed on the election ballot this November. The state passed legislation in 2011 authorizing three casinos and one slot parlor, with MGM Resorts having only just been awarded the first casino license 10 days ago. Now that license and those yet to be awarded may not be worth the paper they’re printed on.
The quest for the ballot referendum was led by anti-casino advocates Repeal the Casino Deal, which collected nearly 69k signatures supporting its bid, more than enough to get the question on the ballot. But Attorney General Martha Coakley nixed the referendum idea on the grounds that it would infringe on the rights of property developers, in that the casino licenses constituted property that cannot be taken away without compensation. The Repeal bunch appealed Coakley’s ruling, leading to Tuesday’s unanimous decision by the SJC.
The SJC’s ruling states that repealing the casino law “would not constitute a taking of property without compensation.” It cites “the possibility of abolition” as “one of the many foreseeable risks that casinos, slots parlors and their investors take when they choose to apply for a license and invest in a casino or slots parlor.” Even the prospect of “substantial economic loss arising from a change in law under the core police power” doesn’t constitute a loss that “triggers an entitlement to fair compensation.”
Most of the casino companies vying for Massachusetts’ licenses have yet to comment on Tuesday’s ruling, but the American Gaming Association (AGA) has vowed to ensure that voters “have the facts about our industry instead of tired stereotypes.” The amount of dollars that both sides of this debate will spend to win voters’ hearts and minds could rival the $87m spent in Maryland ahead of their 2012 ballot referendum on gambling expansion.
MGM, which was a key player in the Maryland casino fight, has yet to formally accept its Massachusetts’ casino license. MGM recently won a concession from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to postpone payment of millions of dollars worth of fees and deposits until the referendum issue was settled. Shrewd move, as it turns out.
The only company that has so far spent any money on actual construction is Penn National Gaming, which was awarded the lone slots parlor license in Plainville this February. Senior VP Eric Schippers told the Boston Herald that the company was obviously disappointed by Tuesday’s ruling, but construction would continue “full steam ahead” while hoping for a more favorable result in November.
