Billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn must be popping his celebratory champagne right now after Massachusetts voters thumbed down a ballot question allowing another slots parlor in the state.
Wynn has been a staunch opponent of planned slots parlor in Revere since it would be a direct competition to his Wynn Boston Harbor in Everett, Massachusetts. He reportedly shelled out US$39,000 into a stealthy and successful last-minute campaign against the initiative, hoping to stomp out a potential gaming competitor.
And his efforts paid off. The Boston Globe reported that 61 percent of the Massachusetts voters rejected the ballot initiative while 39 percent said that they are in favor of Question 1.
American-born developer Eugene A. McCain Jr. was the one who pitched the ballot initiative, which would have authorized the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to license a second slots parlor in Massachusetts, in addition to the one already operating in Plainville.
Under Massachusetts’ 2011 gambling law, the state is restricted to only one slots parlor license, as well as three resort-style casino licenses to limit competition. But this changed when a then-anonymous backer of McCain funded the initiative.
A week before voters trooped to different precincts, the anonymous funder of second slots parlor was revealed to be Bridge Capital LLC, a Saipan-based investment company whose principals have launched slots proposals around the world.
Bridge Capital reportedly fueled the pro-second slots parlor campaign with US$3.2 million in order for the group to air TV and radio ads that claimed the slots parlor would raise $88 million in revenue for the state.
Opponents, on the other hand, belied this claim.
“These guys are insulting us by not even rising to the occasion with a robust proposal,” said opposition leader Celeste Ribeiro Myers. “How do you come to me from Thailand and tell me that you are here to keep the money in the state? That’s offensive. What do they take us for?”
Her group, which raised just $5,200 in the fight against the proposal, benefited from some strange bedfellows when the casino group Wynn Resorts formed a parallel opposition committee that had raised $30,000 as of last week, according to campaign finance reports. Wynn also quietly spent $39,000 fighting the Revere referendum on Oct. 18.
