Action Required to Meet Tonight’s Gaming Commission Deadline; Mayor Walsh Reaffirms Commitment to Protect the Interests of the Residents of Charlestown, East Boston and the City of Boston
The City of Boston today petitioned the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in order to preserve the interests of the City, its residents, businesses and visitors, in the development of proposed Mohegan Sun and Wynn resort destination casinos. The petition preserves the City’s right to assert host community status for both proposals, without waiving its rights to surrounding community status. The petition also asks the Gaming Commission to compel both proponents to share information with the communities that would be most impacted by their proposals.
“We believe this unrestricted route is the best path forward to protect the residents of East Boston and Charlestown, and the City of Boston as a whole,” Mayor Walsh said. “These applicants must have a more open dialogue with the people of Boston, particularly those neighborhoods that will be most impacted. At any time, if the facts indicate that Boston is a host city, we preserve its right to withdraw from surrounding community negotiations.”
The City also petitioned the Gaming Commission, in part, to reconsider its previous denial of Boston’s request for an extension. On Thursday, January 9, the City requested an extension of 30 days from the Commission deadline, in order to review 43,000 pages of documents provided to the City with just five business days to review. The vast majority of the documents were provided to the City for the first time and warrant careful review and analysis. The City’s reasonable request for an extension was denied by the Gaming Commission on the afternoon of Friday, January 10. The City had requested the extension in order to review and assess the documents; request and obtain additional information, clarification and supplementation of the filings; and to receive detailed input from the proponents.
While preserving its rights to host status, the City’s Petition also asked the Gaming Commission to have both the Wynn and Mohegan Sun applicants supplement their filings with the Commission, and if they fail to do that, for the Commission to designate Boston a surrounding community.
The petition also asked the Gaming Commission to compel both Mohegan Sun and Wynn to cooperate fully with the City, providing any and all information requested by the City so that it may best evaluate its status as host or surrounding community and properly evaluate the two proposals in relation to the City.
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Source: Mayor's Office
