Bolton Wins Spot At Table In Slots Proposal
The developer of the prospective slots parlor in Leominster will be required to negotiate a surrounding community agreement with the town of Bolton, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission decided Thursday.
Other municipalities around the proposed Cordish Cos. slot parlors failed to meet the surrounding community designation, but if a slot parlor’s operations are determined to have a detrimental effect on a nearby town, they would be able to draw out of an estimated $15 million to $20 million in mitigation funding, commission chairman Stephen Crosby said.
“They will have an opportunity to come to us and tap into that money,” Crosby said.
Cordish Cos. has already reached agreements with Lancaster, Lunenburg, Westminster and Princeton.
Other municipalities sought surrounding community designations, but were not deemed to meet the definition, including Fitchburg, despite what Crosby described as an “impassioned” letter from Mayor Lisa Wong.
Fitchburg had also argued strenuously for mitigation from Cordish.
“The city does not possess the internal planning, economic development and legal resources necessary to identify all known impacts and to negotiate a Surrounding Community Agreement due to significant budget constraints. This is exacerbated by Cordish’s unwillingness to negotiate with the city and the potential for arbitration as a result,” Fitchburg officials wrote.
The letter, signed by Wong, said, “Preliminary reviews of information indicate that cities and towns located within a 10-mile radius of gambling facilities, with a higher than average poverty level, are more adversely affected by the introduction of those venues.”
In response to an email from a Fitchburg attorney, Bruce Tobey, the head of the gaming company advised city officials to visit Cordish properties in Maryland and Florida, and questioned their concern.
“We do not need to revisit Fitchburg to agree that it is depressed economically. We have been there countless times,” David Cordish wrote, adding that the developers “did not create these problems. Is the city somehow contending that we are the cause of Fitchburg’s problems today.”
Sterling also sought the status for its proximity to the proposed Leominster slots facility. But the commission’s staff noted that although the Sterling town line is within a quarter-mile from the proposed establishment, the slots parlor would be located on a dead-end road, and the closest residential neighborhood in Sterling would be a 5-mile commute via Interstate 190.
Crosby said the commission would fund studies to measure the impact of gaming establishments and could award dollars from the mitigation fund, which would be fed the state’s share of gaming revenue.
Penn National Gaming, which is hoping to build a slots parlor at the Plainridge Racecourse, has deals with Mansfield, North Attleboro and Wrentham and has designated Foxborough a surrounding community but has yet to work out an agreement.
Meanwhile, Parx Raynham, the developers of the proposed slots site in that town, was ordered to work out a similar agreement with Bridgewater. The Raynham developers already designated Middleborough, Easton and West Bridgewater as surrounding communities, which requires the slots parlor to work out an arrangement with the towns. Raynham worked out agreements with Taunton and nearby agreements with Rehoboth, Berkley and Lakeville. Nearby agreements are with places that do not meet the definition of surrounding community, according to a gaming official.
Gaming developers have 30 days to negotiate agreements with municipalities that receive surrounding community status, and if no deal is worked out, both sides must enter binding arbitration with the gaming commission.
Penn National agreed to give preference to Wrentham residents and businesses in hiring and contracting, study the impacts of the slots parlor on the nearby town and then fund mitigation for those impacts.
Cordish agreed to pay Lunenburg $5,000 per year, with the amount increasing by 1 percent annually, and a sliding scale of revenue sharing up to 1 percent if the slots parlor makes $275 million per year. Cordish also agreed to use union labor for construction, give hiring preferences and reimburse nearby fire and police departments for responses to the site.
Licensing of the state’s first slots parlor is on track for early January, Crosby said. The commission is scheduled to issue the lone slots license first, followed by casino licenses for the east and west of the state, and finally a license for the southeast.
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