Massachusetts Could Refund $85 Million Casino Licensing Fees If Law Was RepealedCasino Opponents Want November Vote On Stopping Casinos |
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Massachusetts gaming officials are in some sense preparing for the worst-casino scenario of the 2011 casino law being repealed in a November referendum.
It’s improbable, but it could happen. Opponents amassed enough signatures to get a statewide vote on repealing the 2011 law that authorized three casinos, each in three separate geographical regions of the state. One slots-only parlor was also authorized.
Casino developers are fighting the vote in the form of a lawsuit.
Not only is the missed opportunity to invest in the state a real fear, but also the massive licensing fee that is scheduled to be paid, by the winning bidders, prior to November.
The state is looking at a way to make sure it’s refundable if somehow the law was repealed.
“That’s not fair,” Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby told the Boston Herald. “We hear that, and one reasonable fix would be for the Legislature to do whatever it would have to do to make that money refundable in the unlikely event that that all happened.”
Both MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts are vying to build in the state.
The licensing fee for a casino-resort is $85 million. It’s $25 million for the slots parlor.
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