Massachusetts Casino Chief Resigns After LawsuitChairman Stephen Crosby Steps Down Amid Scandals |
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The top gaming regulator in Massachusetts stepped down Wednesday after a flurry of accusations involving the licensing of Las Vegas-based gambling giant Wynn Resorts for the sole casino license in the Boston area.
A $3 billion lawsuit filed last week by Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, operator of Suffolk Downs in Boston, alleged corruption on behalf of regulators and Wynn Resorts. Suffolk, which lost on its bid to become a Las Vegas-style casino, accused Wynn Resorts and Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby of mob ties. On Wednesday, Crosby stepped down.
Crosby denied the umbrella of allegations levied against him in his letter to the other commissioners. The agency hasn’t named a replacement yet.
“There has never been a shred of truth or accuracy to any charge of bias, favoritism, corrupt practice, ethics violations, or prejudgment in my execution of this job,” Crosby wrote. “We have done extraordinary work at the Gaming Commission, under the most daunting of circumstances. […] With a profound sense of sadness, regret—and yes, frustration—I am resigning as Chair of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.”
According to Crosby, he was facing allegations from all sides, not just those who lost out on their bid to win the sole casino license for that region of the state. The commission is actually in the process of reviewing Wynn’s license with regards to roughly nine-month-old sexual misconduct allegations against founder Steve Wynn.
“On Sept. 17, 2018, I received a letter from a lawyer for Steve Wynn insisting that I had already made up my mind against Steve Wynn regarding the allegations of sexual misconduct,” Crosby explained. “On Sept. 25, 2018, our counsel received a letter from counsel to Mohegan Sun, which has sued the Commission over the award of the Region A license to Wynn, insisting that I had already made up my mind in favor of Wynn Resorts in the suitability investigations. Simultaneously, Suffolk Downs filed a $3 billion lawsuit against Wynn Resorts, in which pages of accusations regurgitated false claims of bias made against me in the past.”
Crosby said that if he remained on the commission its objectivity “will be challenged.”
Suffolk accused Crosby of shady dealings involving the piece of land Wynn Resorts is building the $2.5 billion casino-hotel dubbed Encore Boston Harbor.
“The Wynn Defendants purchased the toxic site from an entity owned jointly by associates of La Cosa Nostra and a friend and former business partner of the Chairman of the Gaming Commission, Stephen Crosby. Not only did this sale run afoul of the Gaming Act, but this criminally-tainted entity was actually brought on to provide services to the Wynn Defendants and paid $100,000 per month […] At least one of those ‘service providers’ used threats and physical violence to further the Wynn Defendants’ pursuit of the gaming license. This was exactly the situation that the Gaming Act sought to prevent.”
Crosby’s name was mentioned 38 times in the 37-page complaint.
Encore Boston Harbor, still slated to open in mid-2019, is projected to generate about $260 million in annual tax revenue for state coffers.
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