The three days of Massachusetts Gaming Commission hearings are over.
Now we all await the decision.
Will the Encore Casino and Hotel receive its license to operate or will it not?
Will it receive the license free clear? Will it be denied the license? Will it be fined a huge sum of money and put on probation?
It is impossible to predict with any certainty exactly what the Gaming Commission is thinking.
We know this: time is of the essence.
What the MGC does it must do expeditiously, that is to say, it needs to make its finding public sooner rather than later.
With the a scheduled June 23 opening looming, nothing, we repeat, nothing, is more important than the casino opening in a timely fashion.
We repeat – it does not matter very much who owns the casino, that is, any number of companies can run the operation.
What is imperative is that the operation gets open and running. The doors need to open. The gaming needs to begin. The hotel must be rented over and over again.
Bottom line, if this casino/hotel project is to sustain itself, it needs
to take in about $1.2 billion a year in income.
But itself, that is an extraordinary amount of income the casino/hotel needs to generate.
The MGC must now decide what it is going to do, make the decision if it isn’t already made, and get on with it.
If the license is to be denied, then the other side of the denial is what matters. Finding a new owner and opening is what matters.
We urge the MGC to make its finding immediately, to release the finding, and to allow Encore or someone else to get on with it. Everett’s financial solvency is right now hanging in the balance.
Wynn Resorts may be a new company today but its sordid past history makes this MGC vote difficult.
The MGC needs to act within two weeks.
Meanwhile, Everett residents, Everett City Hall and Vine Street await the MGC decision – arguably the most important ever to be made during the city’s modern history.