The Massachusetts Gaming Commission recently fined a nightclub at the Encore Casino and Hotel $25,000 for over-serving customers with alcohol.
The fine approximates less than a slap on the wrist at a location where there have been many hundreds of violations since the casino and hotel opened in 2019.
In a similar matter in Everett, the Licensing Board has restricted La Perle Restaurant after a violation – an apparent first and minor vilolation – in in such a way that the owner’s business has been placed in jeopardy and she might go out of business if her entertainment license and the right to remain open after 11 p.m. are not restored.
What’s good for the goose is supposed to be good for the gander but not when it comes to a fair and level playing field when it comes to handing out punishments by the Everett Licensing Board.
The casino and hotel is untouched by the harsh discriminatory and retaliatory edicts of the Everett Licensing Board, and with good reason.
We would ask that the MGC offer the Everett Licensing Board its opinion on whether or not a local liquor vendor who has invested almost $1 million in Everett Square should be deprived of making a decent living because of a first offense that did not harm anyone.
A $25,000 fine is a better solution than putting someone out of business because they are a Black woman operating in a white man’s world and being punished for it.
The MGC would never allow this.
The Everett Licensing Board should not allow it either.