Encore Boston Harbor – Everett Leader Herald

Stock exchange

Encore Boston Harbor casino as seen from Linden Street (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Wynn Resort execs cash out million$

By JOSH RESNEK

It is rarely a good sign of things to come when the top executives of a major company are selling off multi-million dollars’ worth of their stock.

Wynn CEO Matt Maddox sold 59,000 shares within the last two weeks.

He received approximately $6.3 million when the transaction settled.

Vice-President Elaine Whittemore has sold hundreds thousands of dollars of her stock recently, as well in a number of transactions recorded with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In both cases, the executives sold stock they were given by the company in lieu of salary because of the consequences the epidemic has caused for the worldwide gaming giant founded by Steve Wynn.

Maddox still owns 394,549 shares of Wynn stock.

He was paid a total of $18 million in cash and equities by Wynn Resorts in 2018.

In fact, the sale of the Maddox shares is not believed to be a lack of confidence in the company, but rather, his effort to compensate himself for salary he did not receive during the year.

Everett can’t stem tide of Coronavirus infections

**JANUARY 4:** Area residents wait in long lines to get a Covid- 19 test at the Rec Center on Elm Street. Testing is Monday through Thursday 7 AM – 7 PM, Friday and Saturday 12 PM – 6 PM. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

By JOSH RESNEK

Despite months of warnings, state mandates, and Draconian health regulations all intended to reduce the spread of the virus, the virus continues its deadly spread across the nation, in Everett, and most of Massachusetts.

Everett reported more than 500 new cases in the past ten days – with many people still believing the virus doesn’t exist, or that trying to get it under control doesn’t matter.

The City of Everett has been urging residents to stay at home, to social distance, wear face masks, and not to travel.

This did not stop the mayor from traveling to Aruba for the holidays.

More than 3,000 Americans are dying every day across the nation.

Infections are rising at approximately 250,000 a day – with no real end in sight until February or March, according to epidemiologists and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

The fear right now in Everett and nearly everywhere else is that during the next three weeks, a serious spike in deaths and infections is expected to materialize as a result of the Christmas and New Year’s Holiday gatherings and travel that took place.

Encore suffered terribly in 2020

The Encore Boston Harbor and the smoke stacks from the Exelon facility. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Reports of resort for sale continue despite denials

By JOSH RESNEK

Encore executives won’t say it publicly, but it is a good bet that they are not too sorry to send off the old year and to welcome 2021.

The virus. The shutdown of the hotel. The restrictions on gaming. The disastrous reduction in hours the casino can be open. The fights, overdoses, knifings, and shootings didn’t help either.

All in all, 2020 is the year of the headache and when Encore’s wallet shrank just a bit.

Rumors of a possible sale or attempted sale coming at the end of 2020 forced company officials to deny the rumors.

Such rumors have occurred repeatedly, and especially in the weeks just before Encore opened in June 2019, when MGM was reported in the Boston Globe to be negotiating the purchase of the Everett property.

Mayor aids Encore to escape closure

Last week, the mayor refused to act in concert with dozens of communities impacted negatively by the COVID-19 virus when the governor asked that communities like Everett intensify the effort to stop crowds from gathering.

Crowds gathering causes transmission. Transmission causes infection. Infection causes illness, hospitalization, and death, not always, but enough to have caused more than 300,000 deaths in the United States since March.

The mayor refused the governor’s request.

He went public in the Boston Herald to make his point.

We believe this was a mistake.

The mayor made the case that transmission is caused by household interactions between people in crowded circumstances more than by larger crowds gathering at the casino or at restaurants and health centers.

In this instance, the mayor reveals he thinks like President Trump about science.

Mayor bucks Governor Baker, Encore open during rollback

Doesn’t believe casino contributes to Covid-19 surge

By JOSH RESNEK

Saying you have to do what you have to do, the mayor spurned imposing new restrictions asked for by the governor which would likely have caused the casino to close down during the present surge.

At least that’s how the mayor put it for the Boston Herald, which highlighted in its Sunday edition the mayor’s refusal to impose further restrictions that might have caused the casino to close.

The mayor told the Herald he believed that the casino was not contributing to the spread of the virus.

“The mayor should be given some credit for keeping the casino open. Without it, without the income we get from it, the city will be in severe financial straits. It would be a catastrophe,” said Councilor Mike Marchese.

The mayor insisted the virus was being spread in Everett inside individual homes and apartments crowded with people and because of those coming in from the outside into those homes and apartments during the Thanksgiving Holiday.