Tag: Encore Casino

Responding to disruptive forces is what truly matters

What will life look like after this?

By Walt Pavlo
For the Leader Herald

A year ago, Everett’s future was about as bright as it had ever been. Looking down Broadway toward Boston one could see a completed casino, a huge bronze building that defined our side of the Mystic river. Then, Everett was on edge and many in the state divided as to whether Wynn would or should get its license because of strong allegations of sexual harassment by its former chairman Steve Wynn and an environment of covering it up. Wynn prevailed, the casino opened and, despite a few scuffles by late-night miscreants, we had 5,000 new jobs in our town.

Now, the casino is closed like many businesses in our town. While Encore is paying its employees for now, something we applaud here at the Leader Herald, we are all experiencing a time of uncertainty. What will life look like on the other side of coronavirus? It will be different.

We are all taking time indoors, for the most part with family, but we have our moments of solitude where we must confront the reality. We are asked to be brave and be strong but it is okay to feel fear, to embrace it for a positive change.

Continue reading Responding to disruptive forces is what truly matters

Wynn Resorts and Encore

The largest contributor to the city treasury, Encore Boston Harbor, has done the right thing closing down, and second, by paying the 5,000 employees who work there during this crisis for 30 days.

Bravo to Encore and the leadership at Wynn Resorts, especially to CEO Matt Maddox.

This is very big medicine where we come from.

Wynn Resorts has been put at major risk by closing down its facilities in Macau and in Las Vegas and now in Everett.

The major risk is going out of business if these major centers for entertainment, gambling and tourism do not reopen and if when reopened, no one comes.

These are extremely difficult times for Wynn Resorts.

Their juggernaut of facilities is closed.

Continue reading Wynn Resorts and Encore

Did mayor pay for Encore Suite or was it given for free?

Who else was invited to stay for free?

By Josh Resnek

Did Encore executives reserve a suite for the mayor and his family and others associated with the city at the hotel the night before the opening on June 23, 2019, and if they did, why has the mayor not itemized the payment for the suite on his recent campaign finance report?

Questions in some quarters have arisen about whether or not the mayor paid or was given the suite pro bono by Encore, which is not allowed for public officials under Massachusetts ethics law 268A.

Encore did in fact provide a complimentary suite for the mayor and his family, the night before the hotel opened officially to the public, according to Wynn Resorts Vice-President Michael Weaver.

“Mayor DeMaria was not charged for his room on June 22 and his counsel submitted a disclosure of that fact to the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission. Since it opened to the public on June 23 and began charging for rooms, Encore has not offered or permitted any complimentary rooms for any elected official,” Weaver told the Leader Herald.

The mayor – all mayors in the commonwealth and municipal officials – are required to pay personally or from their campaign account for such a suite or for any gratuity given to him over $50.

Continue reading Did mayor pay for Encore Suite or was it given for free?

LOOKING AT THE NEWS

More black eyes for Encore

By Josh Resnek

Do you know anyone who goes to a casino or hotel intending to start a fight on the gaming floor?

I don’t.

Frankly, the idea of fighting inside a casino is as alien to me as fighting in public anywhere.

Last weekend, several folks showed up at the Encore Casino who were headed for very different and difficult experiences.

To be perfectly honest, there was no way for the Encore operators to stop what happened over the weekend.

It is, after all, impossible to police people bent on creating havoc in places meant for fun.

Saturday night, two State Police troopers and an Everett police officer were injured in separate chaotic scenes leading to the tasering and arrest of one man and the arrest of another.

Around 2 a.m. Saturday night, a man identified as Brandon Wangoon, 25, of Brockton was being led from the gaming floor by Encore security when he became irate and aggressive.

When police arrived, he apparently took it to another level and violently attacked the police.

A trooper used a stun gun to disable Wangoon and to handcuff him. Wangoon again became assaultive, according to police, and had to be tackled.

A trooper struck his head taking down Wangoon and was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where it was reported he had suffered a concussion.

Continue reading LOOKING AT THE NEWS

LOOKING AT THE NEWS

The real mayor of Encore reveals himself and it isn’t Mayor DeMaria

By Josh Resnek

Unforgettable is how I would describe Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s speech on the day that the casino opened. He cried, he was so overcome with the enormity of the moment.

Those watching this spectacle believed then he was the mayor of Encore in every way.

Maybe he was then but he isn’t now.

The Mayor of Encore is a retired Watertown firefighter and former Armstrong Ambulance Service, according to a full report published in the Boston Herald recently.

“Stroll through Encore Boston Harbor’s lobby and Tower Suites and you’ll likely encounter Dan McDermott or, as some people call him, ‘The Mayor’” it was reported in the Herald feature.

There was no mention of the name DeMaria or that he is the mayor.

When I told several people that Carlo was no longer the mayor, some Everett people looked at me and said: “Are you kidding. If Carlo isn’t the mayor, then who is?”

“Dan McDermott is the mayor at least that’s what he’s being called at the Encore casino and hotel,” I replied.

Continue reading LOOKING AT THE NEWS