Josh Resnek's blog

It appears a certainty according to sources close to the mayor and Suffolk Downs officials that the long awaited Host Agreement between them will be signed and made public.
This announcement will be followed by the public release of Revere’s Host Agreement with Suffolk Downs which was signed last month.
The Host Agreements finished and agreed to will allow for the state mandated referendums to be set in both East Boston and Revere.
These referendums are looming for East Boston and Revere, and more so for Suffolk Downs, as the single most important part of the casino puzzle.
The referendums must pass by wide margins that come close to Everett’s recent successful referendum which passed by an astounding 86-14 margin with 5500 voters coming out to cast a ballot.
Without strong showings in East Boston and Revere, the Gaming Commission will be forced to take a much closer look at the socio-political realities in both those places and to begin making determinations about which cities and town really want a casino and which don’t.
Recent Boston mayoral candidate polling conducted by Suffolk University has revealed a much closer margin for those for and against in East Boston than had been imagined.
This sent shock waves throughout the Suffolk Downs planning and strategy division led by Chip Tuttle.

Those following the casino application and licensing drama are a small crowd compared with those yawning about the process and the time it has consumed.
There is a great deal of not caring held among the people of Massachusetts about casinos – and three are coming in 2014 although the first openings may not come until 2015.
All the major action in this expanded gaming tableau is taking place in Everett and to a lesser extent these days in the Revere/East Boston nexus. The referendum in Everett last week on whether or not that industrial, middle class city would welcome a casino showed that those against such a facility on a contaminated 35-acre site were very hard to find.
Eighty-six per cent of the more than 5500 who voted cast a ballot in favor of Steve Wynn’s planned $1.2 billion investment. The general sentiment in Everett is that the casino is a bonus, a cash cow, a jobs provider and an overall plus for the hardscrabble city.
It is all of those indeed – and more.
Wynn’s salient into Everett has not caused the folks at Suffolk Downs to change their business model at all as they too go about the task of trying to gain a license at the famed racetrack.

Looking beyond the filings

Since January 15, private investigators led by the Massachusetts State Police Enforcement and Investigations Bureau, have been seeking, then gathering, and finally pouring through a literal mountain of information about the 11 applicants for gaming licenses who want to own casinos and a slot parlor in the Commonwealth.
Investigators are said to be studying answers given to 300 qualifiers and that they are presently searching through 21,000 pieces of paper as well as other documents relevant to the investigations now ongoing.
To date, it is not known if investigators have uncovered any wrongdoing or enough questions about filings they requested to invalidate anyone from the application process.
When asked Friday morning if information gathered so far could lead to the invalidation of any of the present applications, Gaming Commission spokesperson Elaine Driscoll said this: "The investigations remain active and ongoing. Any discussion concerning the results of the investigations would compromise the process."
Indeed.
For now, the public has to be satisfied with the Gaming Commission's press releases and public utterances at their open meetings held throughout the month and every month until such time as licenses are awarded.

Looking beyond the filings

Since January 15, private investigators led by the Massachusetts State Police Enforcement and Investigations Bureau, have been seeking, then gathering, and finally pouring through a literal mountain of information about the 11 applicants for gaming licenses who want to own casinos and a slot parlor in the Commonwealth.
Investigators are said to be studying answers given to 300 qualifiers and that they are presently searching through 21,000 pieces of paper as well as other documents relevant to the investigations now ongoing.
To date, it is not known if investigators have uncovered any wrongdoing or enough questions about filings they requested to invalidate anyone from the application process.
When asked Friday morning if information gathered so far could lead to the invalidation of any of the present applications, Gaming Commission spokesperson Elaine Driscoll said this: "The investigations remain active and ongoing. Any discussion concerning the results of the investigations would compromise the process."
Indeed.
For know, the public has to be satisfied with the Gaming Commission's press releases and public utterances at their open meetings held throughout the month and every month until such time as licenses are awarded.

Looking beyond the filings

By Joshua Resnek

Since January 15, private investigators led by the Massachusetts State Police Enforcement and Investigations Bureau, have been seeking, then gathering, and finally pouring through a literal mountain of information about the 11 applicants for gaming licenses who want to own casinos and a slot parlor in the Commonwealth.
Investigators are said to be studying answers given to 300 qualifiers and that they are presently searching through 21,000 pieces of paper as well as other documents relevant to the investigations now ongoing.
To date, it is not known if investigators have uncovered any wrongdoing or enough questions about filings they requested to invalidate anyone from the application process.
When asked Friday morning if information gathered so far could lead to the invalidation of any of the present applications, Gaming Commission spokesperson Elaine Driscoll said this: "The investigations remain active and ongoing. Any discussion concerning the results of the investigations would compromise the process."
Indeed.
For know, the public has to be satisfied with the Gaming Commission's press releases and public utterances at their open meetings held throughout the month and every month until such time as licenses are awarded.

Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby told a reporter yesterday during a long and rambling interview that the commission is taking a very methodical approach toward casino development here and that he is unruffled by those who claim the commission is moving too slowly.
He once again affirmed his personal belief that if the commission sticks its head in the sand like the ostriches that the ultimate product will be just fine no matter what anyone else is doing.
Crosby said yesterday casinos here will be judged on their impact over decades, not speed.
Again, he repeated his favorite mantra – timing means nothing, time is not of the essence in developing casinos in Massachusetts.
What really matters, he seems to say, is that the absence of speed in arriving at the time when casinos are operating here is somehow going to enhance and increase revenues, new jobs, corollary capital investment and on and on.
It won’t.
Our regional competitors already operating are ramping up their businesses at our expense in an everyday effort to take advantage of the fact that there will not be an operating casino here for at least 3 more years – which is a crying shame for a state treasury that could use a massive infusion of new revenues.