Can a good man salvage a bad gambling law, one that threatens to turn the bidding for casino licenses into just another Massachusetts political farce?
That’s the challenge facing Stephen Crosby, the former university dean and state finance chief appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick to be the state’s casino czar.
I’m putting my bets on Crosby, clearly the right man for what is already shaping up to be a thankless job. The new chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has already been hammered with breathless stories suggesting ethical breaches for what, in reality, were minor missteps.
The most important thing to know about Crosby is what he isn’t – some aging former state senator on the make, hoping to use a post as gaming commission chair to land a cushy hack job with some lobbying firm or casino operator.
Crosby has a dean’s job waiting for him back at the University of Massachusetts Boston and isn’t about to jettison his hard-earned reputation for fairness and probity – built up during years in state government, academia and business – to please some casino tycoon and his pitchmen.
An Honorable Man
There’s certainly a lot riding on Crosby, who will oversee the implementation of a law that could spur billions of dollars in new development across the state, not just casino halls, but hotels, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues as well.
“This will be as big a story as we have in Massachusetts for some years,” Crosby told Banker & Tradesman.
Say what you will, but the fact is, individuals of Crosby’s character don’t always wind up as chairman of state gaming commissions.
Well-respected as secretary of administration and finance back in the early 2000s in the Swift/Cellucci days, Crosby went on to become the founding dean of one of the gems of public higher education in this state, the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. A Republican, he earned the respect of Gov. Deval Patrick, who has tapped him as an advisor on various issues.
If Crosby goes anywhere, it will be back to the McCormack, not to Mohegan Sun or Caesars Entertainment.
Compare that to the first chairman of Pennsylvania’s scandal-ridden state gaming board, who put his time in and took a job running a law firm with several casino clients.
It makes light of the pair of silly controversies Crosby recently found himself dealing with in the local media – the first for speaking at an event sponsored by a casino company, the second of a similar ilk.
Wow, sounds like a major crime spree.
Leveling The Field
But if Crosby is unlikely to be sucked into the casino-money vortex, he still faces the daunting challenge of preventing casino bidding in Massachusetts from becoming just another political horse race in which the group with the best lobbyists wins.
Pushed about the Massachusetts casino law, Crosby deftly deferred, carefully avoiding anything that could be remotely construed as critical.
Rather, he contends a key part of his job right now is to work with the cards he has been dealt and get the word out that the competition for licenses will be both fair and on the up and up.
“If participants in the process felt that something besides their merits was going to decide this, they would have no choice but to figure out what the currency is,” Crosby noted, adding his aim is to build confidence that “this is going to be an open and fair process.”
Still, right now Crosby is like a quarterback who missed half the game and is hurriedly thrust into the action with the home team facing a big deficit.
The legislation created an uneven playing field, one that favors Suffolk Downs in Boston in the competition for the big prize of the Massachusetts gaming market. Caesars Entertainment, and the track’s group of well-connected local business insiders and developers, are well poised to take advantage of a major loophole in the law requiring only a vote of East Boston – not the entire city – to approve a Las Vegas-style casino development in Eastie.
Other approvals are already set to glide smoothly into place thanks to backing of Boston’s strongman mayor, Thomas M. Menino.
By contrast, Steve Wynn, the other major contestant for the coveted Eastern Massachusetts license, may not even get a chance to bid. First he must convince Foxborough selectmen to negotiate with him and then, if successful there, he must win not one, but two town votes, the first a two thirds vote at Town Meeting, the second a town-wide referendum.
And if that weren’t enough, he has to work out some sort of mitigation deal with leaders in neighboring towns, who have been more skeptical about the proposal than Foxborough officials.
The Trump Card
Let’s get real here. Given the daunting set of obstacles facing Wynn, it is very possible Crosby and his new casino commission may get only one bid for the Eastern Massachusetts license – from Suffolk Downs, of course.
That would make a mockery of all the talk of Massachusetts rolling in money after bidding wars between Las Vegas casino giants.
That scenario was laid out to Crosby over coffee at the Boston Newton Marriott. Without flinching, he argued that even if there were just one bid for the eastern license, he still holds the trump card.
Nothing in the Massachusetts law says three casino licenses have to be awarded, Crosby noted. By contrast, it is “up to” three.
If Suffolk is the only bidder and its proposal and bid falls short, Crosby said without hesitation he would give the track and its powerful backers their walking papers.
“We might very well say ‘see you later,’” Crosby said. “We are perfectly within our rights not to award any license.”
Crosby may very well be bluffing. Then again, for a minute he had me convinced.
