If Massachusetts is to be successful in the casino gaming industry, state decision makers had better look to Singapore’s successful gambling operations, according to a local industry expert.
The Southeast Asian country has possibly the most well-run casinos in the world, and there’s one very evident reason why – it charges its residents $100 just to get in the door.
"Clearly, a successful casino brings in the outside money," said Richard McGowan, an economics professor at Boston College and author of several books on gambling, at a NAIOP forum on casinos coming to the state. "It has to be focused on the outside and bringing the money in. The last thing you want to do is cannibalize existing business."
The forum brought together speakers that represent the gaming industry, developers vying for rights to build casinos in the state, and the designated state gaming commission’s chairman.
Stephen Crosby, the dean of UMass Boston’s school of policy and global studies appointed to chair the state’s gaming commission, said one of the most important parts of the process of creating casino gambling operations in the commonwealth was for the public to believe that the entire process is "on the level."
"This is going to happen," Crosby said. "The question is, how do we do this? If we can do this without problems and so people will think it’s on the level, without corruption, if we can avoid terrible negatives, I’ll feel good. As you look around the United States, a lot of states have not even been able to meet that modest aspiration."
The panel included Stephen Tocco, president of ML Strategies – the company lobbying for Steve Wynn, the Vegas casino magnate pushing to build a gambling complex in Foxborough – and Troy Stremming, senior vice president of Ameristar Casinos, which is vying to construct a $500 million resort casino in Springfield.
Any developer hoping to open gambling operations in the commonwealth will be required to make an initial $85 million deposit to the state for the rights to open a casino, and $25 million for a slot parlor.
Crosby has faced some outside criticism that claims large, multinational casino operators are trying to buy their way into the Bay State. He attempted to answer those critics, in part, by saying "there’s nothing that says he or she with deepest pockets or biggest offers wins."
But the 12 casino proposals announced thus far overwhelmingly come from developers and operators with some pretty deep pockets. Wynn, for one, along with David Nunes, another casino developer, and the team of MGM and Rolling Hills Estates Realty Trust are among those vying to develop in the Bay State.
