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FOXBORO – Less than 24 hours after a decisive defeat at an election many considered a referendum on gambling in town, Wynn Resorts and the Kraft Group announced the end of a five-month effort to build a $1 billion resort casino on Route 1.
The Kraft Group, which owns the land on which Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn had proposed a destination resort, issued a news release Tuesday saying they are suspending their casino efforts. Wynn Resorts also issued a statement saying the company accepts the decision by voters.
“When the commonwealth of Massachusetts passed gaming legislation, we brought forth an opportunity with the unquestioned premier developer and operator in the industry,” the Kraft Group said in a news release. “We have the greatest respect for Steve Wynn, his team and his business model, and believe this unique opportunity was worthy of a chance to be heard. With Monday’s election, we believe the citizens of Foxboro have spoken.”
Wynn’s statement said the developer has spent the past six months seeking to communicate the benefits of its proposal.
“Yesterday’s election demonstrates the community’s will and Wynn Resorts respects the outcome,” the Wynn statement said.
Still, some are not convinced the casino plan is dead. Newly re-elected Selectwoman Lorraine Brue questioned whether “suspending” truly means halting the casino process.
The decision to pull the casino proposal, which proponents said would bring as many as 4,000 permanent jobs and up to $15 million in additional tax revenues, followed a major public relations and advertising blitz touting the benefits of a casino and asking selectmen to enter into negotiations as the first step in the state licensing process.
But with the re-election of Brue, an unabashed casino foe, and former state Rep. Ginny Coppola to the board of selectmen in Monday’s election, the results further solidified an anti-casino majority on a board that had voted 3-2 against the proposal in December.
Incumbent Larry Harrington and school committee member Martha Slattery, more sympathetic to the casino, fell by decisive 1,000-vote margins.
The battle over casino gambling polarized town voters into two camps: One that saw a resort casino as a potential source of needed jobs, development and tax relief for overburdened homeowners, and another that feared a casino would bring an influx of traffic, societal and crime problems and a major change in the town’s lifestyle.
Suspension of the Foxboro project could benefit a casino proposed in Boston by Suffolk Downs and Caesar’s Entertainment.
“Certainly, Suffolk Downs is the immediate beneficiary of the Wynn/Kraft proposal being withdrawn from Foxboro,” said Clyde Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. “It is possible that other developers will enter the Region A (greater Boston) competition, since MGM and Penn National have expressed interest in finding a new site. Las Vegas Sands also has not made its presence felt in Massachusetts up to this time.”
Suffolk Downs officials said the Foxboro pullout would not have any direct effect on their efforts to land a casino license.
“Our approach to this project – that we are going to have to earn a license based on the merits of our development proposal to create a world-class destination in a world-class city – is unchanged,” the racetrack’s Chip Tuttle said in a prepared statement. “Our focus remains working with our neighbors in East Boston and Revere to ensure our proposed development delivers jobs, road improvements, tourism growth and other economic benefits.”
The Legislature last year approved a long-awaited bill legalizing casino gambling and authorizing three large-scale casinos: one in Western Massachusetts, one in Greater Boston and one in Southeastern Massachusetts.
The law also authorized the licensing of a smaller slot machine parlor.
While Kraft and Wynn promoted a resort casino as an economic boon to Foxboro, some saw drawbacks in potentially concentrating too much legalized gambling in too small an area.
With the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe proposing a casino in Taunton, approval of a Foxboro development could have concentrated two-thirds of the state’s casino gambling in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Also, Plainridge Racecourse in Plainville is seeking the state’s slot parlor license.
UMass Dartmouth’s Barrow said having so many facilities in one area could have left the northeastern part of the state open to competition from New Hampshire, which has yet to legalize casinos.
The casino, first proposed in December, prompted a raging and sometimes bitter debate between local allies and opponents of the development.
For months, residents held protests, staged informational meetings and planted signs on their lawns reflecting casino-related positions.
The debate gave rise to two separate grassroots lobbying groups: one opposing casino development and the other, strongly backed by Wynn, talking up the benefits of his project.
In recent weeks Wynn took to the airwaves and placed full-page advertisements in local papers supporting a resort casino.
Although some claimed the media onslaught was meant to influence the outcome of the election, Wynn and the Kraft Group said their policy was not to interfere with voters’ choices.
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