Rolling the Dice

Coverage of casino licensing and the gambling referendum

Wynn Resorts on hook for $1.3m in legal fees

Tab for law firms defending Gaming Commission from Steve Wynn

By Colman M. Herman and Bruce Mohl Casinos 0 Comments May 3, 2019

THE MASSACHUSETTS GAMING COMMISSION paid about $1.25 million to five outside law firms defending the agency and one of its top employees in a lawsuit brought by Steve Wynn, but officials say the legal tab will be picked up by Wynn Resorts. The invoices for legal work, released Friday in response to a public records(...)

What you need to know about the Wynn decision

Las Vegas firm has 30 days to pay $35m

By Andy Metzger Casinos, Wynn 0 Comments May 1, 2019

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission issued its decision about Wynn Resorts Tuesday night. On Wednesday, commissioners took questions from the press. Here’s a Q&A attempting to answer some of the questions around the decision. Q: Is the Wynn Resorts casino in Everett going to open as planned June 23? A: It looks that way. The Massachusetts(...)

‘Deeply troubled’ Gaming Commission allows Wynn to open casino

Company hit with $35m fine and CEO assessed $500,000

By Andy Metzger Gaming Commission, Matt Maddox, suitability, Wynn, Wynn Resorts 0 Comments Apr 30, 2019

WYNN RESORTS WILL need to pay $35 million and its CEO Matt Maddox will need to pony up $500,000 under a Massachusetts Gaming Commission decision that allows the gaming giant to keep its Boston-area casino license and open its Everett resort in June. In its decision, the commission found the company suitable to retain its(...)

Fate uncertain, Wynn doles out $1m to 10 groups

Museum of Fine Arts, RIZE Massachusetts biggest recipients

By Bruce Mohl Casinos 0 Comments Apr 18, 2019

WYNN RESORTS doled out nearly $1 million in donations to nine Massachusetts nonprofits and the city of Everett over the last two weeks despite uncertainty about whether the company will be allowed to retain its casino license. Since the close of three days of hearings by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on April 4, the casino(...)

Budget notes: Beacon Hill assuming Encore will open on time

Nursing homes get $30m Band-Aid

By Bruce Mohl and Andy Metzger Medicare, nursing homes, Pharmaceuticals, restaurants, Title X, Wynn 0 Comments Apr 10, 2019

THE MASSACHUSETTS GAMING Commission is currently meeting in private, trying to decide whether Wynn Resorts should be allowed to retain its casino license and open on time in June. But budget officials on Beacon Hill are acting as if the decision has already been made. A fiscal 2020 budget proposal put out by the House(...)

Wynn Resorts security chief gone after spying admission

James Stern copped to covert tactics in hearing last week

By Andy Metzger Casinos 0 Comments Apr 8, 2019

THE FORMER FBI AGENT who headed up Wynn Resorts’ security operation no longer has a job at the international casino business four days after telling regulators he spied on employees and the ex-wife of the company’s founder. The casino company, which plans to open an Everett resort in June, has been under scrutiny since a(...)

High stakes as Gaming Commission begins deliberations

Wynn lawyer says firm has ‘cleansed its character’

By Bruce Mohl Casinos 0 Comments Apr 4, 2019

AS IT BEGINS DELIBERATIONS on what to do with Wynn Resorts, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission can do pretty much whatever it wants. It can declare the company unsuitable and revoke its casino license. It can fine the company. It can declare individual executives unsuitable. Or it can do nothing. “The law provides the commission with(...)

Maddox’s explanations doubted by some commissioners

Wynn CEO says he ordered surveillance of rumor-monger last year

By Andy Metzger Casinos 0 Comments Apr 4, 2019

WYNN RESORTS CEO Matt Maddox said on Thursday that he wasn’t aware of the way Steve Wynn and some of the company’s employees had bought the silence of women who alleged sexual harassment or worse, but some members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission didn’t seem to buy it. “Can you see why to some people sitting(...)

Wynn CEO faces skeptical commissioners

Exec under fire for $10m payout to legal counsel Sinatra

By Andy Metzger Casinos 0 Comments Apr 3, 2019

DURING A BRUISING cross-examination with his company’s Boston area casino license hanging in the balance, Matt Maddox, the new CEO of Wynn Resorts, acknowledged “how ridiculous” it looks now that he believed the rash of accusations against his predecessor was a set-up and part of a “litigation strategy.” Maddox, who is trying to convince the(...)

How Steve Wynn covered his tracks

Gaming Commission report indicates money bought silence

By Bruce Mohl Casinos 0 Comments Apr 2, 2019

“THAT’S THE QUESTION, isn’t it?” asked Steve Wynn in an October 2017 deposition. That was Wynn’s response when he was asked why he paid a manicurist and her husband $7.5 million in 2005 if her allegation that she was raped and impregnated by the gambling mogul was false, as Wynn insisted it was. “That was(...)