Kennedy: Vet new partner

LYNN – Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said city support for a Revere-based Suffolk Downs casino goes hand in hand with track owners doing a thorough job investigating their newest gambling partner.”My concern is that they vet people before they go too deep into the process. I don’t want to find the city backing a proposal and finding out it was not properly vetted,” Kennedy said.Suffolk executives in a statement pointed to Mohegan Sun’s financial strength as a significant reason for why Suffolk joined forces this week with the tri-state casino operator to propose building a gambling complex on 42 acres in Revere.Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo in a statement Wednesday said the state Gaming Commission in October “…found Mohegan Sun suitable to operate a gambling establishment in Massachusetts.””Clearly, Mohegan Sun is a first-class operator with a solid reputation in the industry and in our region,” Rizzo stated.The Suffolk-Mohegan partnership must submit plans for a Revere-only gambling complex to the commission by Dec. 31. The commission is scheduled to approve up to three casino licenses in different locations around the state early next year.”This agreement represents an opportunity to develop an incredible destination that will make the city of Revere proud as a host community, that will benefit the entire region with new jobs and economic development, and that will become the signature project for Massachusetts in the resort gaming industry,” Mohegan TribalGaming Authority Chief Executive Mitchell Etess is quoted in the statement.Suffolk executives revamped their casino proposal after East Boston voters rejected the track’s initial plan on Nov. 5. The ballot-box defeat came less than a month after Suffolk and former partner Caesars Entertainment parted ways following a Gaming Commission background investigation into Caesars.Kennedy in October asked Suffolk to designate Lynn as a surrounding community for the purpose of discussing ways gambling at Suffolk can help the city make road improvements and ease traffic congestion.She said chambers of commerce members from both cities will meet in Lynn City Hall on Dec. 10 at 10:30 a.m. to publicly state their support for Suffolk’s plans. The Lynn and Revere chambers represent about 550 businesses.In its statement, Suffolk executives said Mohegan Sun will help Suffolk assemble surrounding community agreements.Prior to the report Wednesday that it’s shifting focus to Revere from Palmer, where voters have rejected casino plans, Mohegan Sun on Tuesday emphasized its commitment to explore commercial development in Palmer while coming under fire from a town councilor who questioned their allegiance to the casino project.Mohegan expressed disappointment that Tuesday’s recount confirmed the rejection of a casino in Palmer, saying in a statement that a casino would have delivered the town a “promising future,” including more than $16 million in annual revenue and thousands of new jobs.”Despite these benefits, we know Palmer is sharply divided on the issue of casino gaming. We accept and respect the results of today’s recount and want to thank all of our supporters and volunteers for their tremendous dedication and hard work,” Mohegan said in a statement.In a letter to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission dated Monday, Palmer Town Councilor Paul Burns alleged that Mohegan Sun had not aggressively sought a license for a casino in Palmer compared to its competitors for the sole casino license in western Massachusetts.”Mohegan’s loss at the polls three weeks ago was not the result of a divided community; rather, it is the result of a conflicted Casino company, more focused on ensuring their financial viability and protecting their CT property than they were on securing a license,” Burns wrote, alleging that Suffolk Downs had acknowledged Mohegan’s interest in their project after Mohegan representatives “publicly branded me a liar for simply asking this question.”Information from State House News Se