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Massachusetts Gambling Commission Holds First Meeting

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The five member Massachusetts Gaming Commission held its first public meeting Tuesday as it set about to bring casino gambling to the state.   WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

     Declaring  the decades long debate over whether to bring casinos to Massachusetts is over, Stephen Crosby, the chairman of the powerful gaming commission, said he and the other four appointees were ready to get to work to implement the public policy in the best way they can.  He pledged that much of that work would take place in full public view.

  The commission’s first meeting held on the campus of UMass Boston was streamed live on the commission’s website.

  There was no opportunity for the public to speak at this inaugural meeting of the gaming commission, but chairman Crosby promised there would be public forums in the future and meetings would be held in all parts  of the state.

    The first meeting delt almost exclusively with what Crosby described as organizational and house keeping matters.

    The commission approved a mission statement, procurement rules and approved a one year lease for an office in downtown Boston.  Chairman Crosby said initially the commission will have a staff of about 30 people, but in coming years that could grow  to as large as 150 people.

        The commissioners interviewed  two finalists to be  their gaming consultant, both New Jersey based firms,  Michael and Carrol  and  Spectrum Gaming Group.

    The commission is empowered under the state’s gaming law to set the rules for gaming companies  to bid for licenses, to review the applications, award the licenses and monitor the casinos after the doors open for business to ensure compliance with the regulations the commission will write, and the revenue sharing mandated in the law.

    Up to three licenses for resort casinos can be issued in each of three regions. Several gaming companies are expected to vie for the lone license in western Massachusetts including Mohegan Sun, Ameristar, Hard Rock International and MGM Resorts.

    Gaming Commissioner Bruce Stebbins of Springfield, in an interview prior to today’s meeting said he was not surprised by the level of competition.

    Under timetables discussed publically by the gambling commissioners, the first casino licenses will likely be awarded next year, with construction starting  in late 2013 and the first Massachusetts casino opening about five years from now..

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.