Today the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (Commission) announces determinations of suitability regarding gaming applicant, Crossroads Massachusetts LLC (Crossroads) and its qualifiers, in pursuit of the resort-casino license for Region A (Eastern Massachusetts).

The application for a gaming license has two parts. The first, called the Phase 1 application, essentially focuses on the qualifications and suitability of the applicants and its “qualifiers” (entities and individuals) to hold a gaming license. The Phase 2 application is ‘site specific’ and focuses on site, design, finance, operation, community mitigation and other attributes of the gaming facility itself. As one of the prerequisites to submitting a Phase 2 (and final) application to the Commission outlining the specifics of its proposal for a gaming establishment, all applicants must first be issued a positive determination of suitability by the Commission.  The burden is on each applicant to establish its suitability to hold a gaming license by “clear and convincing evidence.”  To that end, all applicants that submitted a Phase 1 application have subjected themselves to a thorough background investigation of all its qualifiers, both individuals and entities.  The investigations are being conducted and remain ongoing by the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB) of the Commission.

On November 13, 2013 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, the Commission conducted an adjudicatory hearing relative to the completion of the background investigation based on the Phase 1 application submitted by Crossroads MA LLC /Foxwoods. As a result of the comprehensive background investigation, a lengthy adjudicatory proceeding and an intensive deliberation conducted by the five- member gaming commission, the Commission finds by a unanimous vote that Applicant, Crossroads has met its burden of proof with respect to the completed parts of its application and accordingly is conditionally issued a POSITIVE determination of suitability. The conditional positive finding of suitability includes actions the Commission requires the applicant to take.

This finding is conditioned upon the occurrence of the following:

1. The Applicant must obtain its additional equity financing and demonstrate an ability to obtain debt financing with partners suitable to the Commission and provide this information to the Commission in sufficient time to allow the IEB to complete its background investigation and for the Commission to issue a positive determination of suitability no later than December 31, 2013;

2. If the additional equity financing partners require or result in a change in the management structure of the Applicant as currently presented to the Commission, the Applicant must present the details of the revised structure to the Commission in sufficient time for the Commission to review and approve that structure no later than December 31, 2013;

3.  Applicant must maintain the structure, authority, power and responsibility of Foxwoods MA, LLC, as described during the suitability hearing for as long as any Foxwoods entity is involved in the operation of the project;

4.  Applicant must agree in writing to a complete waiver of its sovereign nation status in all activities it conducts under the authority of its Category 1 gaming license;

5.  Applicant must establish an independent compliance committee and provide the Commission with the committee charter and list of committee members;

6. In addition to the requirements of condition 1, above, the Applicant is required to promptly report any changes relating to its ownership, members, managers, and/or directors; any new owners, members, managers be required to submit a PHD or BED form to the Commission and that any owners, members, managers and/or directors must be found suitable by the Commission; and

7. If selected for licensure, the Applicant is required to submit a plan for compliance with the United States Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act (a.k.a. The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970) that is satisfactory to the Commission.

In light of this positive determination of suitability, the Applicant will be eligible to submit an RFA-2 (Phase 2) application in accordance with 205 CMR 118.01(1) upon satisfaction of the pre-requisite conditions.

The written decision issued by the Commission regarding Crossroads is available in its entirety here.