The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) is pleased to announce the release of the 2020 applications and guidelines for the Community Mitigation Fund (CMF) grant program. The required forms and submission instructions are available here. The gaming law established an annual deadline of February 1 for applications from municipalities and other qualified governmental entities seeking mitigation funds.

The Massachusetts Legislature legalized casino gaming to produce broad-based economic development, including jobs and revenue.  To date, gaming tax revenue has exceeded $500 million, and the industry has created more than 12,000 construction jobs and thousands of operational jobs.  The Legislature also established an equally important mandate to mitigate unintended impacts associated with the arrival of casino gaming.  To that end, the law created the Community Mitigation Fund to support communities and governmental entities in offsetting costs related to the construction and operation of gaming facilities.

Since 2015, the MGC has issued approximately $16 million in funding to advance needs in transportation, non-transportation planning, workforce development, and public safety for municipalities and government entities located in the vicinity of the casinos.

According to the statute, the Commission will issue funds to assist host and surrounding communities, including “but not limited to, communities and water and sewer districts in the vicinity of a gaming establishment, local and regional education, transportation, infrastructure, housing, environmental issues and public safety, including the office of the county district attorney, police, fire, and emergency services.” Also, the Commission may distribute funds to a governmental entity or district other than a single municipality to implement a mitigation measure that affects more than one community.

“The Legislature wisely established a strong mandate requiring the mitigation of unintended impacts related to expanded gaming,” said MGC Chair Cathy Judd-Stein. “The MGC extends its gratitude to all those who have participated and who will participate in CMF’s highly collaborative mitigation planning and innovative programming.”

A Community Mitigation Fund review team will conduct a comprehensive review of all applications to ensure compliance with the 2020 Guidelines and make recommendations to the Commission. After deliberation on those recommendations, the Commission will vote to award grant monies by July 2020.

About MassGaming

The mission of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is to create a fair, transparent, and participatory process for implementing the expanded gaming law passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor in November, 2011. In creating that process, the Commission will strive to ensure that its decision-making and regulatory systems engender the confidence of the public and participants, and that they provide the greatest possible economic development benefits and revenues to the people of the Commonwealth, reduce to the maximum extent possible the potentially negative or unintended consequences of the new legislation, and allow an appropriate return on investment for gaming providers that assures the operation of casino-resorts of the highest quality. For more information on MGC, please visit MassGaming.com or connect and share on Twitter (@MassGamingComm) or Facebook www.facebook.com/MAGamingComm.