Timeline Update: Commission releases important revised timeline regarding resort-casino licensing deadlines and required actions for Regions A, B & C
- May 19, 2014
- by MGC Communications
- 0 comments
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has released a revised document which offers ESTIMATED schedules for the award of Category 1 (resort-casino) gaming licenses for Regions A (Eastern Mass), B (Western Mass) and C (Southeastern Mass). This new timeline also includes the tentative schedule for actions that pertain to the City of Boston based on their recent designation as a ‘surrounding community’ to both the Wynn MA LLC and Mohegan Sun MA LLC proposals.
Based on several community requests for Region A arbitration extensions, the Commission developed a process to provide a community and applicant with mutually agreed upon calendar days. The Commission delegated the authority to the Ombudsman’s office to approve extensions to the deadlines specified in the Commission’s regulation, 205 CMR 125.01 (6)(c), for a period of up to fourteen (14) calendar days provided that such extension requests are mutually agreed upon by both the applicant and the community. For example, if a community and an applicant believe that 10 calendar days of additional negotiation prior to the filing of best and final offers would be useful to avoid arbitration, they could use 10 of the 14 calendar days to negotiate. If arbitration is unfortunately still necessary, the parties would utilize the procedures (including the deadlines) in the Commission’s regulation to arbitrate the disagreement starting after the 10 day stay period. If the parties encounter an unanticipated difficulty in meeting the Commission’s arbitration deadlines, the parties would have the remaining 4 days to use to remedy the difficulty. Under this more flexible approach, communities and applicants would have more leeway to address issues they may encounter in meeting the Commission’s deadlines. For more details on this process, please click here.
The newly released timeline includes actions relating to the City of Boston and a tentative Region A license award date between the end of August and the beginning of September 2014.
The newly released timeline notes the remaining steps to the Region B licensing process with a goal of awarding the licensing on June 13, 2014.
The revised timeline also includes the recent decision executed by the Commission to extend the deadline for Region C applications to no sooner than September 23, 2014.
View the estimated schedule here.