The city of Revere, Mass., and a union representing Suffolk Downs workers have sued the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, contending that the panel broke the law and gave Wynn Resorts unfair chances to revise what became its winning bid for the eastern Massachusetts casino license.
The filing by the city of Revere and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 103 charges the gaming commission with giving Wynn preferential treatment by letting the company rewrite its application multiple times.
"The Massachusetts Gaming Act... established the Commission to 'ensure public confidence in the integrity of the gaming license process,'" the suit reads. "The process by which Wynn obtained a license from the Commission could not be further from that goal. In voting to award a license to Wynn, the Commission acted arbitrarily and capriciously, abused its discretion, violated provisions of the Gaming Act, gave Wynn unequal (and better) treatment than other gaming applicants, and treated other applicants unfairly and inequitably."
The suit claims the gaming commission "failed to properly apply the statutory factors" for granting a gaming license and violated the Open Meeting Law by meeting in private during recesses in its hearings.
The gaming commission issued a statement on Thursday afternoon in response to the lawsuit.
"The Gaming Commission anticipated and understands that applicants and other invested parties, who are unsuccessful in their bid for one of the limited number of highly-coveted expanded gaming licenses, are going to be sorely disappointed," the statement reads. "We have seen that intense disappointment express itself in a number of ways, including legal action and even false accusations of bias against the Commission. This latest effort is yet another manifestation of disappointment from invested parties after a lengthy evaluation and public deliberation process that was based solely on the merits of competing proposals. We are confident that this complex licensing process has been executed in a manner that is comprehensive, thoughtful and fair, albeit unsatisfactory and disappointing to those who had hoped for a different outcome."
Wynn Resorts won the lucrative Boston-area casino license in September. Its proposal calls for the construction of a casino in Everett.
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The suit was filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. It seeks to have the gaming commission's approval of the sole eastern Massachusetts casino license overturned and the license awarded to Mohegan Sun for its proposed $1.1 billion casino on the Revere side of Suffolk Downs.
