Last Days of Suffolk Downs?

City of Revere and Mohegan sun lost their bid to operate a resort casino

Racing at Suffolk Downs is on its last legs after the city of Revere, Massachusetts, and Mohegan Sun lost their bid to operate a resort casino to a proposed resort casino operated by Wynn Resorts in nearby Everett, according to the racetrack's COO.

Chip Tuttle said they've made it clear in the past that the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's decision would decide on the 79-year-old racing track's fate.

He says Suffolk Downs' employees are shocked by the decision and are wondering what comes next.

"In the case of the horse people, for them, it's a way of life. They're people who take care of horses, they don't necessarily fit in the innovation economy, and they're confused. They thought their jobs matter perhaps more than the Gaming Commission thinks they did," Tuttle said.

According to Tuttle, no racetrack has opened successfully without expanded gaming since 1997.

"This is a business that depends on the marriage of those two things and without that, we just don't see any way we can continue to operate," he said. 

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