In the slow-simmering competition for a southeastern Massachusetts casino license, Foxwoods Resort Casino has just turned up the heat. It will wed spinster KG Urban, 
which brings a waterfront New Bedford site to the nuptials, while Foxwoods will provide the operational expertise. “We couldn’t have found a better choice for an operator — no one knows the Massachusetts and New England regional market better than the Mashantucket,” effused a KG Urban statement. The seemingly good news comes as KG Urban is having a falling out with Mayor Jon Mitchell, who wants the project — slated for an abandoned power plant — redesigned.
“We are in discussions with the developer about whether a casino makes sense at the proposed site … We continue to have ongoing discussions with KG Urban and we have hired one of the top planning firms in America, Sasaki Associates Inc., to review the suitability of KG Urban’s proposal. Sasaki’s input will guide us in determining whether a casino makes sense on our waterfront,” said Mitchell, leading KG Urban spokesman Andrew Paven to gloomily emit, “At this point, we are not sure we can come to agreement with this mayor.” However, KG Urban has former NBA Commissioner David Stern in there pitching its project. (Stern fils, Andrew, runs KG Urban.) Crossroads Massachusetts, which partnered with Foxwoods in its failed Milford push, is now an adversary. It’s teaming up with a Somerset group in a rival project.
Conspicuous by their absence are the Mashpee Wampanoags, who failed to achieve the federal standing necessary to own a casino. However, Neil Bluhm is back in the contest, his 
Rush Street Gaming partnering with George Carney (another also-ran in the slot-parlor derby). Their Mass Gaming & Entertainment has its eye on a horse track that has lain fallow for 15 years, Brockton Fairgrounds. Carney has also mooted bringing horseracing back to the site. Brockton City Council President Dennis Eaniri lavished praise on the proposal, projecting that it would bring 1,400 construction jobs and 1,500 casino ones to the area.
Only Mass Gaming got its application in on time, so its lawyer tried to have the other two supplicants bounced for tardiness. Nice try, but the Massachusetts Gaming Commission decided to be clement and push the application deadline to March 16. Seafan Trust never paid its $400,000 application fee and got sent packing, proving truly that money talks and bullshit walks. As for the remaining applicant, it’s a last-minute conflation of Crossroads Massachusetts and Somerset on the Move, and relatively little seems to be known about it.
While Foxwoods might seem the early favorite, its finances are in ropey condition and this is something the MGC takes seriously. Given his success in Philadelphia and Des Plaines (which just posted another competition-crushing month), Bluhm is the man to watch as the competition unfolds.
