Bay State gambling backers see urgency on legislationA southern New Hampshire golf course owner is raising the stakes in the race to build the first New England resort-style casino outside of Connecticut.
Golf Management Co. wants to transform its Green Meadow Golf Course in Hudson into the Sagamore Crossing Golf Resort & Convention Center. The $300 million project would include a 135,000-square-foot casino with 4,000 slot machines and 100 table games, a hotel and convention center.
The new proposal adds urgency to the Bay State casino debate.
State Rep. Martin J. Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat, who has introduced a measure on Beacon Hill to authorize two resort-style casinos in Massachusetts, said the Legislature should not waste any more time.
“We can’t drop the ball on this,” he said. “People are gambling already at two Connecticut casinos and we don’t want to lose out to New Hampshire, too.”
So far, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch has been skeptical of the push to legalize casinos.
“Any discussion of expanded gambling must answer questions about what it would mean for job creation, generating revenues and how it will affect the quality of life up here,” said Colin Manning, a Lynch spokesman.
A study by the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts found that a casino in New Hampshire could attract 8 million gamblers from Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire who spend as much as $825 million annually at the two Connecticut casinos.
A spokesman for House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said, “Speaker DeLeo will review a variety of revenue-generating proposals at the approprate time, including gambling.”
Yesterday, Cedric Cromwell, the newly elected Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council chairman, said he will ask Gov. Deval Patrick to begin formal negotiations for a casino in Middleboro.
Last year, the owners of Suffolk Downs and Wonderland Greyhound Park agreed to merge and try to build a casino in Revere.
Boston Herald
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