Dec. 06–The head of MGM Resorts International yesterday said he feels confident the state Gaming Commission will find MGM suitable to continue with the licensing process to open a casino in Springfield, but two gaming experts said they wouldn’t be so sure.
At a Boston College Chief Executives’ Club luncheon, James Murren told reporters he was “excited” about Monday’s hearing before the commission, five months after Springfield residents voted in favor of MGM’s proposed casino.
“I have every reason to expect that we’ll be found suitable,” Murren said. “I have found the commonwealth to be very deliberate, quite transparent, professional … which gives me the confidence, combined with the fact that I know the facts at hand with my own company.”
MGM is $13 billion in debt, however. And in October, another casino applicant, Caesars Entertainment Corp., withdrew from its partnership with Suffolk Downs after the commission’s investigators recommended against a license, partly because of Caesars’ $23.7 billion debt.
“It would be interesting to see how (Murren’s) going to finance (an $851 million) casino,” said the Rev. Richard McGowan, a Boston College professor who has written three books on gaming.
New Jersey investigators in 2009 raised red flags about MGM’s Macau business partner, Pansy Ho, and her father’s alleged ties to organized crime.
Since then, MGM has gone public in Macau Murren said, and Ho, who sits on the board, is now worth more than her father.
“My guess is MGM is going to have the same trouble they had in New Jersey,” said Whittier Law School professor I. Nelson Rose.
