MGE Drops Millbury Slots Bid
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An artist's rendering shows the slots parlor that had been proposed for Millbury by Mass Gaming & Entertainment.
Citing major local opposition to its proposal, Mass Gaming & Entertainment (MGE) said it has ended its bid to build the state’s only slots parlor in Millbury.
The announcement was made in a statement this afternoon from Neil Bluhm, chairman of MGE, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming.
“We spent a lot of time in Millbury and recently it became clear to us that a majority of residents do not support a casino,” he said. “As we continued our outreach, we decided that for this particular project, we should move forward only if community support was overwhelming. It is not our style to campaign aggressively and win a referendum narrowly. We prefer to join together with our host community and build something collaboratively.”
Bluhm also said MGE thinks “Millbury is a great community and we were impressed with the professionalism of the town officials and the enthusiasm we were welcomed with by so many.”
MGE had hoped to build a $200-million facility near the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley mall that would bring at least 450 permanent jobs. The company initially sought to build the slots parlor in Worcester near Kelley Square, but that fell through in June when a host agreement couldn't be reached with city officials.
With MGE out, two developers — in Leominster and Raynham — continue to vie for the state’s single slots license. Raynham voters overwhelmingly approved a host community agreement last month, while Leominster residents will vote on a proposal from Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. on Sept. 24. Voter-approved proposals must be submitted to the state gaming commission by Oct. 4. The commission expects to make a decision on the winning proposal by the end of the year.
In a related development, the state gaming commission has allowed Penn National Gaming to take over the host community agreement for a slots parlor in Plainville that had been worked out between the town and the owners of the Plainridge Racecourse. Last month, the commission had rejected the ownership of the Plainville proposal, putting the proposal for that town in doubt. The ownership change revives the proposal.
Last month, Penn National was rebuffed in its attempt to put in a slots parlor in Tewksbury.
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