with community guest writer N. A.

As detailed in a previous article, Baystate Racing DOES NOT need to build a horse track in order to start making money. Very little of their revenue will come from racing, a fact that’s self-evident when you consider they are only promising three days of racing in the first year and six days in subsequent years. It’s not my opinion that the track will by design be used at little as possible, it’s a fact.

Not only do they not make money from racing, but they actually don’t need to begin construction of any kind to start making money from simulcasting and OTB (off-track betting). Gaming bureaucracy can be a little complicated, but here is essentially how it works:

1. Local Approval
   • The first thing developers need is local approval: the location of the racetrack must be approved by City Council and signed by the Mayor. Baystate Racing has already submitted its Host Community Agreement to the City Council, and approval of the HCA will be considered a “green light” to move forward. Leominster’s mayor, Dean Mazzarella, has platformed this project from the beginning and will almost certainly approve the location. Unrelatedly: Mazzarella owns nine properties a mere quarter mile down the road on Mechanic and Glendale Sts–which, of course, could mean nothing. Some people just have incredibly good fortune with regard to real estate.  
   • If approved against the broader public will, the approval can be overridden if 12% of the city’s voters sign a petition against it, triggering a special election (Chapter 128A, §13A)
     
2. A Racing Meeting with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission
   • Baystate Racing would then need to apply to hold a Thoroughbred Racing Meeting with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC; 128A, §3) in order to obtain a Racing Meeting License. Essentially, this license allows them to hold horse races.  In their prior racing applications, developers highlighted that the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has the authority to entirely waive the minimum number of racing day requirement “as necessary and appropriate to ensure the financial ability of the licensee to develop and operate a track” (Chapter 128A, §2 & §9). Developers have argued that this power enables the MGC to issue a Racing Meeting License while entirely waiving the racing requirement during track construction, referred to as “dark days.” In other words: the MGC has the power to issue Racing Meeting Licenses without the requirement for racing meetings, which enables the developer (Baystate) to conduct simulcasting in the meantime.
     
3. Category 2 Sports Wagering License
   • After securing a Racing Meeting License (which they theoretically could obtain while committing to zero race days), BayState Racing could then apply for a Category 2 Sports Wagering License through the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (23N, §6). There are two stages to obtaining this extremely lucrative license:
     • First, they will request a temporary license that immediately permits sports wagering for up to 1 year.  During this time, they’ll be closely scrutinized by the MGC to determine if they should be issued a 5-year operator license. The temporary category 2 license would also permit BayState Racing to establish an online wagering platform in partnership with an established mobile wagering operator (eg DraftKings, FanDuel).
     • Subsequently, Baystate would be required to “make a capital investment of not less than $7,500,000 within 3 years after receiving a sports wagering license,” per 23N, §6. Development of the sports bar and racetrack counts towards the $7.5 million capital investment.

Thus, Baystate Racing could begin collecting revenue from simulcasting and both retail and online sports wagering before ever breaking ground on the track or its associated “activity field”. Despite forcing a change in state law to obtain the protected landfill, Baystate would feel little state pressure to build a track, update traffic infrastructure, or level the landfill. They get to have their cake and eat it too. Obtaining approval from MassDEP for their stunningly unwise landfill development would be slow going, in the extremely unlikely chance that it would be approved at all (not to mention approval from MassDOT to alter the Leominster Connector). They could easily acquire the land and do absolutely nothing with it for a period of years, while still extracting huge amounts of money from the region’s residents. They could, in fact, completely cease monitoring it for 11 months before the City would be allowed to step in, and the City wouldn’t be allowed to revoke their land use license without paying huge fines. It seems like a huge win for Baystate–exclusively.