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Gaming Commission OKs Delay For Springfield Casino

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Paul Tuthill
Published August 6, 2015 at 3:19 PM EDT
An artist's rendering of MGM Resorts proposed casino in Springfield, MA
MGM Springfield
An artist's rendering of MGM Resorts proposed casino in Springfield, MA
An artist's rendering of MGM Resorts proposed casino in Springfield, MA
Credit MGM Springfield

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has approved a delay in the opening of the MGM Springfield casino because of a highway reconstruction project.

The commission voted 5-0 Thursday to set a September 2018 opening date for the $800 million resort casino — a year later than originally planned.  

Although MassDOT says the reconstruction of I-91, which is right next to the casino site, could be done as soon as December 2017, MGM Springfield President Mike Mathis argued it was prudent to plan for a later finish.

"Certainty is the most important issue in our business so that we can negotiate and implement things that require us to 'pull the trigger today'," Mathis told commissioners at a meeting in Boston Thursday.

MGM filed a proposed construction timetable with the commission on June 25th that called for a Sept. 2018 opening.

Massachusetts will lose an estimated $11 million each month the casino opening is delayed.

Copyright 2015 WAMC Northeast Public Radio
Business News
Paul Tuthill
Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.
See stories by Paul Tuthill

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