Wynn forging ahead on Massachusetts casino, despite environmental challenge

By Matt Stout, Boston Herald (TNS)

Thursday, June 9, 2016 | 10:39 a.m.

Casino magnate Steve Wynn said he is proceeding with site work for his $2 billion Everett, Mass., casino, confident he'll prevail against Somerville's environmental challenge, with plans to open the Wynn Boston Harbor resort­ by May 2019.

"What we're talking about is a place that's fun to go to," Wynn said yesterday, addressing the Boston College Chief Executives Club at the Boston Harbor Hotel.

Wynn told the local business leaders he anticipates opening the doors to Wynn Boston Harbor "34 months from July," or May 2019.

The Las Vegas mogul also addressed Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone's environmental appeal, filed earlier this year over concerns about the impact on Mystic River boat traffic and the 85-year term of the resort's Chapter 91 license.

"As I understand it, the mayor is morally opposed to it," Wynn said. "And I think for people who feel that way, there's nothing to say but, 'It's a free country. You can engage in the activity or choose not to.' But it's hard to criticize people who are using their own money to engage in activity that they feel they enjoy.

"Tell you the truth, I never­ defend gaming. I don't need to. And I don't think of myself as a gaming guy. I think of myself as a resort developer," Wynn said.

Wynn told the Herald before­ the event, "The appeal­ didn't stop us from doing­ the stage of work that we would do now anyway, which is all the remediation. There's work to be done on that site and on the sea wall and we have positive expectations about the appeal to MEPA because that agency reviews its own decisions.

Wynn hit a range of topics in his 45-minute speech, from his approach to development and management, to national politics. After receiving­ a glowing introduction from former Gov. William F. Weld -- a one-time attorney for Wynn who is now running as the Libertarian Party's vice president candidate -- Wynn joked that, "After that introduction, you have my vote."

Wynn, speaking later to reporters, said Weld hasn't asked for his vote or for contributions to his campaign with Gary Johnson, and added that he hasn't yet decided who'll get his vote for president.

On presidential politics, Wynn said, "I think racial divisiveness and all of the other things that are going­ on that are causing all of this frustration are basically linked to the economy and the deficit. As long as we keep diluting the value of everybody's paycheck, they're going to keep finding that their money at home is not doing the job for them -- they don't seem to have anything left. ... We need someone with the intellectual capacity to deal with the detail of government.

"Don't you all feel there's been enough lunacy and confusion in the presidential process ... that you could make a good excuse­ for everybody or you can believe that Donald Trump would do a great job, that Hillary Clinton is better, or that the libertarians are right. Naturally,­ I feel a lot of the people in this room tend to have libertarian instincts. ... like most people, I'm a lot of those things."