Developer pushes for ballot question to legalize casinos

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

A Colorado casino developer, frustrated by years of inaction in the Legislature, said today he is launching a campaign to place a question on the 2012 ballot that would legalize three casinos in Massachusetts.

The proposed referendum that David Nunes submitted to Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office would license one Indian-run casino in the eastern part of the state and one casino in the western part of the state. It would also specifically designate that a third casino must be run by his company, Crossroads Massachusetts LLC, on land bordering Route 495 and Route 16 in Milford.

“If I’m going to spend the money for the initiative, I’m not going to do it so somebody else can win,” said Nunes, who said he is prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to gather the thousands of signatures necessary to place the question on the November 2012 ballot.

He cautioned, however, that he would only push the ballot question next year, if the Legislature and Governor Deval Patrick fail to legalize casinos when the issue is debated next month. Patrick and legislative leaders have failed multiple times in recent years to legalize casinos, even though he, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray all say they want them.

“To be perfectly honest, it’s an insurance policy for me,” Nunes said, who lives in Colorado and is originally from Massachusetts. “I’ve been at this for years and I’ve been told almost all those 13 years, ‘We’re going to get it this time. We’re going to get it this time.’”

Nunes has a long way to go to even get the question on the ballot. First Coakley must certify that it is legal for him to write a ballot question that would benefit Nunes own finances.

Today, he began the process by filing his proposal along with 17 certified signatures, more than the 10 necessary at this early stage. To qualify for the ballot, he will need to gather 68,911 signatures by November and an additional 11,485 signatures by June. Nunes said he is planning to hire a professional signature-gathering firm to help him.

In addition to legalizing three casinos, Nunes’ ballot question would establish several rules for them. It stipulates, for example, that the casinos would give the state 25 percent of their profits, and that the state must direct the bulk of that revenue to cities and towns. The ballot question also says, “Casinos can operate 24 hours a day and serve alcohol 24 hours a day.”

Nunes has been trying for four years to build a large casino and a 350-room hotel on 200 acres of land in Milford. He says the project will generate 2,800 permanent jobs and 2,200 construction jobs.

A 2010 Globe poll found that a slim majority of residents support legalizing some form of new gambling in the state. The poll indicated, however, that residents were split over what form of gambling they wanted. Twenty-seven percent supported three casinos, 22 percent wanted two casinos and slot machines at the racetracks, and 30 percent did not want any new gambling in the state.