Milford will see plan for casino

Developer David H. Nunes said he and his partners, Las Vegas-based Warner Gaming, will make a presentation to the Milford Board of Selectmen Monday night that will include a site plan and “conceptual ideas’’ for the property.

As a sign he is stepping up his effort to build the casino, Nunes was at the State House Thursday meeting with legislators who represent Milford and surrounding towns, he said. He said he wanted to address questions about “traffic and other concerns’’ among lawmakers.

“Massachusetts, if one were to look at the state as a whole and look at how successful the lottery has been, you have a propensity among the residents to enjoy this form of entertainment,’’ Nunes said in a phone interview yesterday.

The type of casino Nunes is proposing, something like a Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, is facing perhaps the most favorable political climate ever from the state’s political leadership. But there is some fierce opposition around the state.

Last month, for the first time, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo announced his support for allowing resort-style casinos in Massachusetts. Previously he had supported only slot machines at racetracks.

Governor Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray also support large casinos as a way to create jobs and capture tax revenue that casino backers say is leaving the state and going to Connecticut resorts.

Patrick’s proposal to license three resort casinos was defeated last year, largely because of opposition by Salvatore F. DiMasi, DeLeo’s predecessor.

The Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies will hold a hearing Oct. 29 on 17 bills related to expanded gambling in the state. Seth Gitell, spokesman for DeLeo, said a House bill could be ready as soon as January.

Nunes first met with Milford selectmen last year to gauge their openness to a casino. At the time, he told them he was also exploring other sites in the western suburbs of Boston.

But yesterday Nunes said he is focused on Milford now and is not involved in any other casino proposals.

Nunes said he is preparing now, in hope that legislation allowing casinos will be signed into law early next year.

“We don’t want to wait for the Legislature and then come flying into town,’’ Nunes said.

Milford is considered an ideal location because it is on I-495, not far from the Massachusetts Turnpike, Nunes said, and fairly close to Boston and Worcester.

“The whole concept of gaming in Massachusetts is to try to capture that traffic which heads south out of Massachusetts and from our northern neighbors to Connecticut and Rhode Island gaming facilities today,’’ he said.

Nunes, who is 49 and lives outside Aspen, Colo., has been part of multiple efforts to expand gambling in New England over the past nine years.

He worked with Donald Trump in 2006 on an unsuccessful attempt to build a casino in Johnston, R.I.

Before that, Nunes was the project manager for the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard in its effort to get into the gambling business.

Nunes has worked in the Boston area before, as managing partner for Philadelphia-based O’Neill Properties Group, when that company won the bid to redevelop the Watertown Arsenal complex.

He would face significant competition from other developers looking to cash in on expanded gambling in Massachusetts.

Mohegan Sun of Connecticut has looked into building a casino in Palmer, a small town in Central Massachusetts.

Suffolk Downs in East Boston and Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere have been working together to possibly launch a Boston-area casino.

Nunes’s partner, Warner Gaming of Las Vegas, declined to comment and referred a Globe reporter to Nunes.

According to its website, Warner Gaming has “obtained public and private financing for the acquisition or development of 18 casinos’’ and has operated casinos in the Las Vegas area and elsewhere.

In Milford, town officials sound open to the possibility of welcoming a casino.

“I think we need to handle it like any business opportunity,’’ said Brian Murray, chairman of the Board of Selectmen.

Louis Celozzi, town administrator, outlined Milford’s concerns in a memo to Murray dated Oct. 7.

Those concerns include traffic, water, sewage, additional infrastructure, finances, and “the issue of any business being in the best interests’’ of the town.

Anticasino activist Kathleen Conley Norbut said her message to Milford is “beware.’’

She is the president of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts, which she described as a statewide, nonpartisan coalition.

Norbut said a large casino does not provide good jobs for local residents, because such an operation attracts low-wage earners from elsewhere.

Problem gamblers and addicted gamblers are very costly to taxpayers, who have to absorb their social, legal, and medical expenses, she said.

“What is a particular concern is this is a short-term fix,’’ said Norbut, a former selectman in Monson. “It will be offset by long-term negative economic impacts to municipalities and to taxpayers.’’

Lisa Kocian can be reached at lkocian@globe.com.