Despite working a playing institution in Raynham for a lot of the century, the house owners of the previous greyhound racing observe are struggling to persuade the state’s gaming fee they need to be allowed to take bets on skilled sports activities.
While greater than half-a-dozen corporations have entered the state and began taking bets from Massachusetts residents for the reason that trade was made authorized and launched earlier this yr, the Massasoit Greyhound Association, the enterprise behind Raynham Park, can’t appear to get handed the licensing section of operations.
“I have a number of questions that, to me, kill a claim that good cause has been shown on this record,” Commissioner Eileen O’Brien stated.
Raynham Park is, in accordance with attorneys talking for the corporate on Monday, owned by George Carney, Jr., who inherited the enterprise from his father.
The involvement of his son Chris Carney, who has different enterprise pursuits and corporations working with the observe, was of explicit concern to the fee. Lawyers for the corporate spent most of their time through the six-hour assembly with commissioners attempting to persuade them that Chris Carney had no say within the enterprise or sway together with his father’s decision-making.
The fee, however, appeared very involved they’d not but totally cleared the youthful Carney for licensure, regardless of their perception he had represented himself as the corporate’s proprietor in a number of publications and press releases despatched out by the household. A launch despatched to the Herald in January identifies Chris Carney as “Raynham Park owner.”
“Our sportsbook will be one of the largest sports gaming destinations not only in Massachusetts, but in the United States,” Carney is quoted within the launch, his possession implied.
The Gaming Commission additionally realized in open assembly final Friday that a number of violations cited by the state Department of Environmental Protection in regards to the dealing with and disposal of hazardous waste and construction-related supplies had been dedicated by corporations operated by the household.
Also standing of their method is the truth that on Friday the house owners of Raynham Park introduced their take care of Caesars Sportsbook to run their sports activities betting enterprise had fallen by means of. This is the second betting firm to again out of a take care of the park, after Bet365 introduced earlier this yr they might not be doing enterprise in Raynham.
Lawyers for the corporate requested the fee to contemplate their efforts to take away the youthful Carney from any place of management inside the sports activities betting enterprise, and the actual fact they’d been taking bets below a state license for many years when contemplating whether or not to maneuver forward of a discovering of preliminary suitability for a license.
“We do recognize that the operating agreement provides a gap, right, and we’re saying we can and expect to put that back together. And we don’t want the commission to do anything more but give us this conditional approval — which it can do — based on that actually occurring,” Jed Nosal, a former state assistant legal professional basic who’s now a accomplice at Womble Bond Dickinson, stated.
Dog racing hasn’t been allowed at Raynham Park since 2010, when the Carney’s enterprise went from using about 500 to lower than 100. The observe missed the bid for a on line casino license when the state expanded playing in 2011.
When sports activities betting was made authorized within the state, the household purchased 13 acres of land subsequent to the observe and started constructing what they are saying will ultimately turn out to be the most important bodily sportsbook within the nation. Construction of a brand new constructing was nicely underway when the Herald visited the observe final October.
Back then, earlier than they started having hassle getting previous the fee, Chris Carney informed the Herald his household hoped to open the brand new enterprise by April of 2023.
As of the top of Monday’s assembly, and however the seen frustration of their attorneys, they nonetheless don’t have a license.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”