$3B Lawsuit Filed Over Encore Boston Harbor

EVERETT, MA – Wynn Resorts has been hit with a lawsuit seeking up to $3 billion by its one-time competitor Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, which owned the Suffolk Downs racetrack. The company filed a federal racketeering suit Monday against Wynn and the previous owner of the Everett land on which the resort and casino is being built.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants "conspired to fix the application process, circumvent laws in place to prevent the infiltration of mob elements, and interfere and eliminate various regulations aimed at protecting the public at large." Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, which competed with Wynn for the gaming license, is seeking up to $3 billion – $1 billion for alleged direct losses, tripled under RICO laws, UniversalHub reported.

Wynn Resorts rejected the suit's claims in an emailed statement, calling them "frivolous." The company was granted a license by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in September 2014, but its "suitability" to hold a gaming license in the state came under question earlier this year following allegations of sexual misconduct against co-founder and former CEO Steve Wynn.

The Everett resort and casino has since taken steps to distance itself from its developer's namesake – changing the name of the complex to Encore Boston Harbor and removing Steve Wynn as an "individual qualifier" on its Massachusetts license – but remains under review by the gaming commission.

"While certain of the bad actors have been forced out of the Wynn organization, and Steve Wynn's name has been wiped from its casino in order to appear to 'cleanse' the Wynn entities so as to attempt to retain the Region A License, this does not change the fact that the license could not have been awarded to the Wynn Defendants in the first place but for the RICO predicate acts which include those described herein," the suit alleges.

Sterling Suffolk Racecourse also claims Wynn was allowed to build on "a toxic waste site loaded with levels of arsenic still so high that a child day care center would not be permitted to be housed there" and it bought the land from an entity owned by "associates of La Cosa Nostra and a friend and former business partner of the Chairman of the Gaming Commission, Stephen Crosby."

Developers have remediated the land since its sale. According to MassLive, Crosby recused himself when the land deal was reviewed, acknowledging his ties to co-owner Paul Lohnes.

"This lawsuit was brought by Richard Fields, an unsuccessful applicant for the license awarded to Wynn Resorts," Wynn Resorts said. "His claims are frivolous and clearly without foundation. We will mount a vigorous defense."

Photo Credit: Encore Boston Harbor