US: Federal judge rules against Caesars in Massachusetts suit

Gaming giant Caesars Entertainment Corporation can’t sue the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for excluding it from the race for the coveted Boston-area casino license, according to a federal appeals court ruling that found no improper behavior by commission chairman Stephen Crosby.

The commission was able to make “highly discretionary” decisions “in response to an application to license activity carrying substantial risks of commercial and social harm,” according to the decision by Judge David H. Souter.
Caesars had accused Crosby of being biased during the licensing process and said he went out of his way to select Wynn Resorts, which eventually won the lucrative license. “The allegations say that Crosby urged Wynn to compete for the license and to remain an applicant at one point when Wynn was poised to withdraw in exasperation with the proceedings,” according to the decision.
The ruling removes a potential roadblock facing Wynn Resorts’ Everett gaming palace. Caesars also argued that it wasn’t given adequate time to appeal the commission’s decision to deny a license, which deprived it of a property interest through an “arbitrary exercise of government power.”
The court ruled that simply submitting a bid for a public contract does not create a property right, citing a recent Supreme Judicial Court decision that made the same finding. “Caesars has alleged no cognizable protected property interest said to have been infringed in violation of Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment due process,” wrote Souter.
“The issue … is whether Massachusetts law would recognize in the request for action by the commission a source of expectable value sufficiently reliable to be protected as property,” Souter wrote. “The licensing cases point to a negative answer, and the casino licensing law does the same with unmistakable emphasis.”