Still no sports betting license for Raynham Park, Boston

While more than half-a-dozen companies have entered the state and started taking bets from Massachusetts residents since the industry was made legal and launched earlier this year, the Massasoit Greyhound Association, the business behind Raynham Park, can’t seem to get passed the licensing phase 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 said.

Raynham Park is, according to lawyers speaking for the company on Monday, owned by George Carney, Jr., who inherited the business from his father.

The involvement of his son Chris Carney, who has other business interests and companies working with the track, was of particular concern to the commission. Lawyers for the company spent most of their time during the six-hour meeting with commissioners trying to convince them that Chris Carney had no say in the business or sway with his father’s decision-making.

The commission, on the other hand, seemed very concerned they had not yet fully cleared the younger Carney for licensure, despite their belief he had represented himself as the company’s owner in several publications and press releases sent out by the family. A release sent 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 in the release, his ownership implied.

The Gaming Commission also learned in open meeting last Friday that several violations cited by the state Department of Environmental Protection concerning the handling and disposal of hazardous waste and construction-related materials were committed by companies operated by the family.

Also standing in their way is the fact that on Friday the owners of Raynham Park announced their deal with Caesars Sportsbook to run their sports betting business had fallen through. This is the second betting company to back out of a deal with the park, after Bet365 announced earlier this year they would not be doing business in Raynham.

Lawyers for the company asked the commission to consider their efforts to remove the younger Carney from any position of control within the sports betting business, and the fact they had been taking bets under a state license for decades when considering whether to move ahead of a finding 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 attorney general who is now a partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, said.

Dog racing hasn’t been allowed at Raynham Park since 2010, when the Carney’s business went from employing about 500 to less than 100. The track missed the bid for a casino license when the state expanded gambling in 2011.

When sports betting was made legal in the state, the family bought 13 acres of land next to the track and began building what they say will eventually become the largest physical sportsbook in the country. Construction of a new building was well underway when the Herald visited the track last October.

Back then, before they began having trouble getting past the commission, Chris Carney told the Herald his family was hoping to open the new business by April of 2023.

As of the end of Monday’s meeting, and notwithstanding the visible frustration of their attorneys, they still don’t have a license.