For me, a natural Boston man like me and a longtime casino/gambling “fiery,” it was a surreal experience to actually see the ports of Angkor Boston open this weekend.
Trust me. The fact that a global resort casino that rivals anything on the streets of Las Vegas is located just 22.8 miles from my front door (yes, I checked it out in the car) is something I never thought would happen to this typical cynical New Englander.
It was in 2011, long before the idea that a full-scale casino resort could enter our way, after then-Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick signed a substantially expanded gameplay law. The closest that kind of casino has always been the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut and the Mohegan Line, both within a two-hour drive of Boston (no transportation) or the Twin Rivers Casino in Rhode Island.
Since then, there have been numerous controversies, lawsuits, and steep fines. MGM Springfield opened last summer as an impressive boutique building with both the bells and whistles of a Las Vegas-style casino, but it’s still just a 90-minute drive from Mass Pike in West Massachusetts.
When you think about last weekend, you’ll see why the grand opening at Angkor Boston Harbor deserves the kind of glamour and circumstance it received on Sunday. Of course, traffic and congestion are increasing, and with exorbitant charges on everything from parking lots to cabins (starting at $650 a night) to restaurant menus, many locals are rightly concerned. But for the tens of thousands of people who arrived on Sunday, fireworks and ribbon cutting didn’t seem to matter either. 슬롯머신
Luxurious real estate isn’t actually in Boston, nor is it in Boston Harbor. Its address is in Everett, a 40,000-carved city about two miles north of Boston along the Mystic River, the inspiration for the 2003 Academy Award-nominated Clint Eastwood film. Everett has always been known to me as the home of a perennial state champion high school football team and Mike’s roast beef, an inimitable late-night dining haven. It was also a convenient route to pass through from the north toward Boston to avoid traffic on the Tobin Bridge.