Gov. appoints chair of gaming commission

Gov. Deval Patrick has appointed Stephen Crosby as the first chair of the new Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which is charged with approving and regulating as many as three resort-style casinos and one slot machine-only facility authorized by a gaming law that the governor signed in November.

Crosby is the dean of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at UMass Boston. He served as Administration and Finance secretary for Gov. Paul Cellucci in 2000 and 2001 and has held a number of other high-level positions in state government and private business.

The attorney general and treasurer will each appoint one additional member of the five-member Gaming Commission, with the remaining two members appointed jointly by two of the three appointing authorities (governor, attorney general, and treasurer). All members must be appointed by March 21, 2012.

The makeup and work of this powerful new independent state agency is important to cities and towns that may host a casino or slots-only facility and to surrounding municipalities that may be affected by one of these major new enterprises.

Any application for a casino submitted to the Gaming Commission must, under state law, include a commitment to identify the impact of the project on local infrastructure and provide a signed agreement between the host community and the applicant, including a community impact fee. The law also requires eligible applicants to commit to an agreement and impact fee with surrounding cities and towns.

The commission is charged with holding a public hearing on any application. In determining whether a license should be granted, the commission is required to take into account plans to mitigate the impact on the host and surrounding cities and towns tied to the development and operation of the gaming facility, as well as the level of public support for the proposal.