Old betting slips litter the floor as bettors line up to place new wagers while attending the live Simulcast at Suffolk Downs in 2015. “We have made significant progress and are moving quickly toward finalizing agreements which we will announce at the appropriate time.” “Our mobile and retail licenses have attracted substantial interest from best-in-class sports book operators and brands,” Michael Buckley, the partnership’s current chief operating officer, said in a prepared statement. If Sterling Suffolk has a preferred location, it certainly isn’t tipping its hand. Either way, he doesn’t expect Sterling Suffolk to stay out near the end of the Blue Line. Richard McGowan, a gambling expert at Boston College, would place his bets on the TD Garden area over Fenway, because more crowds move through that area, in large part because of the arena’s location above North Station. The more logical place would be somewhere on the downtown side of Boston Harbor - perhaps near the TD Garden or Fenway Park, or another area with a vibrant nightlife scene like the Seaport or the Theater District. Other spots in Revere also have been floated, including in the Suffolk Downs redevelopment. So where would it go? O’Donnell and Vornado had an ownership interest in the old Wonderland greyhound track in Revere for years through a firm called CBW Lending, but Mayor Brian Arrigo signed an order in November to acquire the Wonderland property by eminent domain to put a new high school there. Patrons watch the live simulcast at Suffolk Downs in East Boston in 2015. So Sterling Suffolk would likely relocate the simulcasting operation away from Suffolk Downs itself - which is being transformed into a massive, mixed-use neighborhood.

The law says the sports betting must happen in the same location as the simulcast bets. Only two businesses qualified at the time: Raynham Park, the former greyhound track owned by the Carney family, and Sterling Suffolk. That law allows the holder of a simulcasting license to get a license for a retail sportsbook as well, so long as at least $7.5 million is invested in the project over three years.

This promise was cemented in the sports betting law the Legislature finally passed last summer after years of industry lobbying. All the while, the Sterling Suffolk partnership of concessionaire Joe O’Donnell, developer/horse enthusiast Richard Fields, and property investor Vornado Realty Trust hung together for another reason: the promise of sportsbook licenses that could allow them to accept mobile bets, and to open a brick-and-mortar betting parlor in Boston.

Casinos and sports betting business