BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts voters on Tuesday upheld a 2011 law that paved the way for legal casino gambling in the state, voting down a referendum that would have overturned the measure and stopped two planned casinos in their tracks.
Anti-gambling activists campaigned for the referendum, arguing that casinos would cause harm including problem gambling and higher crime rates that would outweigh the benefit of any jobs created in the New England state.
Pro-casino activists noted that neighboring Connecticut was already home to multiple large casinos, which are patronized by many Massachusetts gamblers, and that having casinos at home would boost state coffers.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has already awarded two casino licenses, one to MGM Resorts International to open a casino in Springfield, along the state's border with Connecticut, and a second to Wynn Resorts Ltd to open a casino just outside Boston.
The formal award to MGM had been put on hold at the company's request until the results of Tuesday's referendum were known.
The commission has yet to rule on a third license, to operate a casino around the Cape Cod beach resort area.
A fourth license, awarded to Penn National Gaming Inc allowed for a slot machines-only facility on the Rhode Island border.
The planned casinos have already taken a toll on another longtime Massachusetts institution, the 79-year-old Suffolk Downs thoroughbred race track, which said last month it had run its last race after failing in a joint bid with Connecticut's Mohegan tribe to win the Boston-area license.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Peter Cooney)