Weinberg acquires the Wonderland racetrack site

Weinberg’s acquisition of the closed Wonderland Greyhound Park turns a defunct racetrack into a strategic foothold in Massachusetts’s new casino competition. The purchase links valuable land near Revere to a planned resort, a contested public promise of jobs and renewal, and a political-financing trail that raises questions without, on the available evidence, conclusively proving that the acquisition itself was bought through corruption.

Background: A scarce casino license

Massachusetts had just passed a law allowing casinos, setting off a contest for three licenses: one in western Massachusetts, one expected to go to the Wampanoag tribe, and one near the city that Wayne Cosgrove described as the major prize. Securing land in Revere would give a casino bidder a substantial practical advantage. The site therefore mattered not merely as a closed sporting venue, but as a possible foundation for a project competing for a scarce public license.

The purchase was made under a corporate veil. Cosgrove explained that Envolve Development was probably the purchasing company, since a major gaming company using its own name could drive up the owners’ asking price. He identified Weinberg’s outfit as the front-runner. That arrangement makes the land deal part of a broader strategy: acquire a useful site without immediately revealing which powerful gaming interests stand behind it.

The acquisition and the site

Lennie Seltzer reported that Weinberg had the Wonderland track sewn up and had bought it shortly after it closed. Lennie speculated that Weinberg might even have funded activists seeking to protect the dogs in order to help bring about the track’s failure, but the account presents this as conjecture, not established fact.

Overnight documents obtained by Spenser confirmed that Weinberg owned Wonderland. The next day, Spenser and Z followed Weinberg’s Town Car, driven by Lewis Blanchard, through East Boston and Revere. They watched the two men visit several empty lots, including one within walking distance of the defunct greyhound track. Weinberg, wearing work boots, jeans, and a canvas coat, spoke with a man carrying surveying equipment while Blanchard scanned the property. The surveillance gave the paper ownership finding a visible counterpart: Weinberg was examining land in the area where his casino ambitions could take shape.

A development pitch—and a sale

Weinberg defended the prospective project as an engine of employment and infrastructure. He argued that the number of jobs he would bring to the town could offset its disadvantages, promised to revitalize the beach, and said the intended customers were high rollers rather than local residents. His stated ambition was to bring back the original Wonderland. The pitch recasts the racetrack property as a source of regional renewal, even as the focus on outside high-stakes customers complicates the promise that the development would principally serve the local community.

The Ocean View condo board later greeted Weinberg warmly and accepted a very attractive offer. The meeting proceeded without threats or the appearance of hired thugs, a contrast with the earlier intimidation surrounding the residents’ decision to sell. The offer included buffet vouchers for the planned Wonderland opening. The board’s enthusiastic reception shows the appeal of the deal, while Rita Fiore’s whispered contempt and Spenser’s attention to the contract leave room for skepticism about the public performance surrounding it.

Political money and unresolved proof

The casino contest also directs attention to political influence. Cosgrove found the expected official contributions: several thousand dollars at a time to senators, congressmen, and Revere council members. He separately traced nearly half a million dollars from Weinberg, routed through Envolve Development, to a super PAC run by the brother of Joseph G. Perrotti. That donation supplied a possible link between the concealed corporate structure and the political process governing casino licenses; it did not, by itself, establish an illicit exchange.

Later papers appeared to show payments going directly to Perrotti, some legal and most not. Cosgrove nevertheless stressed that proving what the papers meant was another matter and that their contents might be false. He also identified two companies involved in the payments as belonging to Gino Fish. The evidence thus widens the significance of the Wonderland acquisition—from a strategic property purchase to part of a larger inquiry into casino lobbying and political payoffs—while preserving the distinction between suspicious connections and a proven causal bargain.