Judging from the wide smiles of everyone from those very first guests who waited hours to enter to the dealers, bartenders and parking attendants, nobody was disappointed. Opening Day at Thousands of people lined up at front entrance, five blocks deep, waiting to get in. Three casino licenses were eventually granted - two for casino resorts and one for a slot hall - and today the first full-blown casino in Massachusetts opened its doors to great fanfare, with tens of thousands of people flooding the surrounding streets, trying to be among the first to sit at a slot machine or double down at the blackjack table. In between that fateful November day in 2011 and today’s unveiling of this lavish, $960 million property, there have been controversies, protests, referendums and finger-pointing. It’s been seven long - and oftentimes painful - years since the Expanded Gaming Act was signed into law in Massachusetts by then-Gov. Take it from someone who has lived here his entire life: The sun-splashed casino grand opening of MGM Springfield today was a B-I-G deal for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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