WBUR reports on the decision between Suffolk Downs/Mohegan Sun in Revere and Wynn in Everett - two months before voters decide whether to allow any casinos in the state at all.

Updated with Gaming Commission statement.

MassLive.com reports the state Gaming Commission told Boston that if it's unwilling to go to arbitration with Wynn over compensation for its proposed Everett casino, then it's stripping Boston of its "surrounding community" status.

In a statement this morning, the commission says this does NOT mean Boston will get nothing from Wynn should it be selected for the Boston area's one casino license:

If Wynn gets the state's casino license for greater Boston, it says it will pay a local clean-water group to "seed" the Mystic's mouth with up to 250,000 oysters as a natural water-filtration system that could also help re-establish an estuary ecosystem there.

The Massachusetts Oyster Project has been working to bring oysters back to the waters of Boston Harbor because the bivalve's natural feeding habits - basically opening up and letting water flow in - are great at filtering particulates out of the water, some 30 gallons' worth of water a day.

Mayor Walsh today announced an agreement with Mohegan Sun under which the proposed Revere casino would pay the city at least $18 million a year plus another $3 million a year just for capital stuff in East Boston - should the state approve it as the Boston area's resort casino, rather than a competing plan in Everett.

In addition, the mayor said the owners of Suffolk Downs have agreed to keep their race track open through the life of the Mohegan Sun license. Also, Mohegan Sun will spend $45 million on traffic improvements around the casino.

In a statement, the mayor says:

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today Attorney General Martha Coakley goofed on blocking a referendum on casinos from appearing on this fall's ballot and ordered the question put to voters.

The state's highest court said the question, which would block casinos in the state would not be a "taking" of casino applicants' property, which the AG had said was the reason to keep it off the ballot.

Instead, the court ruled, the question deals with issues of public safety, which is a matter the state constitution let's voters decide.

Complete ruling, Stephen P. Abdow and others vs. Attorney General and others.

The Globe reports on Supreme Judicial Court Justice Robert Cordy, who once did lobbying for Suffolk Downs and who worked for then Gov. William Weld, now a lawyer for Steve Wynn, which is battling Suffolk Downs/Mohegan Sun for the Boston area's one casino license.

Yeah, sure, casinos right on the city line will have major impacts on Boston, but Boston is not a "host community" for either of the proposed casinos, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission decided today. The vote means Boston will not be able to hold referendums on the casinos that could block them permanently.

Commission members unanimously rejected arguments by Boston officials that the Suffolk Downs racetrack, which mostly sits in East Boston, is an integral part of the Mohegan Sun proposal.

On Monday, the Supreme Judicial Court hears arguments on whether it should order the state to allow a referendum this fall to repeal casino gambling.

Attorney General Martha Coakley declined to permit the question on the ballot, saying it would be an illegal "taking" of private property - in this case, the rights casino operators would gain if awarded contracts to run casinos - and would be unfair to the four communities that would otherwise stand to benefit from casinos or a slots parlor.

Sure, neither the Mohegan Sun nor the Wynn sites are actually in Boston, but they're right on the line and neither could survive without Boston's transportation and world-classness, so the mayor wants the state gaming commission to give Boston the same sort of "host community" status Revere and Everett have, the Globe reports.