This article first appeared in the Boston Business Journal
The chief lawyer for the state’s convention center authority — which is under investigation by two legislative watchdog committees — has left to become general counsel at the Mass. Gaming Commission, the agency overseeing gambling and casinos in the state.
Kevin Scanlon is the former general counsel at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which recently came under scrutiny for alleged transparency issues, ethical and contract violations as well as two investigations by legislative committees on Beacon Hill.
Scanlon is now the general counsel at the gaming commission, whose mission is to regulate the state’s casino, sports wagering and horse racing industries. The agency is the state’s main watchdog over the three casinos in Massachusetts: Plainridge Park Casino, MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor.
Scanlon was in the news most recently when the convention center authority’s previous CEO, Marcel Vernon, was ousted by the MCCA board in December, when Vernon signed a $500,000 settlement agreement and departed the organization.
Vernon’s departure followed reports that the authority’s board had been working to push him out in retaliation against Vernon’s cooperation with two state investigations into the authority’s conduct.
The first investigation, led by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights and Inclusion, was originally scheduled for Jan. 6, then rescheduled for Jan. 20 and has since been rescheduled for a date to be determined in March. The additional time was requested by the MCCA in order to give the new interim CEO, John Barros, time to get up to speed, according to state Rep. Bud Williams, co-chair of the joint committee. That investigation is looking into issues related to alleged racial discrimination that led to the departure of then-Executive Director David Gibbons in 2023, which then led to a report detailing the lack of diversity among the MCCA’s leadership, issued in October 2023 by law firm Prince Lobel Tye LLP.
The second legislative investigation, being led by the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, asked the MCCA to explain its process and decisions in 2023 related to the ,destruction of some devices amid two investigations that were ongoing at that time. The committee had requested that answers to its inquiries be submitted in December, but the hearing itself has not been scheduled and it’s unclear when it will take place.
Scanlon’s time at the MCCA included an incident last fall in which an internal memo from the convention center authority’s internal audit director, who reported to Scanlon, wrote to the general counsel that an internal review of the RFP’s cancellation couldn’t be completed because Scanlon himself wouldn’t provide the required information for her to complete the audit. That memo, dated Nov. 13 and obtained by the Business Journal, stated that the MCCA’s director of internal audit, Claudia Rodriguez Russell, had attempted to review the process around an RFP for public relations work that was issued and then cancelled before a vendor selection process could take place.
Scanlon started his new role on Feb. 9, according to a gaming commission spokesman.
The previous gaming commission general counsel, Todd Grossman, left in June 2025 to join sports-betting company PrizePicks. Chief Deputy General Counsel Justin Stempeck worked as the commission’s interim general counsel until Scanlon’s appointment earlier this month.
As for the MCCA general counsel position, a job posting on a legal industry website for in-house counsel dated Feb. 7 listed the MCCA general counsel position for hire at a pay range of $180,000 to $230,000 a year. Similarly, a job posting for the general counsel position at the MCCA went live on LinkedIn two weeks ago, but has since been updated to say it is no longer accepting applications.
