Voters reject plan to build casino in Milford, Mass.

Voters in the Boston-area town of Milford, Mass., on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to build a casino in their town, despite promises from the casino developer to contribute millions of dollars annually to the town’s budget.

The rejection, by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent, is the latest setback to pro-casino forces in Massachusetts following the split vote two weeks ago for a casino at Suffolk Downs. The Milford casino, which would have been built and managed by Foxwoods, a Connecticut casino operator, is one of three proposals for the sole license allowed in the Boston area under the state’s casino law.

The third proposal is for a casino in Everett sought by Wynn Resorts. Voters in the town approved the project in a local referendum in June.

The Milford vote would seem to boost the chances of Suffolk Downs to receive a casino license, but its own bid has been complicated by the withdrawal of its partner in the project and the Nov. 5 rejection of the proposal by voters in East Boston, where 100 acres of the track are located. Separately, voters in Revere, where 52 acres of the track are located, endorsed the proposal, and Suffolk has said that it will submit a new proposal to the state’s gambling commission siting the entire project on the Revere portion of its property.

The deadline to submit proposals is Dec. 31. The gambling commission is expected to award the Boston area license in 2014.