The Massachusetts House voted 108-46 on Thursday against a bill to legalize three commercial casinos.
Lawmakers instead approved a bill that sets up a commission to study the impacts of gaming. A report would be due by the end of December.
Class II gaming is legal in the cast but full-scale Class III gaming is not. The Mashpee Wampanoag
Tribe plans to open a gaming facility on land it wants placed in trust in the town of Middleboro.
The Bureau
of Indian Affairs is holding a public hearing on Tuesday to discuss the casino bid and on Wednesday to discuss the tribe's non-gaming land-into-trust application in the town of Mashpee, where its headquarters are located.
Get the Story:Tribe offers peek at casino plans (The New Bedford Standard Times 3/21)
Pols vote to discard casino bill (The Boston Herald 3/21)
Furious debate precedes casinos' demise House rejects Patrick's casino plan (AP 3/20)