Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe responds to doubts on gaming plan

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Artist's rendering of the First Light Resort and Casino in Taunton, Massachusetts. Image from Steelman Partners / Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

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It's taken a lot longer than expected but the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts is finally ready to start work on a casino despite doubts from rivals.

The tribe waited eight years for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to approve the First Light Resort and Casino in the city of Taunton. But a lawsuit won't deter a groundbreaking next month and gaming giant Genting Group has stepped up with enough financing to finish the first phase by the summer of 2017.

“There’s no question that the intent was to have three casinos and a slot parlor and that the southeast region was preferably to be an Indian casino,” gaming expert Clyde Barrow told The Cape Cod Times. “That was the intent and plan and now it’s coming to fruition.”

Barrow was referring to H.3702, the Massachusetts Expanded Gaming Act. The 2011 law authorized two commercial casinos in the western and eastern parts of the state and a slot machine facility in the southeastern region. It also envisioned a tribal casino in the southeast.

The New England Casino Race: Tribal and commercial gaming facilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island

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The law, however, left the door open to a commercial facility in the event that the tribe was not making progress. Neil Bluhm, whose net worth was pegged by Forbes at $2.9 billion -- hopes to capitalize on that provision by seeking approval to build a $675 million casino in Brockton, less than 20 miles from Taunton.

Bluhm is also financing the lawsuit against the BIA. The complaint in Littlefield v. Department of the Interior questions whether the tribe's land-into-trust application was approved lawfully in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar.

But the tribe is not a defendant and can't be sued due to sovereign immunity. So the lawsuit likely will not have much of an effect on the Taunton casino, Barrow said.

"They move forward and once revenue is coming in, it becomes difficult for any level of government to say 'tear it down,'" Barrow told the Times.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has not determined whether to move forward with Blumh's casino. A final meeting will take place on Monday, March 28, and a decision could come in late April, State House News Service reported. The tribe will have broken ground by then.

Get the Story:
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe holds cards on Taunton casino (The Cape Cod Times 3/22)
A final meeting in Brockton will help decide fate of proposed city casino (The Brockton Enterprise 3/22)
Gaming commission schedules continued casino hearing for Monday (The Cape Cod Times 3/21)

Federal Register Notices:
Proclaiming Certain Lands as Reservation for the Mashpee Wampanoag (January 8, 2016)
Land Acquisitions; Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (September 25, 2015)
Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Fee-to-Trust Transfer of Property and Subsequent Development of a Resort/Hotel and Ancillary Facilities in the City of Taunton, MA and Tribal Government Facilities in the Town of Mashpee, MA by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (September 5, 2014)

Relevant Documents:
Chairman Cedric Cromwell Announcement | Mashpee Wampanoag Trbe Press Release | Bureau of Indian Affairs Press Release | Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn Letter to Chairman Cedric Cromwell | Record of Decision