CasinoWatch

Cape tribe will not bid for one of state's licenses; Orleans restauranteur makes US Poker Team; Delaying casinos for years

Mashpees Go Off Patrick’s Reservation
Local tribe will not bid for one of state's licenses

“The tribe is in a unique position,” he says. “The other players must wait for a commercial opportunity. The tribe does not have to wait for a commercial OK from the state. They have rights under the federal law that don’t call for a $300 million payment or put restrictions on the site or require a filing fee.” -Scott Ferson When it comes to bidding on one of the potential state gaming licenses, it looks like the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is all out.  Tribe spokesman Scott Ferson told us today that the Mashpees—the Cape Cod Indians whose plans for a resort casino prompted Governor Deval Patrick to propose the state get into the casino business by auctioning off state gaming permits—do not intend to bid for one of those state licenses. Instead, the Mashpees, who earned federal recognition as a sovereign tribe earlier this year, will continue with their original plan to build their casino on Indian land, where they’d be free to operate without paying state taxes.

By opting for the federal route, the Mashpees save a bundle of money ($350,000 to bid, $200 mil for the license and at least $100 mil annually in taxes). But on the other hand, the federal option puts the tribe on what could be a much dicier path to big time gaming. The major hang up right now being that the plot of land in Middleborough where they’d build has yet to be designated Indian land by the federal government. And though the tribe has petitioned the feds for such recognition, the Bureau of Indian of Affairs hasn’t indicated when it will consider the request.

Ferson says that timing was a big factor in the decision. Originally, questions concerning how long the fedral process could take prompted speculation that Gov. Patrick’s plan would tempt the tribe to forgo the uncertainty of the federal application path and simply bid for the quicker, easier state permit. But Ferson says the tribe now believes that the Federal process could take about two years, which, given all the confusion over when Beacon Hill will even consider Patrick’s casino bill, could mean a shorter wait than bidding on a state license...  Boston Magazine. 
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Betting the farm, or how to delay the casino for years
Big money and tough times forced Middleborough’s hand. The rest of the state may soon get the same cards

On july 28, thousands of Middleborough voters assembled on a high school football field for town meeting, one of the purest exercises in grass-roots democracy. Carpenters and lawyers, farmers and small-business owners all mingled under the hot sun. The question of the day: Should Middleborough approve an agreement negotiated by selectmen with the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe to bring a massive casino and resort to town? It would mean millions to the cash-strapped town budget, but plenty of new headaches for the rural community, too. Town meeting was a way to “let the people decide.” Yet for all the homage paid to this form of direct democracy, the issue had already been decided, in a practical sense, well before the moderator gaveled the meeting to order. Approval of the casino was a fait accompli, or at least close to it, as of April 27, the day a man nobody seemed to know walked into Town Hall and purchased a key parcel of land at a little-publicized town auction. The mystery man turned out to be an agent of the casino developers working with the Indian tribe. Once the Mashpee Wampanoag and their backers had control over the land they needed, they were sitting on pocket aces in a game of Texas Hold ’em.

After hours of sometimes rancorous debate on that late July afternoon, town meeting approved the casino deal by a wide margin. All eyes then turned toward Beacon Hill. Anticipation mounted for weeks as the state awaited Gov. Deval Patrick’s declaration of whether or not he would support casino gambling, an issue on which he had struck a Hamlet-like pose since taking office in January. On September 17, after weeks had turned to months, Patrick made official what many had come to guess, announcing his support for expanded legalized gambling in Massachusetts. Both tribal and non-tribal developers would be allowed to bid on commercial gambling licenses under the governor’s proposal, which called for three “destination resort” casinos in Massachusetts.  Perhaps nowhere was the decision felt more viscerally than in Middleborough, which had seemed to be the front-runner to host the state’s first full-scale casino, one planned to be among the largest in the world. The governor’s decision suddenly meant the tribe and town would now face lots of competition. But it also meant the state’s leading political figure was now on the casino bandwagon, bringing Massachusetts one crucial step closer to rolling the dice on expanded gambling....   MassInc.