While I have been keeping a vague eye on what has been happening in Massachusetts, I was under the impression that it would be some time until that actually started moving forward. Well, lo and behold, I am once again proven wrong.
Like Governor Cuomo lightening swift movements in New York, Governor Patrick in Massachusetts not only got the Gaming Law passed, he now has an executed Gaming Compact with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Further, the Tribe has already gotten the approval of the Town of Taunton to build the casino there.
The other competing and proposed casinos in Massachusetts are now in danger of being left in the dust of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, whilst they bicker and fight to get their piece of the action:
On Monday, July 30, the governor’s office in the State House
was jammed packed with citizens of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, members of the
press, state officials, the mayor of the City of Taunton, and of course Patrick
and Mashpee Chairman Cedric Cromwell, all celebrating the signing of the
tribal-state gaming compact. The tribe intends to build a $500 million
destination resort casino in the southeastern part of the state.
The gaming compact calls for the tribe to share 21.5 percent
of gross gaming revenue with the state, an amount that some people have
questioned as excessive. But Aaron Tobey Jr., council vice chairman, said the
compact preserves the tribe’s aboriginal hunting and fishing rights. “That has
more value than the revenue sharing itself. That means so much to us,” Tobey
said.
Cromwell said the
compact is unique in Indian country. “Here’s the key point: I believe we’re the
first tribe where the state and the government have negotiated a compact with a
landless tribe based on the history of who we are as a sovereign federally
recognized tribe with 12,000 years of history,” Cromwell said.
In April, the Mashpee nation unveiled plans for a $500
million destination resort casino in Taunton, one of the oldest cities in the
country, located in part of the Wampanoag’s vast aboriginal territory that
tribal ancestors called Cohannet. On May 17, Cromwell and Taunton Mayor Tom
Hoye announced that they had negotiated an intergovernmental agreement (IGA)
for the development of the tribe’s gaming facility. The IGA was required by the
state before the tribe could move forward with its casino plans. The agreement
will provide approximately $33 million in up front mitigation payments and a
minimum annual payment to the city of approximately $13 million. Taunton
residents approved the casino proposal at a binding referendum on June 9 by a
vote of 7696-4571. Also in June, the National Indian Gaming Commission approved
the tribe’s gaming ordinance and the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced the
tribe’s land-into-trust application was under review.
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