Developer: Gaming panel's refusal to accept non-Indian casino applications 'illegal'
The state Gaming Commission's refusal to accept applications for resort casinos in Southeastern Massachusetts perpetuates the illegal bias given to Indian tribes by the state's Expanded Gaming Act, according to a developer that hopes to build a casino on the New Bedford waterfront.
KG Urban Enterprises, which is challenging the law in U.S. District Court, continues to maintain that the Mashpee Wampanoag, who intend to build a $500 million resort casino at the junction of Routes 24 and 140 in Taunton, cannot legally have the land taken into trust, meaning the tribe can never open a sovereign casino. The firm wants the tribal preference stripped from the law and the commission to seek commercial bidders for the area's casino.
Asked for his reaction to the commission's decision, Andrew M. Stern, KG's managing director and principal, said it reinforces the "illegal regional set-aside for a tribe which not only has no Indian lands, but which the United States Supreme Court has already held to be legally ineligible for Indian lands."
The federal Appeals Court sent KG's lawsuit, which was dismissed in February, back to District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton for reconsideration. A new hearing date has not yet been set.
Meanwhile, the Mashpee tribe completed the state's requirement to operate a federally regulated casino in Taunton by its July 31 deadline. The tribe's compact with the state still must be approved by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and land must be taken into trust, something that cannot legally occur since a Supreme Court ruling in 2009.
For the two other sections of the state, where commercial casinos do not face Indian competition, prospective operators can submit pre-approval applications — along with a nonrefundable fee of $400,000 — to begin the state's vetting process. But the commission is not allowing that in Southeastern Massachusetts, saying the tribe is in the driver's seat.
"At the moment, the die is cast," commission Chairman Stephen Crosby told his colleagues this week. "The tribe is in the position to do what it has the right to do. If it gets the approval now or later of the compact and then in the land-in-trust process, there will not be any commercial license, period."
If, however, the commission determines the tribe cannot have the land placed in trust, it could decide to solicit commercial applicants. The commission's decision does not affect applicants for the license for the state's single slots parlor, which could be located in any district.
KG already has spent more than $5 million on its proposed casino at the abandoned Cannon Street power plant on the New Bedford waterfront and has projected total spending of more than $1 billion if the group is ultimately awarded a casino license.
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