Looking ahead to '13: Casino deadline pressures tribe
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, center, shakes hands with Cedric Cromwell, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, right, moments after Patrick signed a casino compact bill during ceremonies at the Statehouse, in Boston on July 30.AP
January 01, 2013
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe took two steps forward and two steps back in a year that started with much promise for its casino dreams.
By June, the tribe had reached an agreement to pay Taunton as much as $13 million per year from casino revenues and unveiled details of a $500 million hotel, casino and water park complex at the intersection of routes 24 and 140.
The tribe also met a July 31 deadline to reach a compact with Gov. Deval Patrick that would have paid the state 21.5 percent of gross gambling revenues.
That's when the wheels started to come off.
The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the deal in October, saying it was too lucrative for the state without enough given in return to the tribe. Meanwhile, legislation to clear the tribe's path to have land taken into federal trust stalled in Congress.
The five-member gaming commission began meeting in March and ended the year by giving the tribe three months to make progress on the federal hurdles. So 2013 starts with an even tighter deadline for the tribe than it had in 2012 to finalize a compact with Patrick.
The commission could issue a slot parlor license by the end of the coming year, will likely prequalify a half-dozen potential bidders for licenses in two of three regions, and should decide in March whether to begin accepting commercial bids in Southeastern Massachusetts — something that appears highly likely given the tribe's uncertain future.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130101/NEWS/301010322/-1/NEWSLETTER100
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