Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Gambling Commission Anxious to Bring Addiction & Crime to South Coast
Gaming Commission to discuss timeline for commercial applications in Southeastern Mass.
After voting last month to allow commercial developers to apply for a casino license in southeastern Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is expected Thursday to discuss the timeline for that process.
The state’s expanded gambling law authorizes up to one commercial casino in each of the three regions of Massachusetts. In southeastern Massachusetts, or Region C, the law froze out commercial applicants for a period to give the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe a chance to proceed with its pursuit of a tribal casino under federal law.
“This is consistent with the Legislature’s apparent belief that three casinos is the optimum number for the Commonwealth,” Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said Tuesday in a statement posted on the commission’s website. “Pursuant to this presumption, the Commission waited for nearly a year and a half subsequent to the passage of the law to see if the Tribe could seize this opportunity. It did not.”
The statement details the reasons the commission voted to open Region C to commercial applicants.
The law, Crosby said, also states an intent that the region shouldn’t be denied access to the economic development expected to come from casino gambling.
“At the end of the commercial application process, the Commission will make a decision on whether or not, and to whom, to award a gaming license in Region C based on the quality of applications and the totality of the surrounding economic and competitive situation as they then appear, precisely as it will do for making the licensing decisions in Regions A and B,” Crosby said.
The Mashpee hope to build a tribal casino in Taunton under federal law. The main hurdle standing between the tribe and its goal is land. Under U.S. law, tribal casinos must be built on sovereign tribal land, which the Mashpee don't currently possess. The tribe has a land-in-trust application pending with the Department of the Interior. While the tribe says it expects to get land-in-trust approval this year, other parties say it may take several years or never happen.
Many maintain a 2009 Supreme Court decision prevents tribes who weren’t under federal jurisdiction in 1934 from having land taken in trust.
Crosby said the commission isn’t taken a position on the likelihood of the Mashpee, who were federally recognized in 2007, having land taken in trust.
“Rather, the Gaming Commission is acting under its authority to move forward with commercial applications for Region C at any time when it concludes that it is appropriate to do so,” he said.
The Gaming Commission’s decision to allow commercial applications does not guarantee that it will award a commercial casino license in the region. It also does not prevent the Mashpee from opening a tribal casino under federal law, assuming they clear the remaining hurdles.
“If the Tribe has obtained land-in-trust, and may therefore launch a competitor casino to a commercial licensee, the Commission will take that fact into consideration as it makes its licensing decision,” Crosby said. “If on the other hand, the Tribe has been unsuccessful in getting its land-in-trust award, the Commission will take that aspect of the casino economics in Region C into consideration as well.”
http://www.wickedlocal.com/rehoboth/news/x1039441886/Gaming-Commission-to-discuss-timeline-for-commercial-applications-in-Southeastern-Mass?zc_p=1#axzz2TMcY6mso
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