Mashpee casino rival wins court hearing for its case
Photo by Matthew Healey
COMPETITION: Cedric Cromwell and his Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which wants to start a Taunton casino, may still have
By Chris Cassidy
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
A developer still hoping to build a casino in southeastern Massachusetts — even though the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe already has the exclusive rights to the potentially lucrative market — claimed a minor triumph in court yesterday after a federal appeals court kept its lawsuit alive.
“Today is a victory for all of the citizens of the city and the region,” said Andrew Stern, the managing director of KG Urban Enterprises, which wants to build a casino in New Bedford.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denied KG Urban Enterprises the injunction it was looking for yesterday, but sent the case back to federal district court, keeping its hopes alive of elbowing its way into the southeastern casino market.
Stern claimed the judges “unanimously rejected the commonwealth’s central argument” in the case, suggesting his chances for a casino may have just improved.
The decision came just two days after Gov. Deval Patrick — surrounded by Mashpee Wampanoag chairman Cedric Cromwell and other tribe members — signed a long-awaited compact allowing them to build their own casino and giving the Bay State 21 percent of gambling revenue. The tribe is eyeing land in Taunton, where residents already approved the plan in a non-binding referendum.
KG sued Gov. Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission earlier this year, but a judge threw out the case. The developers appealed the ruling.
Spokesmen for both the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development said they hadn’t reviewed the decision yet and couldn’t comment.
A spokesman for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe declined to comment.
Both sides are still awaiting a date to be set in U.S. District Court.
http://bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20220802mashpee_casino_rival_wins_court_hearing_for_its_case
“Today is a victory for all of the citizens of the city and the region,” said Andrew Stern, the managing director of KG Urban Enterprises, which wants to build a casino in New Bedford.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denied KG Urban Enterprises the injunction it was looking for yesterday, but sent the case back to federal district court, keeping its hopes alive of elbowing its way into the southeastern casino market.
Stern claimed the judges “unanimously rejected the commonwealth’s central argument” in the case, suggesting his chances for a casino may have just improved.
The decision came just two days after Gov. Deval Patrick — surrounded by Mashpee Wampanoag chairman Cedric Cromwell and other tribe members — signed a long-awaited compact allowing them to build their own casino and giving the Bay State 21 percent of gambling revenue. The tribe is eyeing land in Taunton, where residents already approved the plan in a non-binding referendum.
KG sued Gov. Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission earlier this year, but a judge threw out the case. The developers appealed the ruling.
Spokesmen for both the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development said they hadn’t reviewed the decision yet and couldn’t comment.
A spokesman for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe declined to comment.
Both sides are still awaiting a date to be set in U.S. District Court.
http://bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20220802mashpee_casino_rival_wins_court_hearing_for_its_case
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