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Regulators want briefing on Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s casino status

By Colin A. Young / State House News Service
Posted Oct 24,2019

Gaming Commission appears in no hurry to act on Region C license.

BOSTON — Gaming regulators want to know the exact status of federal litigation around the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s quest to secure land in trust before making a decision about the state’s third casino license, although Gaming Commission members appeared in no rush Thursday to begin accepting applications for a Southeastern Massachusetts casino.

The state commission agreed to have its executive director and legal team work up a comprehensive briefing on the ongoing legal wrangling over the decision to grant the tribe land in trust, which was approved by the Obama administration but overturned and thrown into doubt by the Trump administration. The tribe planned to build its $1 billion First Light Resort and Casino on tribal land in Taunton, a project that would have a significant impact on the state’s commercial casino industry.

“The commission’s staff, our legal department, have been following the status of the federal legislation and litigation that relates particularly to the complicated tribal matter ... I think it’s probably a good time to actually update us more formally through a memorandum. It’s very complicated,” Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein said. “I do think probably that needs to be formalized, because it’s an important part of the overall Region C evaluation and discussion.”

The uncertainty of Region C — the commission’s name for Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties — has been an issue for years. In 2016, when it appeared a tribal casino in Taunton was likely, regulators rejected a proposal for a commercial casino in Brockton. A federal judge’s ruling later that year nullified the decision to grant the Wampanoag a 320-acre reservation on which the tribe planned to construct a resort casino, and President Donald Trump’s administration last year officially reversed the Obama-era declaration.

Since then, the tribe’s efforts to secure its land-in-trust status have been tied up in federal court. U.S. Rep. William Keating, who represents Mashpee, has pushed legislation that would use the power of Congress to reaffirm the 2015 decision by the Interior Department to take land into trust for the tribe, though Trump has opposed it.

On Thursday, Sen. Marc Pacheco told the commission he has been trying to get clarity on where things stand with the tribe’s legal battles and the congressional efforts to address its concerns.

“I made a call before I came over to try to figure out what was happening at the federal level, and my sources tell me we probably won’t know too much until the end of the year,” Pacheco said.

Pacheco, who lives in and represents the city where the tribe hopes to build its casino, said he supports the commission’s plan to gather more information before making a decision one way or the other.

“I’m here to ask the commission to continue with your thoughtful deliberation about everything that is going on and to not make a decision, even though it may be in our best interest, because it’s within your jurisdiction under existing law to go out for a commercial casino if the commission chooses to,” he said. “If I know that there is absolutely no way that a Native American casino can come to be in Region C, I’d be one of the first people here to urge you to do so. But if that uncertainty still looms out there at any level, it will have a significant effect on those that even bid.”

The concern, as expressed by Pacheco and others, is that commercial casino operators might not be willing to invest the minimum $500 million in a project that would have to compete with a nearby tribal casino. If the Gaming Commission opts to go ahead with licensing a commercial casino in Region C and the tribe is allowed to open its own casino under federal law, Massachusetts would receive no tax revenue from the tribal casino.

Although the commission took no formal vote related to Region C, the decision to seek more information suggested it is in no hurry to make a ruling on the one remaining casino license.

Commissioner Enrique Zuniga stressed that it will be crucial for the commission to conduct its own economic analysis of the Region C market, noting that the two resort casinos that already have opened in other regions of the state are coming up short of their own revenue projections.

“I currently feel no sense of urgency ... if we have not seen the levels that the applicants themselves predicted, because they did predict certain revenues from year one and they’re not currently seeing those revenues,” Zuniga said. “I would rather, frankly, see how it goes, do more analysis and understand better how they’re competing in the market. It’s early, in my opinion.”

A spokeswoman for the Mashpee tribe did not respond to a request for comment Thursday night.

ICYMI FROM REEL WAMPS: 

Posted in: News

Federal investigations stop everything

September 29, 2019

Cedric was not alone in selling us out. His Council cronies voted with him on every money transfer and bad deal ever made.

The tribe’s outside auditors had some bad news for the Council.  They were not able to complete their audit because of the federal grand jury investigation.  The current Treasurer, Gordon Harris, former treasurer Robbie Hendricks and according to our sources Cromwell business partner and former treasurer Mark Harding have all been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury and it has possession of tribal  financial records. The auditors do not have access to those documents. And the auditors querries got a donut from the feds

IT GOT WORSE

That tricky Gaming Commission.  It was a dumping ground for millions of dollars each month.  NO ONE EVER KNEW WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT MONEY or How it was spent.

So now the bill comes due. The auditors couldn’t get much intell out of the feds…actually nothing.  But they

Yvonne, 30 years a council member never used her education or experience to help. Her silence was lethal as ever. Slithering into her hiding place like an eel.

know about these things.  There’s a clause in the financial agreement with the investors that says that if there’s  “bad faith” actions (and the auditor put it like this) :

” I’m not saying it happened, but let’s just say someone  in the gaming commission took between $100,000 and $1m….then the tribal assets are at risk.”

That means what land we own etc. would go to Genting for payment. A drop in the bucket compared to what we owe them. Cedric and his ouncil Cronies knew about the fine print so why didn’t the tribal attorneys or any of them tell us? Well, they had to keep getting that money…at any cost.

So now we’re in a really bad place.  Reel Wamps has to confess that pounding on Cedric Cromwell was not

enough.  He didn’t create this horror show alone.  He had a lot of help from the Council cronies. A really sorry lot. Jess$e Big Doe and  Mark(ie) Poo Harding leading the parade.  The ancestors are spinning in their graves. Everything Cedric did came with their vote of approval.  Their complicity was tantamount to their participating in the felony murder of the Tribe.  Just because you didn’t pull the trigger does not absolve the guilt. You must  have proof that you tried to stop the crime. They were cowards all the way.  They should be held accountable.

If we know the feds do too.

Lobbyists battle it out over casino plan

FOR A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE ALSO SEE: 

REEL WAMPS

WampaLeaks 

Gladys Kravitz

Lobbyists battle it out over casino plan

By Tanner Stening
Posted Oct 19, 2018

MASHPEE — As a new chapter begins in the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s legal fight for its land, a high stakes lobbying campaign in the nation’s capital is pitting powerful gambling interests against a foreign casino developer with the fate of the tribe’s 321-acre reservation hanging in the balance.

In a year marked mostly by setbacks for the tribe, notable attorneys and lobbyists — some working at cross-purposes —are converging on the halls of Congress in a struggle to win over lawmakers who may soon consider legislation that, if passed, would declare the tribe’s reservation lawful, reversing findings by the U.S. Department of the Interior and a federal court judge.

A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep William Keating, D-Mass., would do just that: settle the multiyear and so far successful legal challenge brought by neighbors of the tribe’s proposal to build a resort-casino in Taunton, effectively greenlighting the project and ending any question about the legality of the tribe’s trust lands.

The legislation is a pivotal piece in the tribe’s fight to protect its sovereignty. Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Chairman Cedric Cromwell has urged support for the bill, emphasizing the grave and unprecedented threat facing the tribe, which spent decades pursuing federal recognition and trust status with the government.

“I’m asking people of goodwill and those concerned with justice for the indigenous people of this — the first Americans — to stand with us in calling on Congress to protect our reservation and ensure we don’t become the first tribe since the dark days of the Termination Era to lose its land,” Cromwell said in a statement after the Sept. 7 decision from the Interior, which said the tribe wasn’t under federal jurisdiction in 1934, the year the Indian Reorganization Act became law.

But in a deeply polarized political climate, getting the bill passed would require congressional Republicans to support the wishes of the all-Democrat Massachusetts delegation, and given the potential for an Elizabeth Warren presidential bid in 2020, its chances may be significantly affected. Warren is a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the tribal bill.

In addition, the Rhode Island congressional delegation has quietly come out in opposition to the bill to protect its gambling revenues. The tribe’s proposed casino, which is slated for fertile Region C ground, is not far from Rhode Island’s eastern border.

Lobbyists and their causes

Genting Malaysia, which is financially backing the tribe’s legal fight to secure its reservation and the casino project, has spent more than $1 million on various lobbying firms in 2018, three times more than it did in 2017, according to federal lobbying disclosures. The overseas developer was the third biggest spender on tourism/lodging lobbying in the U.S. this past year, according to the website Open Secrets.

The tribe’s overall debt to Genting, which also finances parts of tribal government operations, is roughly $426.3 million, according to a recent filing by the Malaysian casino developer. Genting said it is deliberating with the tribe to “review all options” concerning the recoverability of its investment, according to the filing.

Genting paid the law firm Dentons US more than $1 million to lobby on “casino development and land related issues” this year, according to filings. Dentons is the world’s largest firm by number of lawyers, according to its website.

Dentons, on behalf of Genting, in turn has spent between $130,000 and $150,000 on “Interior Department land decisions” through Gavel Resources LLC, according to filings.

Gavel’s lobbyists include, among others, Richard Pombo, a former member of the House of Representatives from California who was among the highest-paid beneficiaries of tribal lobbying and illegal campaign contributions when the tribe was seeking federal recognition in the 2000s.

That period of the tribe’s history was tainted by the legacy of its former chairman Glenn Marshall, who in 2009 was sentenced to 3½ years in federal prison for embezzling nearly $400,000 from the tribe to pay his own bills, making illegal campaign contributions, filing false tax returns and fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits while holding a full-time job. Pombo was unseated in November 2006 amid questions about his ties to Jack Abramoff, a notorious lobbyist who spent several years behind bars in connection with a wide-reaching federal corruption probe.

Pombo did not return a message requesting comment for this story.

‘Trump’s Washington’

In addition to the tribe’s more long-term lobbyists, including Delahunt Group LLC —which helps to, among other things, secure grants — and Akerman LLP, Genting recently contracted with Ballard Partners, touted as one of Washington’s most influential lobbying firms. 

The firm is run by Brian Ballard, who was President Trump’s Florida finance chairman for his 2016 campaign. Ballard, dubbed “the most powerful lobbyist in Trump’s Washington” by Politico, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican causes over the past two years, according to data from the Federal Election Commission’s website. Genting spent $90,000 on Ballard’s firm so far this year.

Given a perceived hostility on the part of the Trump administration toward prevailing Indian land policies — which many scholars and observers outside and within Indian Country have noted — Ballard may seem like an odd pick to represent the tribe’s interests, if Ballard’s work is, in fact, tied to the legislation.

“In some way Ballard Partners would be working at cross-purposes here,” said Ronald Shaiko, senior fellow and associate director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College. “At base, lobbyists should be pretty pragmatic (in) how they do business. Firms are getting bigger, buying other firms, so they can lobby both sides.”

Competing gambling interests arrayed against the tribe appear to stem from one commanding source, according to filings: Chicago-based casino magnate and billionaire Neil Bluhm, who is backing a proposed casino in Brockton through Mass Gaming & Entertainment, whose casino proposal was denied by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in 2016.

But Mass Gaming is asking for reconsideration of its proposal, and its principal owner, Rush Street Gaming, has thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars behind an effort to influence lawmakers and regulators at the state and federal levels, according to filings — a large portion of which appears to be directed at thwarting the tribe’s casino effort, the pending legislation and garnering local support for the revival of Mass Gaming’s proposal.

It’s unclear precisely how much money, based on lobbying disclosures alone, is working against the tribe.

“This is not just about the Keating legislation,” said Joe Baerlein, a spokesman for Mass Gaming. “There are a whole host of other gaming-related issues that we’re dealing with.”

Rush Street also has casinos in New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Baerlein said.

At the state level, Mass Gaming has spent $210,000 on lobbying so far this year with respect to “issues related to expanded gaming,” according to state filings. Baerlein said that is tied to “outreach” across nine different communities, including boards of selectmen and town administrators.

Leadership in Taunton and Brockton have come down on opposite sides of the issue, with Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. reaffirming support for the tribal proposal over the summer. Around the same, Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter wrote to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, decrying the department’s “prolonged delay” in issuing a decision with respect to the tribal proposal, which has stymied prospects for development on the parcel of land where Mass Gaming wants to build.

Baerlein said the spending by Genting “dwarfs” the spending against the tribe, adding that the Massachusetts congressional delegation ought to “take a hard look” at the role the foreign company has played in influencing land decisions at the federal level.

More than casinos

Tribal representatives see it quite differently. Heather Sibbison, legal counsel for the tribe and a registered lobbyist for Dentons, said a tribe’s right to hold land has “profound historical and cultural meaning.”

“But for almost everyone else on the other side who is working to disestablish the tribe’s reservation, this is just a big, huge fight over casino market share,” she said. “If it loses its reservation, it loses its school, its ability to provide basic social services; it loses its fundamental right to have land on which it can engage in true self government.”

This year, Rush Street Gaming, formerly Rivers Casino, a gambling parlor owned by Bluhm, has spent $160,000 in lobbying fees through American Continental Group, citing “general gaming issues,” according to filings.

Manus Cooney and David Urban are listed as American Continental lobbyists working on behalf of Rush Street Gaming. Cooney is former chief counsel and staff director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and Urban is cited as a “prominent Republican lobbyist” who joined the Trump campaign in its early days as an adviser in the Pennsylvania and Indiana primaries, according to the firm’s website.

But the firms cited as lobbying directly against the legislation include Locke Lord Public Policy Group LLC and Freemyer & Associates P.C.

Twin River Management Group — which owns casinos in Rhode Island — has spent $60,000 on Locke Lord specifically on the issue of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, according to filings, and Rush Street Gaming paid Freemyer & Associates P.C. $40,000 so far this year.

Lobbying the lawmakers

In addition, Locke Lord gave $7,500 to U.S. Rep. Robert Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which is responsible for taking up the legislation, over the past year, according to contribution filings. Bishop was among Locke Lord’s top three highest-paid recipients over the past election cycle.

The firm has also supported Democrats, giving money to U.S. Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Keating. Cicilline’s political committee received $1,000 from Locke Lord earlier this year, and Keating’s political committee reported two $1,000 contributions from them — one on March 16 and another on March 19 — just days after he introduced the legislation.

Tribal lobbyists, with Dentons at the helm, have also targeted members of the House committee, most notably U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., who chairs the subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs. Dentons gave LaMalfa’s political committee $9,000 just days before Keating introduced the tribe bill.

Altogether, Dentons’ political action committee has given about $40,000 to lawmakers sponsoring the legislation throughout the 2017-2018 campaign cycle, filings show.

Incumbents typically receive more than challengers, and “well over half of their money comes from organized interests” instead of individual contributions, Shaiko said.

Shaiko said it’s typically wise for lobbying firms to give money to political candidates on both sides of the aisle; that way, if a congressional chamber flips, they can stay in business.

“It’s less ideological than it used to be,” he said.

Interior Department and Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe lobbying for 2018

For the tribe:

Genting paid Dentons US $1.1 million to lobby lawmakers and the Interior Department on “casino development and land related issues”

Dentons, on behalf of Genting, paid Gavel Resources LLC $240,000 to lobby lawmakers and the Interior Department on “Interior Department land decisions”

Genting paid Ballard Partners $90,000 to lobby the Interior Department on “gaming rules and regulations”

The tribe paid $60,000 to Delahunt Group LLC

The tribe paid $10,000 to Akerman LLP

Against the tribe:

Twin River Management Group paid Locke Lord Public Policy Group LLC $60,000 to lobby congress on “Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act”

Rush Street Gaming, parent company of Mass Gaming and Entertainment, paid CSA Strategies LLC $50,000 to lobby lawmakers and the Interior Department on “issues related to casino development” and “issues related to licensing of Internet gaming/poker”

Rush Street Gaming paid American Continental Group $160,000 to lobby lawmakers and the Interior Department on “general gaming issues impacting Rivers Casino”

Rush Street Gaming paid Freemyer & Associates P.C. $40,000 to lobby lawmakers  and the Interior Department on “H.R. 5244 (the tribal bill)”

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181019/lobbyists-battle-it-out-over-casino-plan

Thanks to Plainville' Plainridge casino, horse racing may come to Brockton

Horses warm up before the start of the first race of the 2016 

season at Plainridge. (File photo by Mark Stockwell)

Posted: Thursday, May 5, 2016

Thoroughbred horse racing is poised to return to the Brockton Fairgrounds this summer, after Massachusetts regulators rejected a bid to build a casino on the property.

And it's all due to Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville.

Fairgrounds owner George Carney says the demise of a $677 million resort casino plan by Chicago's Rush Street Gaming hasn't stopped him from moving ahead with improvements to the fairground's track, which hasn't hosted a horse race since 2001.

"I never thought about losing, I always thought about winning," Carney told the Associated Press, referring to the state gambling license the casino project failed to acquire. "But these things happen. So 'Plan B' is to bring back horse racing, at least this year."

Race organizers had already received state licenses to run a total of 30 race days on the site this year in anticipation that they would have time to schedule races, at least until the casino project began in earnest.

Now, they're expected to seek about $5 million from the state's horse racing fund to help boost purses and make this year's races more attractive to breeders.

The state's Race Horse Development Fund collects a percentage of all gambling revenues from the state's casinos and designates it to the racing industry.

To date, it has more than $11 million on hand, after raising nearly $21 million in taxes and fees from casino companies and paying out about $9.4 million to the horse racing industry, according to a report from the state Gaming Commission, which oversees the fund.

Most of those funds come from Plainridge, which opened last June and would have been a competitor with a Brockton casino for gambling revenue.

Nine percent of the revenue from the slot machines at Plainridge goes into a horse racing fund. Twenty-five percent of that goes back to racing at Plainridge with the rest in the state racing fund.

William Lagorio, president of the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, which is organizing the Brockton races, says the competitions are needed to keep the long-flagging industry going until a long term plan can be realized.

Other industry leaders are trying to establish a new racing and equine training facility somewhere in the state after New England's lone remaining thoroughbred track, Boston's Suffolk Downs, stopped offering a full season of races in 2014.

"The horse park is a wonderful idea, but we have hundreds of horsemen and farmers who are starving," Lagorio said earlier this week. "They got put out to pasture. These races in Brockton will be an infusion of capital."

The Brockton proposal is one of at least three seeking support from the state horse racing fund this year.

Plainridge Park, a slots parlor and harness racing track in Plainville, is planning about 115 days of races, but race organizers say it hasn't been determined how much in racing subsidies that will require.

And Suffolk Downs is planning six days of racing spread over July, August and September, following the success of last year's special three-day racing series.

Chip Tuttle, the track's chief operating officer, says organizers will be seeking about $2.6 million. Most of the money, as required under state law, will go toward race purses.

But Suffolk Downs' owners haven't committed to offering races long-term. Tuttle says they're still seeking other development opportunities for the prime slice of real estate.

For his part, Carney holds no grudge against gambling regulators for dashing his hopes for a casino on the property, which his family has owned for about 60 years.

"When one door closes, another one opens," he said.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/devices/news/local_news/thanks-to-plainville-plainridge-casino-horse-racing-may-come-to/article_69f0ae56-93fe-58e3-80ae-08f4b8365fb4.html

Massachusetts Gaming Update: Commission Rejects Application for Resort Casino in Brockton

5/4/2016

by

Christina Bitter,

E. Abim Thomas  

| Goodwin Procter LLP

The wait is over and the decision is in. On Thursday, April 28, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted 4-1 against awarding a commercial license to Mass Gaming & Entertainment, LLC to build a resort casino in Brockton. After evaluations and deliberations, the Commission’s majority determined that Mass Gaming’s proposed plan did not meet expectations for a resort casino in Southeast Massachusetts, also known as “Region C.” In addition, the Commission found that competition between the proposed Brockton casino and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s casino in Taunton might threaten successful gaming in Region C.

The Commission evaluated and rated Mass Gaming’s proposal for a resort casino in terms of Finance, Economic Development, Building & Site Design, Mitigation, and General/Overview. The Commission found the proposed plan at least “sufficient” in four of the five categories, but ultimately decided the proposal was “insufficient” for its failure to demonstrate that it would be a “destination resort casino” rather than a “local convenience casino.”

While the Commonwealth’s lone slot parlor has been operating in Plainville for just under a year, Massachusetts does not currently have an operating full-flown destination resort casino. The Commission has awarded licenses for commercial casinos in Springfield and Everett, but the development of those projects is still underway. If the Commission had also granted a commercial license to Mass Gaming, there would have been one slot parlor and four resort casinos in the state, including two resort casinos in Region C. While proponents for expanded gaming anticipate a strong customer base, four resort casinos may have been too ambitious without an existing baseline to measure customer growth for resort casinos.

As a result of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe breaking ground for its First Light Resort & Casino on April 5, the Commission had to consider the consequences of having both a tribal casino and commercial casino in Region C—specifically, oversaturation of the resort casino market and the potential loss of revenue share under the Tribe’s compact with the Commonwealth. This potential loss of revenue share had to have factored significantly into the Commission’s decision.

Under the terms of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s compact with Massachusetts, the state receives 17 percent of the tribe’s gaming revenues if the tribal casino is the only casino located in Region C. If, however, the tribal casino competes with a commercial casino in the region, then the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe does not have to pay any revenue share—zip, zero, zilch, nada—to the state. Consultants and commentators warned that the tribal casino would reinvest its tax savings to make its resort casino bigger and better and, ultimately, draw more customers and profits than a competing commercial casino. Evidently, the Commission agreed that, in a competition between a tribal casino and resort casino in Region C, the Commonwealth would be the hardest hit.

This despite the pending lawsuit challenging the Department of the Interior’s decision to take land in trust for the benefit of the Tribe—the very decision which has allowed the Tribe to move forward with its plans to build a tribal casino in Taunton. But the Commission has stated that it could revisit the issue should the Tribe be unable to deliver the tribal casino that the Commission is expecting.

http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/massachusetts-gaming-update-commission-72262/

Rejection of Brockton casino may not save Plainville's Plainridge in long term

Posted: Thursday, April 28, 2016 10:19 pm

BY KAYLA CANNE FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE |

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission denied a proposal for a Brockton-based casino Thursday, eliminating a potential competitor in a gambling market growing increasingly crowded in Southeastern Massachusetts.

But some gaming experts say Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville - so far, the state's only expanded gambling venue - may not be off the hook just yet.

With larger casinos opening in Boston and nearby states, including a Native American-run resort in Taunton, one gambling expert said the prospect of Plainridge Park surviving more than a few years are pretty slim.

"I would not be surprised if they closed in a couple of years," said Richard McGowan, a business professor and gambling expert at Boston College. "You're talking about a very small facility that is not all that exciting. It's got a lot of things working against it."

The state's first casino, Plainridge Park opened last June debuting 1,250 slot machines, electronic table games and a seasonal horse-racing track.

Geared toward older patrons, McGowan said state restrictions that limit the number of slot machines and prohibit table games puts Plainridge Park at a disadvantage to competing casinos in the area.

Nearing its one-year anniversary, the parlor is on pace to generate about $100 million less than initial first-year estimates by the state.

The Twin River Casino, 11 miles across the state line in Lincoln, R.I., is competition, McGowan said, with a larger venue with over 4,000 slot machines, 100 live table games and various other entertainment options.

Last month, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe also broke ground on a destination resort casino that will include nearly 3,000 slot machines, 150 table games and 40 poker tables, along with hotels, retail outlets and a family water park.

With competing casinos on the rise around Plainridge, seven local legislators asked the state Gaming Commission last month to reject a new bid for a Brockton-based casino until gaming experts can study the effects of the Taunton complex on the region.

The commission voted 4-1 Thursday against the Brockton casino, saying the bid did not meet the commission's standards.

But revenue from Plainridge Park indicates it might already be suffering from existing competition.

In 2015, Massachusetts officials estimated annual revenue of $262 million from Plainridge Park, but reduced that estimate to $207 million in October as the parlor faced declining profit. The next month, officials slashed the estimate to $160 million.

With three months of operation left before completing its first full year of service, the park has brought in about $127 million in total revenue.

Although falling revenues over the autumn and winter months sparked concern among state consultants, revenue has recently picked up with a monthly intake of $13.5 million in March - a trend Plainridge owner Penn National Gaming and some gaming experts have said is typical of newly opened casinos.

"When they first opened you've got the curiosity factor, and I think people kind of extrapolated those first few weeks of revenues out indefinitely into the future," said Clyde Barrow, a former UMass Dartmouth professor who studies the casino industry. "But I don't think anybody thought they were going to sustain those numbers in the long term."

Barrow said revenue at Plainridge Park follows trends expected for a casino of that size and match earlier expectations from 2011 that the parlor would generate $120 million to $140 million in its first year.

"I think Plainridge is healthy," he said. "It's doing what it's intended to do, but at the end of the day, it is just a small slot parlor."

But, McGowan said the monthly revenue shows Plainridge faces competition from Twin River Casino, which announced an anticipated $35 million increase in revenue last year. He said if Connecticut and Rhode Island cities move forward with their own casino bids, the Plainville parlor will have a hard time attracting customers outside of its local base.

Making matters more difficult, gaming officials last year approved the 2018 opening of a large Everett casino backed by Las Vegas magnate Steve Wynn.

"(Everett) is going to be the mecca of New England's gambling," McGowan said. "People who are really interested in casino gambling - that's where they really want to go. To think that people outside of (Plainville) are going to come to Plainridge, that's going to be very difficult. At best, they're going to be able to keep the people in their own area - and that's it."

Still, gambling experts have said all along that Plainridge is a "convenience" venue meant to attract patrons within a 30-minute radius.

Eric Schippers, vice president of public affairs at Penn National, which operates Plainridge Park, said the company is confident in the casino's future.

"We remain focused on our marketing efforts and continue to work on building customer loyalty throughout the region," he said in an email statement.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/devices/news/local_news/rejection-of-brockton-casino-may-not-save-plainville-s-plainridge/article_c6855492-469f-52b3-8509-864e88601764.html

The fix is in for Bean Town Gaming

The fix is in for Bean Town Gaming

World Casino Directory Brockton casino rejection praised by Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts World Casino Directory A $677 million casino proposal for the Brockton Fairgrounds has been voted down by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Mass Gaming ...

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Reacts to Brockton Casino Rejection

April 29, 2016 

MASHPEE – The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is speaking out following the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s decision to reject plans for a Brockton casino.

The move left the tribe’s Taunton project as the sole casino resort planned for Southeastern Massachusetts.

“That Brockton casino would’ve cannibalized the market and effectively destroyed the commercial gaming landscape and we’re excited that the Mass Gaming Commission made a difficult, but wise and just decision,” said Wampanoag Tribe Chairman Cedric Cromwell.

Mass Gaming and Entertainment had planned to build a $677 million resort on the Brockton Fairgrounds.

The tribe had previously said that they will no longer be required to make payments to the state under its gaming compact if the commission approved another casino in Southeastern Massachusetts.

A 2013 revenue-sharing deal obligates the tribe pay 17 percent of its annual gambling profits to the state, but only if no other casino is allowed to operate in the region.

“Southeastern Mass Region C is exclusive to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Nation First Light Resort Casino,” said Cromwell. “There’s going to be tons of jobs and it’s going to be an engine for economic opportunity.”

The Brockton casino group had said that their proposal would be more successful than the Mashpee tribe’s plan.

By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter

http://www.capecod.com/newscenter/mashpee-wampanoag-tribal-chairman-reacts-to-brockton-casino-rejection/