This could be the year for a gaming expansion in Massachusetts

This year could be the year that Massachusetts adopts some form of legalized gaming, brought about by the state’s need for a new revenue source, and the fortuitous change in state leadership.

The most important change was the fall from grace over corruption charges of former Assembly Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and some of his allies, who opposed any form of gaming and his replacement by Robert DeLeo, who is a supporter of slot machines for racetracks (he has two in his district), and maybe a little more.

Clyde W. Barrow, who heads the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth’s Center for Policy Analysis, commented last week to the Standard Times, "I think we'll see a real nasty debate but it's pretty clear something is going to pass…There's too much support in the House. They know the public support is there and the bidders are still lined up." He adds, "The fact that they're already working with the attorney general on a crime bill, with money laundering and like, to get that legislation out of the way tells me they want to work quickly."

Even opponents like Rep. Michael Rodrigues, concedes, "I think there's the greater possibility that it will be different this time…We have a speaker now who is a proponent." But they also have a Senate president, Therese Murray, and governor, Deval Patrick, who support expanded gaming in some form.

Patrick has been quietly supporting some form of gaming after being humiliated by DiMasi last year. The speaker buried the governor’s proposal for three regional casinos with almost no time for debate. Most political observers at the time thought that the lopsided vote against casinos was more a reflection of DiMasi’s ability to call in political markers than a reflection of the House’s true sentiments.

But the question remains, will the gaming bill take up Patrick’s three regional casinos, or slot machines at racetracks, or a combination of the two? The latter is what Speaker DeLeo is pushing and some combination deal is what Barrow predicts will result.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos, who wants to get the chance to unseat Patrick, says he favors legalizing wagers on professional and college sports. He says this change could be done quickly and would, he claims, raise $1 billion a year for the state.

Meantime the town of Upton got notice from its state senator that Penn National Gaming Inc. might be interested in building a casino there, if a gaming law is passed. Selectmen of the town, while not without concerns, told their senator that they were interested. However, everyone admits that any interest shown by the town or the company is very preliminary at the moment.

One potential player whose prospects have dimmed considerably in the last few months is the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which has petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs to put more than 500 acres into federal trust in order to build a casino in Middleboro. That looked like a pretty good bet before February, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that many interpret makes it extremely difficult for any tribes recognized after 1934 to put land into trust.

The tribe had a chance to be given the inside track to operating one of the three commercial casinos last spring, but it chose to go on its own to take advantage of not having to pay state taxes. It is sticking with that game plan even now and as a result has not been included in any discussions that are taking place in the state capitol.

To make things worse, the investors who had made a deal with the tribe are not sending the tribe its annual payments. But that’s partially the tribe’s doing since it recently told the investors, Sol Kerzner and Len Wolman, that it wanted to renegotiate the deal. So far negotiations are up in the air.

By Staff