Backers of a casino on the Brockton fairgrounds are ramping up pressure on the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to give them a second chance now that the $1 billion casino that has been proposed by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe appears to be on life support.
The MGC was scheduled September 27 to discuss the request by Mass Gaming & Entertainment and its partner George Carney, owner of the Brockton Fairgrounds that it be given another shot at Region C, the southeastern part of the state. Their proposal was rejected in April 2016, when the tribe was in the midst of its appeal of the federal judge’s ruling that the Bureau of Indian Affairs erred when it put land for the tribe in Taunton and Martha’s Vineyard into trust.
A spokesman for Mass Gaming (a subsidiary of Rush Street Gaming) commented, “Mass Gaming & Entertainment looks forward to continuing discussions with commission members and staff on the reconsideration of a Region C commercial resort casino for Brockton.”
The proposal is for a $677 million casino on the fairgrounds. It has the narrow support of voters of Brockton, who in 2015 voted 7,163 to 7,020 for the proposal. According to supporter Mayor Bill Carpenter, the Brockton fairgrounds is the largest undeveloped parcel in the city. He sees the casinos as “a very significant piece of economic infrastructure for our city,” according to an interview with the Enterprise.
Opponents of a casino at this location site the fact that it would be near a high school and residential neighborhoods.
The September 27 meeting was most likely to be a discussion between the panel and its staff, rather than any input from the proponents, according to Elaine Driscoll, spokesman.
The tribal proposal seems at low ebb, with the most recent blow being the decision by the Department of the Interior to withdraw its action putting more than 300 acres into trust for the tribe. At this point the tribe’s only hope appears to be if a bill now active in both the House and Senate is approved to put the land into trust.
There has also been speculation that the tribe could go after its own commercial license for the Taunton site.
