The Massachusetts Gaming Commission last week agreed to be given a briefing on the possibility of reviving a process for granting a license to a casino in Region C, which is the southeastern part of the state.
At the same time state Senator Michael Brady urged the panel to give the $677 million proposal to build a casino in Brockton another chance. The board in 2016 turned down the Brockton bid, in part to not to interfere with the proposed First Light Casino that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had started work on in Taunton. The tribal casino site is 20 miles from Brockton.
At the time the commission voted in 2016, Mashpee Chairman Cedric Cromwell praised the decision. “We have been living on this land for thousands of years and made it possible for non-Natives to establish themselves here. Historically, our people have been the recipients of a string of broken promises. Today is not one of those days,” he said.
The 2011 law that created the commission and authorized casino gaming in the Bay State also authorized a total of four gaming licenses, including three for full-fledged casinos and one for a slots parlor. Three of those licenses have been granted and the casinos are operating in Everett, Springfield and Plainville.
The Region C license was sought by Mass Gaming & Entertainment (MG&E) for the Brockton Fairgrounds. MG&E is affiliated with Rush Street Gaming and billionaire Neil Bluhm. Last year that developer petitioned the commission to reconsider its application without reigniting the process from the beginning. In other words, without issuing a broad call for new round of bidding.
Due to the departure of the commission’s former chairman last fall and the time needed for the new chairman, Cathy Judd-Stein to become acclimated to her job, this issue was pushed aside for several months. Last week she asked for a briefing that would include a legal analysis.
In his statement to the commission Brady said the Brockton casino has broad support among residents, merchants and local officials. “The revenue that’s desperately needed for Brockton, the jobs that are desperately for Brockton,” said the senator. “The medical industry is doing well, but this would be an added boom to our area for the jobs.”
Brockton voters in 2015 voted 7,163 to 7,020 for the casino proposal.
The update the commission requested will include the latest on the Mashpees’ efforts to build a $1 billion casino in Taunton. Such as its lawsuit against the Department of the Interior and a bill in the House of Representatives that would put about 131 acres for the tribe into trust. The tribe is suing Interior because it reversed course on its decision to put the land into trust for the tribe after a federal judge ruled that its original decision violated federal law.
The tribe is undergoing an internal struggle that includes an attempt to recall Cromwell because the tribe is more than $250 million in debt to its partner in the casino project, Genting Malaysia.
In his statement to the commission, Senator Brady addressed the issue that a Brockton casino would saturate the region’s gaming market. “In the south region, I still hear from people that are going to other states,” he said. “They have the so-called golf and gamble trips where they rent a bus, they go down and play golf and then they have a nice lunch. They visit the casinos in the other states. We’re losing Massachusetts residents continuously to these other states.”
