Considering that the state has a significant economic interest in the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s effort to put the land for their planned casino in Middlebrough into federal trust, it’s no surprise that Gov. Deval Patrick officially filed his opposition yesterday with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

If the tribe is blocked from pursuing a casino on sovereign land, they will be forced to participate in Patrick’s proposed plan to auction off three state gaming licenses. If they’re granted the land, then they’re home free to open a casino outside of state control. So the state’s motives seem fairly straight forward.

The operative question, given the state’s obvious economic agenda, is will the Bureau of Indian Affairs view Patrick’s opposition seriously, or dismiss it as just self-interested jockeying?

How about both? (more…)

As you may have heard, a massive primary election is planned for this Tuesday involving the biggest names in national politics (I even saw one of them on Oprah). Most folks are not quite as tuned in to the primary campaigns for the four open seats in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

With all due respect to the State House hopefuls, generally these things aren’t worth much more than two yawns and a head-scratch. But the campaign in at least one district does offer some interesting perspective on the state’s casino debate—or at least what Gov. Deval Patrick hopes becomes the state’s casino debate. (more…)

Gov. Deval Patrick has a right to be fed up with the legislature. Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi and friends have a history of not taking up Patrick’s proposals in the most timely manner, and it appears the Speaker is up to his old tricks with Patrick’s casino bill.

We told you to expect this in the January issue of our magazine, so there’s little surprise here. Patrick’s core constituency of grassroots liberals largely view casinos as yet another regressive tax, so the longer the governor has to trumpet his proposal, the more supporters he’ll lose.

A weaker Governor, of course, makes for a stronger Speaker. And Patrick didn’t do himself any favors yesterday. (more…)

Deval Patrick released his second budget yesterday – one that’s powered in large part by new corporate taxes that haven’t been approved and licensing fees from casinos that don’t yet exist. It’s a highly provocative document that dares the legislature to quit stalling and either enact his agenda or find something better, and it’s sure to only escalate the recent spate of sniping and name-calling on the Hill.

But as daring as Patrick is in bundling his tax and casino proposals into his budget, the governor is also, quietly, hedging his own bets. It’s as if he’s afraid his worst critics might actually be right. (more…)

As most people out there know, there is no power like turtle power. At least that’s what the folks at Casinofacts, a group opposed to the Mashpee Wampanoag’s efforts to build a casino in Middleborough, had been counting on.

The Globe reported over the weekend that the group was hoping to use the presence of the red-bellied cooter, an endangered species of turtle, on the proposed casino site to thwart the tribe’s plans.

Just one problem: There aren’t any red-bellied cooters on the roughly 500-acre parcel. According to Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Spokesperson Lisa Capone, the Globe error resulted from a miscommunication over the fact that the endangered cooters live in the vicinity of the land parcel, but not on it. (more…)

Looks like wildly enthusiastic hotel workers and teachers won’t be alone in pressuring the legislature to accede to Gov. Deval Patrick’s casino proposal. Labor leaders from across the state – electricians, Teamsters, painters, pipefitters, teachers, and more – gathered in Dorchester today with Patrick’s chief of staff, Doug Rubin, and his labor secretary, Suzanne Bump, to plot one of the largest labor mobilizations of the decade. Patrick’s casino plan would be the beneficiary of this mobilization.

“We’re going to put on a full-court press that hasn’t been seen since the minimum wage, or beyond,” said the Mass AFL-CIO’s legislative director, Tim Sullivan. He then mused that this campaign might even eclipse the union’s minimum wage push of a couple years ago.

When it was suggested that labor faced long odds in the fight, owing to Speaker Sal DiMasi’s staunch opposition to the proposal, an exasperated teacher blurted out, “Well, who’s in charge? The governor of the speaker?” (more…)

Yesterday brought plenty of news on the casino front. The Globe and Herald both reported that pro-casino spending on Beacon Hill lobbyists was going up-up-up, the AP noted that Gov. Deval Patrick is working to coordinate strategies with the unions in support of his proposal, as well as planning to meet one-on-one with legislators.

And, finally, we gave you the heads up to expect the Mashpee Wampanoag’s casino blueprints to be rolling out sometime in the not-to-distant future. This is all useful and important information.

But it’s nowhere near as interesting as this: The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is not connected to the internet. Yes, it’s true, the employees of a major branch of the Department of the Interior—and it is this branch that is responsible for deciding whether the Mashpee will be allowed open a casino on Indian land—cannot so much as Google “Plymouth Rock” from their desks, let alone send an email to the outside world. We think they might be using the Pony Express instead. (more…)

We’ve already begun to get an idea about what casinos in Massachusetts will look like. Suffolk Downs has been upfront about the scale they’d like to develop, as has the Mohegan tribe, which recently released some details about their plan for a casino in Palmer.

But it seems that the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is poised to offer the most detailed plan, by far. By the first week of March—and perhaps sooner—they will have rolled out schematics on a plan for their Middleborough site. Details will include the location, height and size of buildings, as well as where the roadways will run and the locations of any other large footprint items, like golf courses.

According to officials at the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, the tribe will have to make these plans public in open hearings as part of the environmental review process for their efforts to put their Middleborough land into trust. (This is the process which transfers the land from state to Indian control, thus allowing the tribe to open a casino on it). The hearings will be held the evenings of March 4, in Middleborough High School auditorium, and March 5, in the Mashpee High School auditorium. (more…)

After months of keeping a low profile, billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn has emerged as a player in the derby to open Boston’s first casino. The entry of Wynn, the arch-nemesis of Dorchester-born casino titan Sheldon Adelson, who himself has designs on landing a Boston casino, should ratchet up already high stakes.

The news comes via Charles Sarkis, the Wonderland Greyhound Park owner who would like nothing better than to open a casino at his track.

“I can tell you that Wynn is looking seriously,” Sarkis said. “He’s looking at various places [in Massachusetts].” (more…)

It has been repeated many times in this space that Las Vegas Sands Corp. boss Sheldon Adelson is (a) reportedly worth $20.5 billion and the third richest man in the country, (b) Dorchester raised, and (c) highly desirous of opening a resort casino in his home-state. Well, courtesy of BusinessWeek, it looks like we may be able to amend that a bit: he’s highly desirous of opening the mother of all casinos in his home state. (more…)