Tag: casino

A fiasco of a vote

George Brennan reports in the Cape Cod Times that the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and the town of Mashpee have reached an agreement that could jolt the proposed Middleborough casino to life once again. But who knows? Brennan depicts a fiasco of a vote, with shunned tribal members barred at the door even as disgraced former chairman Glenn Marshall was allowed to vote.

Casino plan killed yet again

Every week or so, it seems, someone revives the Mashpee Wampanoag proposal to build the world’s largest gambling casino in Middleborough for the sole purpose of killing it again. So it is today. Stephanie Vosk and George Brennan report in the Cape Cod Times that state officials have decided to oppose the plan.

This comes on top of last week’s news that the town of Mashpee has asked the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to call a halt to the proceedings. Thus, even if Gov. Deval Patrick wins his bid to build three casinos in Massachusetts, it’s highly unlikely that one of them will be in Middleborough.

More on the Mashpee land suit

Peter Kenney, here and here, offers some historical perspective on the Mashpee land suit. It’s interesting to see the name Walter Jay Skinner pop up. Skinner, who died in 2005, presided over the 1986 toxic-waste case made famous in the book and movie “A Civil Action.” I covered the trial and most of the appeals process, and was impressed with Skinner’s patience and sense of fair play.

Skinner supposedly once told one of Kenney’s sources that he’d made some mistakes in a trial that went against the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, and that if the tribe ever won official recognition — as it has — then it could bring the case again.

What does this have to do with Middleborough? What’s going on now could put the proposed casino on hold for years. Since last summer, I’ve been saying to anyone who’d listen that no casino would ever be built in Middleborough. There are just too many ways to stop it. This is one.

Mashpee ices casino fever

The town of Mashpee has dealt a significant blow to plans to build the world’s largest casino in Middleborough. Stephanie Vosk and George Brennan report in the Cape Cod Times that Mashpee officials have asked the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to deny the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s application to place land in Mashpee and Middleborough into a trust.

Tribal leaders are not proposing to build a gambling casino in Mashpee, and, according to the Times, have repeatedly promised not to. But the application — involving 140 acres in Mashpee and 539 acres in Middleborough — leaves open the possibility that Mashpee could be targeted for gambling at some point in the future. Here’s an excerpt from the town’s letter (PDF) to the BIA:

[T]he Tribe has stated that it does not intend to offer gaming [that’s PR-speak for gambling] on the Mashpee lands. Nevertheless, this statement of intent does not guarantee that the Tribe would not, at some future date, convert use of the Mashpee lands to gaming. Without an enforceable agreement specifically defining permissable gaming activities and/or prohibiting gaming in perpetuity, the Town must assume the worst-case scenario, leaving it no choice but to oppose the Tribe’s request.

In a nice touch, the Mashpee selectmen append a letter from the Mashpee Wampanoags promising not to build a casino in their town — signed by Glenn Marshall, who stepped down as tribal chairman last summer after it was revealed he’d lied about his military record and had been convicted of sexual assault. Not too credible.

The Times story also makes a point that the media don’t bring up often enough — that the agreement signed by Middleborough selectmen with tribal leaders last summer legally prohibits the selectmen from acting in their town’s best interests. As Vosk and Brennan write: “The agreement specifies that not only can Middleboro not oppose the application, it must work on behalf of the tribe to help it pass.” That boilerplate sentence should appear in every story about the casino proposal. Incredibly, it would be illegal for the Middleborough selectmen to stand up for their town the way the Mashpee selectmen have done.

It seems odd that the tribal leaders would word their application in a way that allows the Mashpee tail to wag the Middleborough dog. Perhaps they will drop the Mashpee part of their application. But if they don’t, it sounds like this could delay the tribe’s casino plans for years.

This also undermines one of Gov. Deval Patrick’s arguments for his three-casino proposal — that a Native American-owned casino is inevitable, so the state might as well get in on the action. There’s nothing inevitable about it, and there never has been.

The governor’s loaded dice

I like to stay away from debates over what kinds of benefits may or may not flow from Gov. Deval Patrick’s three-casino proposal. My reasoning is simple: casinos are bad news for a whole host of reasons, including traffic, crime and predicted increases in the divorce and suicide rates. If it turns out that Patrick’s rosy promises of tax revenues and jobs turn out to be true, well, I’m still against it.

Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that there’s considerable evidence that the numbers really don’t add up. The latest example is Steve Bailey’s column in today’s Globe, in which Bailey notes that the governor has promised four or times as many construction jobs as were created by the Big Dig, which was only the largest public-works project in the history of the known universe.

A more in-depth analysis of the numbers is provided in CommonWealth Magazine by Phil Primack. His story is proof, really, that there are no good numbers — and that as others, most prominently the Weekly Dig, have reported, Patrick has mainly adopted the assumptions of Clyde Barrow, a UMass Dartmouth researcher who is staunchly pro-casino. Primack’s story is must reading for anyone looking for a comprehensive overview of the numbers.

If the Legislature is unwilling to kill Patrick’s proposal outright, then at the very least it ought to commission an independent study. Legislators in the middle might be surprised at how little we’re going to get out of this, especially compared with how much we’re going to be hurt.

More bad news for casino proponents

Another day, another round-up of news suggesting that Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to build three gambling casinos in Massachusetts, and a bid by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe to construct the world’s largest casino in Middleborough, are as happening as Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign. This morning we consider four developments.

1. In the Herald, Dave Wedge reports that revenue from three casinos in Detroit is dropping like a rock, with tax money for the state of Michigan falling by $10 million over the past year. Wedge quotes a Detroit autoworker named Mark Hauswirth thusly: “They ruin the city. People blow all their money. It don’t help nobody but the people who own them.” Hauswirth knows whereof he speaks: Wedge interviewed him at, yes, a casino.

Are analogies fair? I don’t know. Building three casinos in a depressed city like Detroit is hardly the same as spreading them out in a relatively prosperous state like Massachusetts. But local casino critics like state Rep. Dan Bosley have been warning us that casinos don’t generate anywhere near as much money as proponents like to think. The Detroit experience definitely falls in line with that.

2. House Speaker Sal DiMasi disses Patrick big-time in today’s Globe, telling reporter Matt Viser that he’s endorsing Hillary Clinton for president because Barack Obama is too inexperienced — just like Patrick.

“I think Massachusetts will look at it to find out what they can see in Obama with respect to what they did with their vote for Governor Patrick,” DiMasi is quoted as saying. “To be perfectly honest, I really don’t want my president to be in there in a learning process for the first six months to a year. It’s too important.”

I’ve heard the Obama-Patrick comparison many times, and I find it borderline offensive. What do they have in common other than a political consultant (David Axelrod) and, oh yes, the fact that they are both African-American? But Media Nation is in tea leaf-reading mode today. And the leaves tell me that DiMasi has decided to take the gloves off after a period of relative calm. Since DiMasi has already made it clear that he opposes Patrick’s casino plan, his outspokenness suggests that he won’t mind killing it once and for all.

3. The Globe’s Frank Phillips informs us that Patrick “has set up a novel political fund-raising system that allows him to skirt the state’s campaign finance law by channeling big contributions through the state Democratic Party, which, in turn, has paid off hundreds of thousands of dollars of the governor’s political expenses.”

If this were a big deal, I’d expect that Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause of Massachusetts, would be upset. Instead, Phillips writes that Wilmot “found nothing about Patrick’s strategy that prompted alarm.” Still, it places Patrick on the defense once again, hampering his ability to move his agenda forward. When it comes to casinos, that’s a good thing.

4. Finally, it turns out that the proposed site of the Middleborough casino may be the home of a rare species of turtle called the northern red-bellied cooter. Gladys Kravitz explains why it matters — although Alicia Elwell, writing in the Brockton Enterprise, reports that maybe the turtle doesn’t live there after all.

Much wrangling ahead, you can be sure.

Time for DiMasi to just say no

House Speaker Sal DiMasi can save Deval Patrick’s governorship. He can do it by sending the governor’s casino-gambling plan to the floor as soon as possible and then killing it once and for all. Patrick will thank him some day — say, in 2010, if he chooses to run for re-election.

Patrick’s obsession with casinos and the money they will purportedly bring has reached a dangerous stage. As Frank Phillips reports in today’s Globe, and Casey Ross in the Herald, Patrick made longstanding rumors come true by including non-existent casino revenue in his budget proposal for the fiscal year that will begin next July.

I am not going to get into a debate over whether or not the state needs the money. Casino gambling’s social ills have been well-documented, and would be exceedingly bad news for the state. DiMasi has dropped numerous hints that he wants to defeat Patrick’s three-casino plan, but has been wary of acting too abruptly — perhaps sensitive to comments he made early in Patrick’s term that were seen as disrespectful. Well, it would be better for all concerned, including Patrick, to put this sorry chapter behind us once and for all.

If there’s a budget gap, some combination of spending cuts and tax increases will take care of that. It is not up to those of us who oppose casino gambling and the crime, addiction, divorces and suicides they create to solve the state’s fiscal problems. The state and local tax burden in Massachusetts is in the middle of the pack nationally, so the problem can’t be so horrible that reasonable people shouldn’t be able to solve it.

I also had to laugh when I read that Patrick proposes to use gambling revenues to offset an anticipated shortfall in state Lottery receipts. Casino gambling will almost certainly do considerable harm to the Lottery, making this nothing more than a shell game.

Mr. Speaker, just kill it now.

Counting chips he hasn’t cashed

The Boston Globe’s Matt Viser today repeats the not-entirely-new news that Gov. Deval Patrick may build $800 million into his budget proposal that will materialize only if the Legislature approves his socially irresponsible plan to license three gambling casinos. Viser writes:

With a big budget gap, including casino licensing money would put pressure on lawmakers to pass the governor’s proposal or find other ways to balance the budget as required by state law. When the governor introduces his budget, within three weeks, legislators will spend months reshaping it.

I continue to find it amazing that Patrick has decided to stake his reputation on this. Why? He has only guaranteed that his reputation will suffer if he loses, and suffer even more if he wins, since he’ll forever be associated with casinos and the sleaze and corruption that they bring.

I also think the governor’s proposal is a lot deader than his realizes — that, when the time is right, House Speaker Sal DiMasi is simply going to crush it and that will be the end of it. But we’ll see.

Cape businesses oppose casinos

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce has come out against casino gambling. Sarah Shemkus reports in the Cape Cod Times that chamber officials are worried that a casino in Middleborough would leave Cape businesses scrambling for employees. Here’s a juicy tidbit:

“The 20,000 new jobs, as advocated by the governor is, in fact, not 20,000 new jobs but the replacement of 20,000 jobs that are currently located in other areas that would lose jobs,” said William Zammer, vice-chairman of the chamber’s board and the owner of Coonamessett Inn in Falmouth and two other restaurants on the Cape.

Does Gov. Deval Patrick really want to sacrifice the Cape’s vacation economy in favor of gambling?