Tag: Middleborough

The premise of this Kyle Alspach article in the Brockton Enterprise is odd: the economic crisis makes the Middleborough casino proposed by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe less likely, and the construction of commercial, non-Indian casinos more likely.

Alspach bases his reporting mainly on pro-casino sources — the Rev. Richard McGowan of Boston College and Clyde Barrow of UMass Dartmouth — and that makes this hard to parse as well.

Nevertheless, the story stands as further evidence that a casino will never be built in Middleborough. As if you had any doubts.

Kevin Ring, a former lobbyist for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and fraud, according to Stephanie Vosk of the Cape Cod Times.

Ring, who used to work for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, helped the tribe with its application for federal recognition, a key to its bid to build a giant gambling casino in Middleborough.

None other than former tribal council president Glenn Marshall, who stepped down after it was revealed he was a convicted rapist who had lied about his military record, once testified to Ring’s good name.

The charges against Ring do not may involve his dealings with the Mashpee. [Update: The charges refer to a “Massachusetts tribal client” that may well have been the Mashpee tribe.]

Cape Cod Today has more.

Middleborough Board of Selectmen chairman Adam Bond, a prime mover behind plans to build a casino mega-complex in his adopted town, is complaining that Mashpee Wampanoag tribal leaders failed to call their old pal before asking state officials to negotiate with them.

Matthew Burke reports in the Cape Cod Times today that the tribe has formally approached Gov. Deval Patrick in order to work out a compact that would allow the Mashpee to build a $1 billion casino in Middleborough.

Bond, writing on his blog, can’t believe it. “The spirit and the letter of the agreement make it absolutely clear that we should be present, or our rights have been irreparably harmed,” says Bond, a lawyer, who criticizes the tribe for approaching the state “with no mention of Middleborough being at the table for the talks.”

Please. Does Bond think for one moment that the big-money folks behind the casino plans care about Middleborough? As I and others have been arguing for more than a year now, Bond says he sought the casino in order to save the town; but he’s going to end up destroying it. No doubt the town will get a seat at the table, as the agreement appears to require it. But that’s hardly “mutual respect for the partnership,” the lack of which surprises no one other than Bond.

As Burke’s story notes, the tribe can’t operate a full casino unless the state Legislature legalizes Class III gambling, which the House declined to do earlier this year. Speaker Sal DiMasi is presumably as opposed now as he was then, but you can be sure casino proponents — including Patrick — are going to make another run at it.

As for the latest development, perhaps yesterday will stand as a landmark moment in the education of Adam Bond. And here’s a thought: The agreement forbids town officials from opposing the Mashpee’s plans. But if the Mashpee abrogate the agreement, Bond and his fellow selectmen would presumably be free to do the right thing the second time around. Indeed, Bond even hints at it toward the end of his post.

Matt Viser of the Boston Globe has more.

Wednesday afternoon update: Alice Elwell of the Brockton Enterprise reports that tribal leaders are now claiming the document that Bond complained about was just a draft, and that they never meant to exclude Middleborough officials.

We interrupt this week’s orgy of national political news to tell you that Glenn Marshall — the convicted rapist and phony war hero who helped target Middleborough as the home for the world’s largest gambling casino — continues to pull strings behind the scenes.

George Brennan of the Cape Cod Times reports that Marshall is neither forgotten nor gone from the circles of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which he served as president before his past was brought to light by Cape Cod Today and the Cape Cod Times.

And just to bring this full circle: As I recently wrote here, here and here, it’s ludicrous to pretend that the Spectrum Gaming report commissioned by Gov. Deval Patrick for $189,000 is an independent assessment. But there was one interesting wrinkle. Whereas Patrick has seemed less than enthusiastic about supporting a tribal casino, Spectrum warned that such a casino is inevitable.

As the great Gladys Kravitz recently observed, one of Spectrum’s clients is the financier Sol Kerzner, who’s the source of much of the money behind the Middleborough proposal — and thus an important guy in making Glenn Marshall an important guy.

You absolutely cannot make this stuff up.

Another highlight from the Spectrum Gaming Group’s Web site:

Spectrum fields a full complement of experienced executives to help our casino development clients as projects move from conceptual planning to fully operational businesses. Our team of gaming professionals — with extensive experience in accounting, operations, regulation, law-enforcement, slot technology and media relations, among many other disciplines — has developed, planned and opened many casinos worldwide, and has provided clients with the tools to develop viable casino projects that will comfortably withstand governmental licensing scrutiny, attract defined gaming markets and be financially profitable.

Casino openings are extremely challenging technically, but tremendously rewarding once successfully accomplished. With its expertise in all aspects of casino gaming, Spectrum can guide its clients through this difficult process.

Gladys Kravitz has a minor bombshell in the comments.

How on earth can the Globe call these people “independent”?

If there’s one thing I think we could all agree on, it’s that the recently released Spectrum Gaming Group report on Gov. Deval Patrick’s moribund casino-gambling proposal is not independent. So why does a Boston Globe editorial today refer to Spectrum as “an independent research firm”?

Spectum’s close ties to the gambling industry were the subject of a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago. And there’s more. For instance, check out the credentials of some of its top executives:

• Harvey Perkins, senior vice president, “has thirty years of casino gaming industry experience and has held high-level positions at major gaming properties in Atlantic City and New Orleans.”
• Tina Ercole LoBiondo, vice president for analysis, “has worked in the casino resort industry since 1988, having held various analytical, operational and developmental roles in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, and was instrumental in the opening of three major gaming resorts.”
• Bill LaPenta, director of financial analysis, “is a casino and hotel industry professional with more than 20 years of operations management and analysis experience, providing critical business decision support, planning, analysis, and performance management tools to casino hotel and resort operators.”

Not everyone who holds a top position at Spectrum has a gambling background. And the two managing directors, Fredric Gushin and Michael Pollack, come from the worlds of law enforcement and government regulation, respectively.

But Spectrum officials clearly see themselves as part of the gambling industry. They may be nice people. They may sincerely believe there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it, and they may be dedicated to the right way.

In reality, though, the right way is not to do it at all, and that simply isn’t part of the Spectrum mindset. The fact is that Patrick hired the casino-gambling industry to report on whether casino gambling would be a good thing. The opposite of independent, in other words.

When you hire a consulting firm that makes its living from casino gambling, then you can be pretty sure it will tell you casinos are a good thing. That’s the message of the Spectrum Gaming Group’s report to Gov. Deval Patrick, which has been touted as giving a boost (Boston Herald) to Patrick’s casino dreams, even if the three he has proposed wouldn’t bring in quite as much money (Boston Globe) as the governor had claimed.

The real eye-opener, though, is a Cape Cod Times story by David Kibbe, who reports that Spectrum says the state should act in large measure because the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has the right, under federal law, to open a gambling casino in Southeastern Massachusetts. The Mashpee, as we know, propose building the world’s largest casino in Middleborough.

The inevitability theme has been used repeatedly, and, indeed, was a big reason that the Middleborough town meeting last year voted to approve a deal the selectmen had negotiated with the tribe, then voted against an advisory question asking whether folks wanted a casino in the first place.

In fact, though, there is a whole host of reasons why a Middleborough casino is not inevitable. Here is the great Gladys Kravitz’s list of the top 10 reasons why a casino will not be built. To my mind, the most compelling reasons are that the Middleborough casino would be farther from the Mashpee’s tribal lands than the feds generally allow, and that there are enough questions about the process used to ram the deal through at town meeting that opponents could keep this tied up in the courts for years.

Finally, consider that the governor’s office paid $189,000 to Spectrum knowing ahead of time that the outcome would be pro-casino. Take a look at Spectrum’s Web site and see how it makes its money. “Services for Casino Operators, Developers and Owners.” “Services for Suppliers to the Gaming Industry.” “Professional Services for Indian Nations.” (Would that include telling Gov. Patrick that a tribal casino is inevitable?)

This doesn’t pass the laugh test.

A Media Nation reader thinks I should note that a restraining order taken out against Shawn Hendricks, head of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council, has been dropped. Fair enough.

But I think I should also note that, according to this Cape Cod Times story, Hendricks has admitted to using steroids; to engaging in some sort of “a tug-of-war battle” over his son; and to “smashing his arm through a glass door during a fight with his wife.”

Glad I could clear that up.