Plans for Mashpee Wampanoag casino in Taunton unveiled

[MADem]

By George Brennan
[e-mail]
March 01, 2012
TAUNTON — A city known for its ties to the 19th-century silver industry is looking to strike casino gold with the Mashpee Wampanoag.

On Wednesday, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell announced plans to build a "world-class, best-in-class" casino complete with hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues on the outskirts of one of the state's oldest cities.

"This could potentially be the shot in the arm our city needs to once again be the gem of southern New England," Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. said in announcing that negotiations are under way between the city and the Mashpee tribe.

Wednesday's announcement brings to an end months of speculation on where the tribe sought to build a casino. The tribe likes Taunton's proximity — it is less than 50 miles from Mashpee — and its ties to Wampanoag history, Cromwell said. He called the city a "cultural gateway" to Southeastern Massachusetts....

More at Link: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120301/NEWS/203010352

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Don't hold your breath. n/t

[MADem]

4. We'll see. I think this is going to happen.

If not in Taunton, elsewhere in MA. There are too many people pulling for it.

[Little Star]

2. Great. NOT.....

I was wishing these build casino ideas would just die off. jmho

[MADem]

3. People are going to go to Twin Rivers, to Mohegan Sun, etc.

MA loses millions every year to those places.

I don't think this idea is going away. The revenue and the jobs that the facilities will create are strong incentives to go forward.

Under the Massachusetts law, which allows for three casinos to be built in three different regions, the state will pocket 25 percent of the gambling proceeds, plus 40 percent of the proceeds from a separate slot parlor that it will also allow. It is a potential bonanza that, combined with thousands of promised jobs, has much of New England poised to cast aside Yankee restraint and follow suit.

The type of law that Massachusetts passed is different from the more limited arrangement Connecticut has with two Indian tribes, which gives the tribes exclusive rights to offer casino gambling at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in exchange for a portion of their revenues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/us/new-law-in-massachusetts-allows-for-three-casinos.html?pagewanted=all

[Little Star]

5. Call me a bleeding heart but...

Last edited Thu Mar 1, 2012, 11:12 AM - Edit history (1)

I just feel bad for families who have a addicted gambler in them. Geographical cures don't usually help the addict but it could help save the other family members from financial ruin.

But I do get your point about revenue and jobs. And I agree, the idea is not going away.

[MADem]

6. Well, those gamblers won't be taking the family car down to CT or RI--they'll be closer to home,

easier to find and drag outta there.

As it is, it's a simple matter to get to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun--they run buses there all the time. They make it way too easy. The horse is already way outta the barn on this issue.

If people are going to do it anyway, may as well keep the dough in-state. I think, if they're like most states, they'll put some of the money aside for treatment programs for the addicted gamblers.

There are plenty of places for addicted gamblers to gamble illegally, to say nothing of opportunities on the internet. This kind of thing is the new paradigm.

People said that lifting the blue laws would be the beginning of the end, too. All I can see is that fewer people are driving, sometimes drunk, up to NH....

[Lemonwurst]

7. It's a mixed bag

I'm from Massachusetts, and yes - I worry about the effect casinos might have on people who have that particular weakness.

But overall, I am looking forward to a casino in MA for the same reasons as many people. It will goose our economny right away, and also (if Foxwoods is any indication) for the long term.

More specifically, casino properties tend to include the kinds of hotels that can host quality entertainment 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Sure, that's little comfort to folks struggling to get by, and I am not dismissing that fact. But lots of people go to casinos' facilities strictly for the entertainment, restaurants, etc. That's where I hope these "houses of vice" have a means to provide a net positive impact on our state.

[MADem]

8. I agree with you. It'll be nice to have a venue where you can go hear some music or a comedian,

that, should you want to have a few drinks, you can just have dinner, see the show, get a room, and drive home the next morning.

Then, there's the generous kickbacks to the state, which WILL help, and the jobs.

I think it's a win-win all around. With the buses to Mohegan and Foxwood rolling out of MA constantly anyway, might as well keep some of that cash in the Commonwealth. It's not like the default for someone who is going to gamble is "Oh, I won't, because Twin Rivers is SO much further away than...Taunton!"

[Censor-Ready]

9. How about a cattle rendering plant?

It's not hard to remember a time when economic development meant building something other than a casino, yet there is no shortage of neo-feudalists ready to roll over on this. Take Clyde Barrow at UMass Dartmouth, quoted in the CCTimes: he used to teach Marx and Hegel and hit on comely female students, but now he finds it more profitable to write creampuff policy papers on sports stadiums and gambling. That makes him many things, but not a "casino expert."

We're passing through speculation and into the cannibalism phase of American decline and collapse, but this is far from a done deal. Lakeville canned the casino idea a few years back. Taunton's kinda thickheaded, but I don't think they're that dumb. If it's going to happen, it will be at the former dog track in Raynham. Trouble is, the Carney's will have their cut and that skews the numbers.