The die is cast.
The Mohegan are the winners in the great ” will a tribe get a commercial casino in Massachusetts” gambling soap opera. The Mohegan have done their due diligence by working closely with the town of Palmer to meet the requirements in the bill. They are federally recognized, and have land in trust….you know all the right stuff. No need for boondoggles and phoney deals to reassure their investors who happen to be Sol and Len, the South Africans who (along with the Detroit group) backed the Mashpee Wampanoag in Middleboro. Must be nice to have a strategy.
And another potential coup is that there’s nothing to prevent the South Africans from bidding and developing the 539 acres of land they own in Middleboro, that has been processed with environmental clearances. Why shouldn’t they get a license? Considering that the ( sovereignty ) resort casino that was our deal evaporated because the Administration did not act quickly to get our land into trust…nor did they have sense enough to ask Ted Kennedy for help. To say the crew was in over their heads is an understatement, cause we’re sure paying the price now.
And the Malaysians are not exactly the kind of investors the Commonwealth is interested in doing busines with….too messy. Ask the Seminoles.
Point 2. No tribe seeks a commercial casino because it is unprotected. Only the investor, the state and in our case, the Council get’s a paycheck. That’s why land in trust is the bible of Indian gaming and state governments hate it because they can’t do anything about it but ask the tribes for whatever they can get…
Well the balls in the Governor’s court ain’t it? If we had a strategy even when the LIT process was derailed…we would have stood a chance. But we didn’t.
And Cedric and his jackpot in the Boston paper…with all that weepy clap trap about how his people have suffered. How would he know? He doesn’t know the first thing about his own family…being new to the tribe and all. He’s only been a member for 5 years….course that’s another story and its a screecher. How he got on the rolls and all.
Meanwhile remember our new status. Without land in trust we’re a tribe with a guillotine hanging over our heads.
Great. Sort of our own Tale of Two Cities…Mashpee and Middleboro.
