Ancillary to the efforts of Governor Deval Patrick to create a new Sin City in the Bay State, the Mashpee Wampanoag had been trying to gain federal land around Middleborough for their own casino. Well, they came up double-zero when the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the government can't carve out land for them. From the Boston Globe "Ruling puts tribe hope for casino in doubt":
The US Supreme Court delivered a crippling setback yesterday to the Mashpee Wampanoag in Massachusetts and many other tribes across the nation that are seeking to build casinos, ruling that the federal government cannot place land into trust for newly recognized tribes.Instead of looking for a new source of revenue based on grandmothers playing nickel slots, maybe Beacon Hill should try to bring spending under control. I'm kidding, of course.
The ruling instantly cast doubt on the Mashpee Wampanoags' quest to build a $1 billion casino in Middleborough, disappointing tribal officials who had hoped to get 539 acres put into federal trust as soon as this spring.
The ruling also eliminates one of the political rationales that had been advanced last year by Governor Deval Patrick and other gambling proponents for approving casinos in Massachusetts. Administration officials had argued that the tribe was likely to win a Native American casino someday, so the state should get in on the action first and control the flow of revenues by setting up its own network of licensed casinos.
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