A federal appeals court has reversed on Monday a lower court decision from 2015 that banned the Massachusetts-based Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head from opening a casino-like venue on the Martha’s Vineyard island.
The Monday court ruling could pave the way for the construction of another gambling venue within the Massachusetts borders.
The Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe is one of Massachusetts’ two federally recognized tribes. Several years ago, tribal officials announced plans to build a gambling facility with 300 slots-like gaming machines. The tribe wanted to use an unfinished community center on Martha’s Vineyard as the site for its gaming hall. Tribal officials estimated that its gaming business could generate almost $5 million during its first year of operation.
However, a District Court judge ruled in 2015 that the tribe had failed to exercise any significant government authority manifestations and thus claim its right to operate a gambling venue. A Boston appeals court overturned that decision in Aquinnah Wampanoags’ favor mere days ago. According to the First Circuit Court of Appeals judge charged with the case, the tribe had reached the necessary agreements with governments, had passed the required ordinances, and had hired a judge.
Under a 2011 state gambling law, the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe was disqualified from applying for a license for the operation of gambling facilities citing a compact between tribal and state officials from the 1980s.
It was approximately at that time when the tribe received 485 acres of what it had claimed had been ancestral land. It also agreed to comply with the Massachusetts law on the provision of games of chance.
The 2011 law was enacted by the Congress, but was later on scrapped by court as a separate regulatory framework allowed a number of tribes to operate gambling venues on tribal land without having to wait for a nod from state authorities.
Mashpee Wampanoag, Massachusetts’ other federally recognized tribe, has too been trying to open a gambling venue on tribal land for several years now. It had proposed the construction of a $1-billion casino resort in Taunton, but legal proceedings have been preventing it from moving ahead with the materialization of its plan.
Massachusetts is currently in the process of building its commercial casino industry, after casino gambling was legalized in 2013. The state Gaming Commission announced that it would grant up to four gaming licenses, one for a slots parlor and the other three for full-fledged casino resorts in designated regions around the state.
Three licenses were eventually awarded and the state’s slots parlor – Plainridge Park Casino – opened doors in 2015. Wynn Resorts is currently building an integrated resort in Everett, valued at more than $2 billion, and fellow casino developer and operator MGM Resorts International is set to launch a $950-million resort in Springfield in September 2018.
