Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is promoting a billion-dollar Native casino — imperiling an alternate bid from a depressed town that is desperate for gambling revenue.
As the Washington Times reports, Warren is advancing a bill to grant the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe a massive gambling resort while ignoring the pleas of nearby Brockton where the local mayor says the town could use an economic boost.
William Carpenter told the Times that Warren’s support of the Native casino spells death for Brockton’s efforts to build a similar, though less ostentatious, gaming center.
“Year after year we’re running multi-million-dollar deficits in our budget. We’ve laid off school teachers for three years in a row. We desperately need the revenue,” Carpenter told the Times.
Carpenter was in Washington on Tuesday to fight Warren’s legislation, entitled the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act — a bill that would nullify a previous decision by a federal judge that denied a gaming license for the Natives to build their facility in East Taunton. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission only plans to approve three new casinos in the state and it endeavors to spread the facilities throughout its jurisdiction.
Carpenter says he doesn’t so much care if the Natives win their casino bid because they are offering a better location. He does object to losing because an influential and media-craving senator is actively interfering in the process.
“The whole thing just seems unfair to me,” Carpenter told the Times. “I don’t know if Brockton will ultimately be granted the license or not from the state gaming commission, but I know our opportunities should not be taken away by a piece of special-interest legislation.”