The Mashpee Wampanoags came one step closer yesterday to building a resort casino in Taunton, after federal officials effectively approved the tribe's gaming pact with the state.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs' approval of the agreement, which outlines terms such as how much gaming proceeds will go to the state, follows its rejection of a prior pact.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to review the tribe's application to put Taunton land for the casino into a federal trust. While that approval is expected to be more troublesome, Mashpee tribal chairman Cedric Cromwell said he hopes to start construction this year.
"The tribal state compact represents a very exciting and important historical time," Cromwell said.
But an attorney for KG Urban Enterprises, which is suing the state and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission over the tribe's first rights to build a southeastern Massachusetts casino, yesterday called the state compact "legally irrelevant."
"The notion that the tribe will 'break ground on a casino by the end of 2014' is nothing short of absurd," attorney Jeff Harris said.
KG is undergoing a background check for a New Bedford casino after the commission's decision to open the southeast region's licensing process to commercial applications while the tribe pursues federal approvals.
KG's federal lawsuit seeks to invalidate the state's gaming act, claiming it includes "race-based set-asides" that give tribes an advantage.
"The United States Supreme Court held in 2009 that tribes such as the Mashpee are ineligible as a matter of federal law for new Indian lands," Harris said. "The compact is thus legally irrelevant and is nothing more than a distraction."
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