Casino news source: South Coast Today - http://www.southcoasttoday.com/
Murray interview reveals tempered support for casino gambling
By David Kibbe
SouthCoastToday.com
March 29, 2007 9:11 PM
BOSTON — Senate President Therese Murray yesterday said she has an open mind about casino gambling, but added it could be a significant economic boost to the state and Southeastern Massachusetts.
“I think it would mean a lot for New Bedford,” she said in an interview in her Senate office. “It would mean a lot for the revenue of the commonwealth. I’m told that two casinos in Connecticut make $500 million in revenue. Three hundred million of that comes from Massachusetts.”
Sen. Murray said it would also create thousands of permanent jobs and construction jobs, “so I’m keeping an open mind.”
Ms. Murray’s position on gambling has been the subject of much speculation since she was elected Senate president by her fellow Democrats last week. Sen. Murray said she has been mistakenly described in some media accounts as an outright opponent of gambling.
She does oppose a casino in her hometown of Plymouth, saying there wasn’t a place for it in the town. But she said the idea of a casino should be open for consideration in other parts of the state.
“If you put it down in New Bedford, you are capturing people coming from other states, too,” she said.
Sen. Murray voted to allow slot machines at the state’s race tracks in 2005. However, she was chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee at the time, making her all but obligated to vote with former Senate President Robert Travaglini, who had two race tracks in his district.
The slots measure was ultimately defeated in the House, where House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi remains an opponent.
Gov. Deval Patrick reignited the casino debate in Massachusetts late last year when he said it had to be considered as a revenue source as the state faces a potential $1.1 billion shortfall next year.
Gov. Patrick has a task force in his cabinet — which he sometimes refers to as a commission — studying the issue.
If the governor decides he opposes gambling, “it won’t happen,” Sen. Murray said.
“I’m anxious to see the governor have his commission come out and see what they are going to say,” she said.
She said last month’s federal recognition of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe on Cape Cod was the major force driving the current debate. The Mashpee tribe is seeking an off-Cape casino in Southeastern Massachusetts if it gets approval from the state Legislature.
“I think it’s because the Mashpee made it clear that they want a casino,” Sen. Murray said. “So I think that’s why it’s heated up again. It’s because of the Wampanoag’s interest.”
Both New Bedford and Middleboro have made formal overtures to the tribe.
The state has a second federally recognized tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha’s Vineyard.
The Gay Head tribe failed to get an off-Cape casino proposal through the Legislature in 1997 and again earlier this decade.
Both tribes would be entitled under federal Indian gaming law to offer whatever form of Class III gaming — including slots parlors and casinos — that is allowed in the rest of the state.
Sen. Murray said the Mashpee Wampanoag would have to go through a long process to acquire land and have it held in federal trust. She said any gambling bill would have to overcome opposition in the Legislature.
“There is definitely opposition,” she said.
The Roman Catholic Church, religious groups in New Bedford, and opponents in the state Legislature say the social costs of gambling will far outweigh any revenues the state might get.
Scott Ferson, a spokesman for the Mashpee tribe, was encouraged by the positive tone of Sen. Murray’s remarks.
“We always knew that the senator was a strong supporter of the tribe,” he said. “All through the decades, the struggle for recognition, for that entire time, she has been there. She has been incredibly supportive.”
Sen. Murray also had a positive tone when discussing casinos in a radio interview yesterday on WBUR-FM.
“The thing we find most encouraging in her comments is that she really understands the tribe’s perspective, that this is a right that was given by the federal government as a way to secure its economic future,” Mr. Ferson said.
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