Mashpee tribe announces operator for Taunton casino

“Genting is putting up millions and millions and millions, and has never stopped believing in our goal,” Mashpee Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell told the state Gaming Commission at a special meeting on the casino project at the tribe’s headquarters.

While Genting’s financial backing of the project had been known, its role in operations had not been previously spelled out. Genting said it would eventually turn over management of the casino to the tribe, but did not say when that might be.

“Genting will operate the tribal casino on behalf of the tribe,” said Kevin C. Jones, president of Genting Massachusetts. “We will operate the casino while helping to build up the capacity of the tribe to operate it themselves. Our role is to work ourselves out of a job on behalf of the tribe.”

The owners and operators of more than 50 casinos worldwide, including some of the world’s largest, Genting hosts more than 60 million casino customers a year and employs more than 50,000 people.

The announcement comes as the Gaming Commission weighs whether the Mashpee tribe will have exclusive rights to run a resort casino in Southeastern Massachusetts, or whether a competing plan in Brockton, just 20 miles away, can also move forward.

The Mashpee tribe plans to build the casino on land in Taunton that has been designated as a Native American reservation, and therefore does not need the state’s permission.

At the start of the nearly four-hour meeting, commission chairman Stephen Crosby said the tribe’s plans are a key factor in the panel’s upcoming decision on the Brockton project.

“We will consider all circumstances in deciding whether to award the license, especially the status of the tribe,” Crosby said.

Commission members listened closely to the tribe’s presentation but offered few comments.

Mashpee and Genting officials stressed the project’s readiness. At one point during the presentation, Jones pointed to a thick pile of oversized construction drawings as proof that the project is ready to go. Groundbreaking is scheduled for next month.

“In the last 18 months, we have spent $20 million getting these drawings done,” Jones said. “That’s what it costs to start a project like this.”

Jones said the casino would open in June 2017, which would make it the first casino to offer full-scale gambling in Massachusetts. Work on the rest of the project, including three hotels, would continue to 2020.

Genting executive Michael Speller acknowledged that the timetable was “very, very fast,” but said it was realistic.

“It is very doable,” he said. “We have a long history of doing fast-tracking on casinos.”

Jones said tribe leaders have worked tirelessly on the project since choosing the Taunton site four years ago.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars have already gone into this project,” he said. “There has been work going on around the clock. But we wanted to make sure when we unveiled it that it was ready to go. And it is.”

The casino’s path has been far from smooth. In 2013, the Mashpee reached a deal with the state for exclusive rights, agreeing to pay a 17 percent tax in exchange.

But the Gaming Commission, impatient with delays on the tribe’s efforts to win federal approval of reservation land, eventually opened the process to competitors.

Last fall, the Mashpee tribe received approval to treat the Taunton site as federal land. But by that point, Mass Gaming & Entertainment had unveiled plans for a $677 million casino and hotel on the site of the Brockton Fairgrounds.

Hanging over the tribe’s plans is a lawsuit filed earlier this year by a group of Taunton property owners. That lawsuit is being partly funded by Mass Gaming & Entertainment.

On Tuesday, Cromwell denounced the developer’s involvement as “immoral,” and urged the commission to reject the Brockton proposal.