First Light Casino project faces uncertain future

The Taunton casino project -which the tribe has said would create thousands of construction jobs and as many as 2,600 full and part-time permanent gaming and service jobs- has been in limbo since Judge William G. Young rejected the Mashpee Wampanoag’s argument it can trace its ancestral lineage to recognized tribes predating the Indian Reorganization Act.

On Tuesday, the US Department of Interior (DOI) was due to issue a new Record-Of-Decisions (ROD) on whether it could hold Mashpee Wampanoag (MW) reservation land in trust under ‘Category 1’ – Tribe Federally Recognised before 1934.

Genting Group of Malaysia has acted as the tribe’s financial backer for the Route 140/Stevens Street casino project, which the tribe has said will amount to a billion-dollar investment.

The Mashpee-based tribe has seen its plans for building a resort casino in East Taunton halted since 2016, after a U.S. District Court judge sided with two-dozen Taunton plaintiffs.

Massachusetts gaming law allows for three full-blown state casinos and gives special dispensation to an Indian tribe to pay less in annual gaming-revenue taxes.

The construction of the land-based casino was suspended last year due to reservation land issues.