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TRIBAL GAMBLE: THE SERIES

Day One, 12/10/00
Casino boom benefits non-Indians

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Day Two, 12/11/00
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Day Three, 12/12/00
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Day Four, 12/13/00
Tribes make easy criminal targets

Trump plays both sides in casino bids

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Study touts impact of proposed Mass. casino

State treasurer urges caution

By Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff, 8/10/2001

firm hired by a local Indian tribe released a study yesterday forecasting 9,000 new permanent jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue if a casino is built, but one top state official cautioned against moving too quickly to bring casino gambling to Massachusetts.

The study, commissioned by the Wampanoag Tribe of Martha's Vineyard, presented a rosy picture of the economic impact of a casino and resort modeled on Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, the two extremely successful Indian-owned casinos in Connecticut.

The study, done by Deloitte & Touche, a leading accounting and consulting firm, predicts a casino and resort in southeastern Massachusetts would instantly perform on the same level as Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun each do now -- grossing slightly more than $1 billion a year.

The study is also predicated on the expectation that $840 million in spending at a new facility in Massachusetts would come from people who will stay in the state to gamble.

If the forecast is accurate, the Massachusetts casino and resort would return some $250 million in tax revenues to the state, based on an earlier pledge by the tribe to provide a 25 percent cut of income to the Commonwealth.

State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, however, said state officials should be careful not to invite a casino into the state at the risk of taking business away from the state Lottery, which currently returns $864 million in annual tax revenue. She said her hunch is that a casino would draw customers away from Keno, which is played in social settings such as taverns and neighborhood retail outlets. Keno sales are currently $594 million, she said.

But Scott Fraser, a principal at Deloitte & Touche, said his analysis of 15 states where casinos were introduced against the backdrop of existing lotteries showed that about half the casinos did not siphon money from state lotteries.

In those 15 states, 27 casinos opened over the period examined by Fraser. Four occasioned a decline in lottery revenues; 10 a decline in the rate of growth in lottery revenues; 10 an increase in the rate of growth; and three stayed about the same, he said.

The tribe is renewing its efforts to build a casino in the New Bedford-Fall River area, this time as a joint-venture partner with the Tunica-Biloxi tribe of Louisiana.

"Today the Wampanoag Tribe has renewed hope," Beverly Wright, chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribal Council, said yesterday.

Globe correspondent Benjamin Gedan contributed to this story.

Sean P. Murphy's email address is smurphy@globe.com.