Faced with a lawsuit challenging its right to build a casino in Aquinnah, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is seeking to have the case decided in federal, not state court.
The 16-page complaint filed in the state Supreme Judicial Court claims the tribe breached a 1983 land claims settlement agreement by taking steps to allow gaming in Aquinnah.
Prospect of a Vineyard casino was thrust back into the spotlight this week with the announcement the tribe was moving to build a gaming facility in Aquinnah.
The chairman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) vowed Tuesday to move ahead with plans to build a class II gaming facility in Aquinnah — and quickly.
Chairman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais said the tribe is “totally cleared” to build a casino facility in Aquinnah and would do so in a matter of months, not years. She said the tribe is looking for a partner in the project.
Class II casinos are restricted to games of bingo, and various card and table games where players can bet against each other but not against a dealer or the house.
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has appealed a decision that blocks its right to intervene in a federal lawsuit concerning the state’s casino law.
In the original lawsuit, private developer K.G. Urban Enterprises argues that a provision in the 2011 gaming act is unconstitutional.
A federal lawsuit challenging the state’s right to reserve a casino license in southeastern Massachusetts for an Indian tribe will go forward without any involvement from the Vineyard.
In a decision issued yesterday, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton denied attempts by the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the town of Aquinnah and the Aquinnah Gay Head Community Association to intervene in a case brought by a private casino developer against Gov. Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
A decision by the state gaming commission late last week to open up Southeastern Massachusetts to commercial bidding for casinos will not disrupt casino plans by the Vineyard Wampanoags, the head of the Vineyard tribe said.
“We have been following these events as well . . . . It doesn’t impact us at all,” Cheryl Andrews-Maltais said in an email to the Gazette. Mrs. Andrews Maltais is chairman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).
With the deadline now past to apply for commercial casino licenses in Massachusetts, the chairman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) said the tribe will not pursue a class three license from the state but will continue to press for a high-stakes bingo hall in Aquinnah.
The attorney for the Wampanoag Tribe of Mashpee told a federal judge in Boston Monday that the tribe is in active negotiations with Gov. Deval Patrick over a compact that will allow it to open a casino in Taunton by 2014.
Howard M. Cooper said the Mashpee Wampanoags hoped to complete negotiations with state in less than 60 days and submit the proposed agreement to the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs for needed ratification.
With a hearing scheduled in U.S. district court Monday in a complicated lawsuit over casino rights, the town of Aquinnah Tuesday filed a motion to intervene in the case to protect the town’s position that the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) does not have the right to build a gaming facility on the Island.
