Wampanoags' bad gamble

The Old Indian Meeting House, in Mashpee, built in 1684 and the oldest church on Cape Cod as well as the oldest Native American church in the eastern U.S.

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

The U.S. Interior Department has rescinded the reservation status of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, which has been seeking permission to build a casino on  land it owns in Taunton. The Cape Cod-based tribe itself will be allowed to keep federal recognition as a Native American tribe but the federal action presumably kills the plan for a casino.

The casino business is inherently sleazy and casinos (which aren’t open now because of you-know-what) are cannibalizing themselves. Far better to create a  highly diversified long-term economic development plan, but gambling revenues continue to look alluring as a quick fix.

The fewer casinos the better. But I still feel sorry for the tribe, especially knowing that their casinos would have competed with Twin River’s two nearby casinos, in Lincoln and Tiverton, R.I. Twin River has close connections with the Trump administration, ruled by a former and failed Atlantic City casino mogul. Surely politics had nothing to do with the decision…..?