Today's featured student guest post is by Joshua Haugen, a second-year law student at UND:

Massachusetts is deciding whether or not to allow a casino to be opened.  A recent article mentions some really interesting points like:

"The Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe started the whole Massachusetts competition when it announced plans in 2007 to build a $1-billion casino-hotel complex in Middleboro. Since then, the tribe has changed leaders, financiers and its proposed casino location.

"The competitors now include three other racetracks, a second Indian tribe and other commercial groups, who’ve announced plans of varying scope for New Bedford, Fall River, Raynham, Plainville, Milford and Palmer.

"But whatever the ultimate number and size, Bay State gambling halls will siphon money from Twin River and Newport Grand and tax revenue from Rhode Island.  The two Rhode Island slot parlors currently are home to close to 6,000 electronic gambling machines. Rhode Island keeps roughly 61 cents of every dollar lost by a gambler, an estimated $291 million this year, helping make gambling one of the largest sources of state revenue."

Also, and probably most interesting to our latest discussion in the Indian Gaming Law class:

 "The Mashpee also have tried to get land in Middleboro placed into federal trust. Gaining trust status for the land would then allow the tribe to operate a Class II gambling venue, which includes video bingo machines but not card games or slots.

"They have talked tough about pushing ahead with a gambling venue apart from the Bay State’s eventual licensing regimen, by trying to develop it under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

"The Mashpee also offered a compromise.  The compromise would have the tribe open a commercial casino through a bill approved by the legislature and then convert it to an Indian gambling facility whenever federal land trust issues are settled. The tribe would share revenues with the state under a Class III gambling compact."

Read the article Josh references, from the Providence Journal, here.