Massachusetts Tribal Casino Seeks Booze, Additional Gaming Machines
Posted on: July 9, 2025, 12:55h.
Last updated on: July 9, 2025, 01:34h.
- The First Light Casino Welcome is hoping to expand
- The tribal casino in Massachusetts currently offers 50 slot-like electronic bingo machines
- The gaming facility is additionally seeking a liquor license
A Massachusetts tribal casino is seeking permission to serve alcohol and increase its number of gaming positions.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has operated a temporary casino inside a modular structure since January. After initially offering just 10 slot-like electronic bingo machines, the tribe increased its number of gaming positions to 50 after striking a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the City of Taunton in March.
Now, the tribe is petitioning to amend the revenue-sharing agreement with city officials to house up to 250 electronic gaming terminals. The Taunton City Council didn’t address the developments during its meeting on Tuesday, July 8, but is expected to in the coming months.
The tribe’s MOA stipulates that 2.05% of the money kept by the bingo games at the First Light Casino Welcome Center, located at 1 O’Connell Way in East Taunton, be directed to the city. In exchange, the city agreed to delay legal action on the tribe’s outstanding $2.35 million in lieu of taxes debt obligation.
First Light Casino Alcohol
After striking the MOA, the Mashpees expanded the modular Welcome Center to 2,200 square feet to accommodate the 40 additional games. The facility also expanded its hours to seven days a week, 10 am to 10 pm Sunday through Thursday, and to 10 am until midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Along with seeking to amend its MOA to increase its games to 250 machines, the tribe wants to bring alcohol to the facility. The City of Taunton Board of License Commissioners will first consider the liquor application on Tuesday night.
The application is listed for an “On-Premises All Alcoholic Beverage License.” For a commercial or tribal entity to obtain a liquor license from the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, an applicant must first gain approval from the location’s local licensing authority, which in Taunton’s case is the Board of License Commission.
Though federally recognized tribes possess the authority to serve and regulate alcohol on their sovereign lands to tribal members, when a Native American entity seeks to serve liquor, beer, and/or wine to the general public, a state-issued license is required in Massachusetts.
First Light Casino Construction
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe hopes to one day replace the Welcome Center gaming facility with a larger, permanent casino. Since 2012, the tribe has been pursuing a Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods-like tribal casino resort with traditional slots and live-dealer table games, but the State of Massachusetts has refused to enter into a Class III compact to allow such a facility to be constructed.
Years of legal wranglings regarding whether the Mashpee’s land in East Taunton should be included in the federal trust additionally resulted in the tribe’s previous financier and would-be casino operator, Malaysia-based Genting, dissolving ties with the tribe that claims to have shared the first Thanksgiving meal with the Pilgrims.
The land dispute is resolved, but finding a partner for a tribal casino that would only be allowed to operate Class II gaming — electronic bingo machines and electronic table games — has proven difficult. In April, the Mashpees said it “intends to pursue and secure financing” for the permanent First Light Casino in the first half of 2025, but no partnership or deal has yet been announced.
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