Column: Mashantucket Tribe addicted to money

Tuesday, September 8, 2009  

"The world's wealthiest Indian tribe suddenly can't pay its bills.

But you wouldn't know it from the 800 or so members of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, who can't give up the gambling money and their regular "per capita" cash payments to tribal members paid for by all those slots and table games.

They even plan to use borrowed money to keep the lucre flowing.

If there's a lesson in how the Pequots got here, it starts with the "per cap" that began shortly after the casino opened in 1992. It's the opposite of what Congress intended with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988, in which gambling was intended to be an engine for economic development — not welfare for tribal members.

For years Mashantuckets have received regular six-figure paychecks for doing little more than being a tribal member.

I found one tribal member taking home a $4,804 weekly paycheck and dozens of other cases in which Mashantuckets "earned" anywhere from high five figures to six-figure per capita incomes. So much for paying your bills before buying the big car."

Get the Story:
Rick Green: Pequots Find That Easy Money Is Hard To Give Up (The Hartford Courant 9/8)