Editorial: Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe plays the gaming card

If the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe seriously plans to build a casino on its reservation on Martha’s Vineyard, and establishes that it has the right to do so, then the state should negotiate an agreement. But the tribe’s real intentions are not nearly so clear. Earlier this month, the Aquinnah Wampanoag chairwoman, Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, unexpectedly announced that the tribe would convert an unfinished community center into a gambling hall, and open it within months. Days later, Andrews-Maltais lost her reelection bid to a rival who expressed no view on a reservation casino. Until the tribe has reached an internal consensus and put forward a serious plan, the state should stay on the sidelines.

The announcement by Andrews-Maltais followed years of on-again, off-again talk about an Aquinnah Wampanoag casino. The tribe’s goal had long been to build a casino on the mainland — a much more natural location, from a business standpoint, than the tribe’s isolated reservation on the Vineyard. But none of those plans has come to fruition, partly because the state has consistently opposed them.

One of the tribe’s few points of leverage, during all of those discussions, was a threat to circumvent state opposition by building a casino on its reservation if it wasn’t allowed to do so on the mainland. With her announcement, Andrews-Maltais seemed to be playing that trump card.