The Casino Creep towards Boston

Every day for the last week month it seems we've read something in the papers about the Mashpee Wampanoags and their move to set up a casino. Will it be in Middleborough? New Bedford? Palmer? Some other Massachusetts town? It's not clear where they're going to open up just yet, but two things are certain: 1. the Mashpee Wampanoags receive their official federal recognition this week and 2. We'll hear the word "bingosino" a lot more as this story develops. Without special legislation from the state that would allow the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe to operate slots and/or table games they'd still be able to operate bingo parlors, or, what is commonly referred to as a "bingosino." For some reason we can't help but feel like bingosino is some sort of derogatory racial epithet, but we'll get past it. Bingo comes on video slot machines now, so the one armed bandits are likely to be in effect one way or another.

The apparent controversy and special solicitation of Commonwealth officials is all to bring a casino or a, sigh, bingosino into Massachusetts. But the potential sites aren't really any closer to Boston than the existing set. If you want to get your video poker and slot fix just hop in the car or grab a bus to Twin River in Rhode Island, it's just a short 45 mile trip. For the full gaming and resort experience complete with cards on the felt as well as the largest number of slots you can zip over to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, both Connecticut resorts are about 100 miles away and busses conveniently run from the Forrest Hills T station. New Bedford lies in between at about 60 miles from Boston, while a Middleborough site would actually edge out Twin River clocking in at only 40 miles from the Hub. We're not taking sides on this issue, yet. Excuse us while we go to the Store 24 to pick up another Red Sox scratch ticket.

Image is a map plotting the locations of Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods, Twin River, and both the potential New Bedford and Middleborough sites for the Mashpee Wampanoag casino bingosino.