With an audible “Bah, humbug!”, Dover Downs became the first Delaware racino to operate on Christmas Day. While CEO Denis McGlynn claimed “This was not something we’ve been pushing hard for,” in his negotiations with the state, he didn’t 
hesitate to jump into the opportunity with both feet. Feelings about the change were strong on both sides of the issue. Garden Café employee Nicolas Kepner was looking at being able to spend less time with his dad, a long-haul trucker. Nonetheless, he offered a fair and balanced take on the change. “He’s only going to be home Christmas Eve and some of the day on Christmas, so we’ll have to get up early,” Kepner said of his father. “The good part is I’ll be making time and a half, and that will help pay some bills.” We appreciate McGlynn putting a little extra largesse in his employees’ Christmas stockings.
* Congratulations to Scientific Games for inking a pact with Hasbro that will see it continue to offer Monopoly (and 15 other Hasbro-branded games) through 2025. “The agreement grants us the privilege of extending and expanding the scope of the licensing into a wide range of new products and play styles,” said SGMS CEO Barry Cottle. Games covered by the agreement include Scrabble (U.S. and Canada only), Battleship, Clue, Game of Life and Yahtzee. The impact of the deal extends well beyond casinos. The company’s social-gaming application, Monopoly Slots, has racked up six billion spins.
* We don’t yet have a context for this data, but MGM Springfield drew 1 million visitors in its first six weeks of operation (or 23,809 a day), delivering a gaming gross of $36 
million in that time — $857K per day, not too shabby. Attendance must have been very heavy in the casino’s initial days because it has leveled off to 15,000 a day on average, according to MGM spokesman Saverio Mancini. Sequentially, gambling revenues continue to slide: $27 million in September, $22 million in October, then $21 million last month. According to The Associated Press, “the casino recently banned families from crossing through the gambling floor because it had become too difficult to enforce underage gambling rules.”
In other Massachusetts Gaming Commission beeswax, the MGC is showing some fluidity in its support of the Mashpee Wampanoag, indicating that it would revisit Rush Street Gaming‘s application to build a casino in Brockton once the New Year had passed. Meanwhile, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants has thrown in its lot with the Wampanoags, its executive committee voting unanimously to support the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, which would overturn the Interior Department‘s denial of land-in-trust status to the band. You have to be a lineal descendant of a Mayflower pilgrim to belong to the society, which gives its stamp of approval a certain weight. You might say the Wampanoag placed land in trust for the Pilgrims to found Plymouth Colony. Commented tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell, “This is a truly historic moment in which descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us as descendants of the Wampanoag people who broke bread and brokered a long-lasting peace with their ancestors.”
Mayflower Society Governor General George Garmany said the basic issue was “doing the right thing,” noting that the Mashpee Wamps had drawn support from both 
sides of the congressional aisle: “While the Interior Department may not agree with the Tribe on the question of whether the Tribe was under federal jurisdiction for the purposes of the Indian Reorganization Act, we hope the federal government and its representatives agree that the Tribe who played such a central role in the formation of this country ought to have a federally-protected reservation where it can exercise its sovereignty, create jobs, protect its culture, and benefit from the federal laws and programs that are tied to having reservation land,”
Expanded Cromwell, “Without myth or malice, this is a Thanksgiving story for the 21st century. I am extremely thankful the Mayflower Society has voted to support our quest to maintain our reservation land, as they understand the current threat to our sovereignty is an injustice that cries out for a solution. To get their unanimous support demonstrates that reconciliation and reciprocity are still possible — that the dignity and fairness of the human spirit still soars, even at time when this nation is beset with so much division and acrimony.” Hear, hear.
