While the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes have been administering the COVID-19 vaccine to tribal members and now, on a limited basis, to some of their casino employees the Eastern Pequot Tribe has been struggling to get its elderly members vaccinated.
The Easterns’ chairwoman, Katherine Sebastian Dring, believes it’s another consequence of her tribe’s lack of federal recognition, a status the Mashantuckets and Mohegans have long enjoyed.
“Here we are, a state-recognized tribe with a reservation established in 1683, scientists have said we need to get vaccinated and we have not been acknowledged as an at-risk population,” Sebastian Dring said Friday. “As Native Americans, we are at risk. That’s a scientific fact.”
The two sides vying for access to sport betting made their cases Tuesday to state lawmakers who say they are closing in on legislation reworking gambling in Connecticut.
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Four potential vendors made their case to state lawmakers for an agreement that would allow them to run online gambling and sports betting. It s the latest in a years-long push for expanded gambling in the state.
The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes run the state’s two casinos because of an agreement the state made with the tribes in 1991. It gives them exclusive rights to gambling in Connecticut. Mashantucket Pequot Chair Rodney Butler said giving the tribes rights to online gaming and sports betting would honor the compact.
“We should all take pride in the Connecticut state tribal nation partnership story. It’s a multigenerational, multi-beneficial alliance between sovereign governments. That’s not a statement that has been reiterated too often through history,” Butler said.
January 27, 2021
The federally-recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has announced the signing of a deal that is to see it spend approximately $12.5 million in order to bring a casino back to Puerto Rico’s famed Fairmont El San Juan Hotel.
The Connecticut-based tribe used an official Tuesday press release to declare that the agreement with local hospitality investments firm LionGrove will involve the beachfront property in the eastern San Juan suburb of Carolina premiering a 15,000 sq ft casino complete with a range of slots and gaming tables as well as ‘first-class service’ that is destined to complement ‘the resort’s well-appointed luxury accommodations and amenities.’