KUALA LUMPUR: Genting Malaysia’s proposed First Light Resort & Casino (FLRC) on tribal land in the US may have faced another setback.
Maybank Investment Bank Research said on Thursday the Mashpee Wampanoag (MW) tribe unexpectedly withdrew its request for Category 1 review.
“We are now uncertain if construction of the First Light Resort & Casino (FLRC) can proceed. Recall that Genting Malaysia invested US$274m in MW promissory notes.
“Our current target price (TP) of RM5.40 assumes that they will not be written off yet. If construction of the FLRC is not allowed to proceed, our TP could be trimmed by up to 20 sen a share.
“If construction of the FLRC is allowed to proceed, our TP may get a 14 sen a share lift,” it said.
Maybank Research said that on Tuesday, the US Department of Interior (DOI) was supposed to issue a new Record-Of-Decisions (ROD) on whether it could hold Mashpee Wampanoag (MW) reservation land in trust under ‘Category 1’ – Tribe Federally Recognised before 1934.
However, the MW tribe unexpectedly announced that it will withdraw its request for review under this category.
Neither the DOI nor MW tribe stated whether the latter was de facto federally recognised before 1934 or not.
“The tribe did not elaborate on the options but we gather that it will appeal the July 28, 2016 ruling by federal district court judge William G. Young that favoured a group of Taunton residents who challenged the initial ROD to hold MW reservation land in trust under ‘Category 2’ of the Indian Reorganization Act – Tribe Living Continuously on an Existing Reservation,” it said.
Maybank Research understands that, save for a Congressional hearing, Category 1 and Category 2 are the only ways for the DOI to hold reservation land in trust for a Native American tribe.
It said given that the MW tribe withdrew its request for Category 1 review and the aforementioned group of Taunton residents successfully challenged the Category 2 review, “we gather that the MW tribe will have to wage long drawn legal battles to determine if construction of the FLRC can proceed”.
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