Anti-casino author plans Maine visit Connecticut man to fight tribes’ Foxwoods-style plan

PORTLAND – A Connecticut author who wrote a book that is critical of the huge Foxwoods Resort Casino said he plans to come to Maine next month to campaign against a proposed casino in Kittery.

Jeff Benedict wrote “Without Reservation,” a book about how the Mashantucket Pequots rose from near extinction to become the nation’s richest tribe by developing Foxwoods, which is billed as the world’s largest casino near Ledyard, Conn.

The book questions the tribe’s ancestral land claims and suggests that one of the tribal leaders never showed an interest in embracing his native past until approached by Tom Tureen, the lawyer who is shepherding the Maine casino plan.

Benedict’s visit to Maine, planned for April 15 and 16, comes at a time when the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe continue to lay the political groundwork for a $400 million to $600 million Foxwoods-style casino complex.

“The way the process is right now, the people of Maine will have very little input in what happens,” Benedict said from Connecticut, where he is running for Congress.

Tureen, a Portland lawyer who helped the Mashantuckets gain the federal recognition they needed to get Foxwoods off the ground, rejected Benedict’s claims that Mainers would have little say in the planned casino.

“The people in Maine will have full involvement in the process,” Tureen said.

Casino supporters considered introducing legislation this year to allow a casino in Kittery, but decided to hold off until next year after Gov. Angus King said he would veto any bill that passes the Legislature.

They say a casino would produce $100 million in annual revenues for the state. Critics say the negative impacts of a casino far outweigh the benefits.