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Owner Claims to Be Holding 160-Acre Site for Casino

PALMER, MA-A local businessman tells GlobeSt.com that he is being paid $40,000 a year to hold 160 acres of his land to be used as a site for a casino if the legislature approves casino gambling in the state.

By Naomi Grossman | Updated on March 14, 2002

PALMER, MA-The owner of a 1,000-acre parcel here tells GlobeSt.com that he has been paid $40,000 a year for the past four years to hold 160 acres of his land for an entity that wants to develop a casino on the site.

John Lizak, of John Lizak Development, would not directly disclose who is paying him to hold the property but he alluded to the Wampanoags, a Native American tribe based on Martha’s Vineyard. The Wampanoags have made no secret of their interest in developing a casino in the state if the legislature would allow it. A spokesperson for the tribe has told GlobeSt.com that the tribe has a site under contract in southeastern Massachusetts but Lizak says that “they will put two casinos in the state, one in eastern Massachusetts and one in western Massachusetts.”

Lizak points out that his site has a permit for a casino from the town. “The township voted on it,” he says. An official with the town tells GlobeSt.com that the town held a non-binding referendum in 1997 on whether it would support a casino if the state approved casino gambling. “It did pass,” she says, “but it is unclear if it was specific to [Lizak's] site.” The official terms the vote an “advisory vote” to gauge public opinion. “There were a lot of debates going on about casinos then,” she says. At the time, a number of communities in the area took similar votes because they anticipated that the state legislature would pass legislation supporting the development of casino gambling in the state but it didn’t. If the state does eventually pass legislation, the town official notes that the town would most likely take another vote on the issue.

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