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The five-member Massachusetts Gaming Commission is now wrestling with a complicated decision on whether to issue a license for a casino in Brockton, with economic and legal factors at play, The Enterprise reported.

On Monday, the state commission must face the public in Brockton for a final time before making the decision, with a meeting scheduled at 4 p.m. at the Shaw's Center.

The gaming commission, which is also tasked with gauging public support when awarding the casino license, will likely face another divided crowd, following a heated four-hour meeting on March 1. That followed a very narrow victory for the casino developer last year, when the gaming destination was passed by Brockton voters by a margin of 148 votes.

Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said previously that public support for the Brockton casino license application will play a “pivotal role” in the decision, in addition to the bevy of other complicated factors, which includes the quality of the project proposal.

“The public support for this proposal, or lack of public support, is a critical factor that the commission will evaluate in making the final award of the license,” Crosby said.

To that end, elected officials like Brockton City Council President Timothy Cruise said that the casino would present a huge economic uplift for a community that badly needs it. Cruise also said that, aside from general opposition to gambling, the only complaint he hear’s about is traffic, but that he lives very close to the casino site, and if anyone was to oppose it for that reason it would be him. Cruise added that Mass Gaming and Entertainment doesn’t want traffic to be a deterrent for its future customers.

“This is one of our last best chances to move the city of Brockton forward,” said Cruise, speaking at the March 1 meeting. “I currently have three hotels 100 percent full. The problem is they are 100 percent full with homeless families ... This is an opportunity to have people want to come to Brockton, and stay in those hotels, and a new resort hotel (that will come with the casino). It’s not just about the money we can get in the short term, it’s about changing the image of a city I grew up in.”

On the other side, people like Richard Reid, a pastor and representative of the group Stand UP for Brockton, are steadfast against the casino proposal. Reid and others said that the location for the proposed Brockton casino is horrendous, located next to Brockton High School. Reid said that having the Brockton casino and the planned Taunton casino coexisting within less than 20 miles would be horrible for the region.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe said it is holding a groundbreaking in April for its planned Taunton casino. However, the land in trust decision enabling the Taunton casino made by the U.S. Department of the Interior last year is now being challenged in federal court, although no injunction was sought to stop it immediately.

Not to mention, Reid, his group, and many other casino opponents in the city are against the gambling destination in Brockton from a moral perspective.

“The position of Stand UP for Brockton is that we have grave concerns about having any casino in Region C, but we understand the reality (that) there is likely going to be one in Taunton with the Mashpee Tribe,” said Reid, in a recent statement to the gaming commission. “Two casinos would be devastating to the local economies of so many communities. You have heard and received our many objections to having a casino in Brockton next to Brockton High, and the traffic problems for which no valid mitigation has been proposed.”

On top of public support, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will be considering the possibility of market saturation. Mass Gaming and Entertainment claims that without a competitor in Taunton, the Brockton casino could potentially generate $379 million annually in gross gaming revenue from 3.9 million visits. The local market would be responsible for 89 percent of the revenue, the company states. If a competitor operated in Taunton, the Brockton facility would be negatively impacted by approximately

16.6 percent, according to the Brockton casino developer, generating an annual revenue of $316 million. That’s because Brockton is strategically closer to the population base of Boston, the company states. On the other hand, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe published an analysis that states the Taunton casino would generate $365 million per year when competing with the Brockton casino, which would generate $263. If the Brockton casino is not approved, the Taunton casino would generate $415 million in annual revenue, the tribe’s analysis stated.

Refuting both of those claims, Richard McGowan, a Boston College professor who focuses on casino issues, said that the state commission could reject the Brockton casino because it believes both gaming destinations will be a failure.

“Since the intent of the (state gaming) law was to give the third license to the Native American tribe ... I have a feeling the commission will give preference to the tribe,” said McGowan, in an email to The Enterprise. “In reality, I don't think either project is viable in the long run. There’s too much local competition from Rhode Island and Connecticut, and once the Wynn casino opens (in Everett), it will become the destination casino of New England. So why would someone from the Boston area go to Southeast Massachusetts?”

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is also contemplating some complicated legal issues, especially since the Brockton casino group has repeatedly questioned the legal standing of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s land in trust status, as a Taunton citizens group challenged the U.S. Department of Interior decision that granted that status last year. The litigation could last the better part of a decade, said legal experts for Mass Gaming and Entertainment stated.

But that lawsuit could ultimately doom the Taunton casino.

The Brockton development group said precedent set by the 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling will be upheld. The Supreme Court ruling overturned the land in trust decision for the Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island, which, like the Mashpee tribe, was considered under state jurisdiction, not federal. A legal brief prepared by the Brockton casino group stated that, just as there wasn’t significant ambiguity in the phrase “now under federal jurisdiction,” as written in the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, the courts will not find significant ambiguity in the phrase “such members” that the Department of the Interior relied on last year to make its decision to take land into trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

During a meeting in mid-March, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe told the gaming commission that its land in trust decision will stand, because there indeed was significant ambiguity to cause the courts to defer to the Department of Interior decision, which was also supported by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The meeting on Monday is meant to allow Mass Gaming and Entertainment, elected officials and members of the public to express their opinions, and get the last word about what has transpired since the March 1 meeting.

After the meeting on Monday, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will have 30 to 90 days to issue its decision on the Brockton casino, with a decision expected in late April.