WRITERS GET CALLED ON INDIAN CASINOS
Indian Country, The Nation's Leading American Indian News Source, runs an article on how Indian Casinos are portrayed in movies and T.V. See there thoughts on the episode, Dead Men Tell Tales

Speaking of money laundering and mobsters, there’s been another sighting of organized crime at Indian casinos. It’s shown up not only on "The Sopranos" on HBO but now on USA Network’s "The Dead Zone." The March 16 episode of the psychic thriller, loosely based on the Stephen King novel, revolves around supposed mafia financing of a fictitious Initiative 151 in Maine to authorize tribal casinos. (Since the episode was written and filmed, a very real casino initiative has qualified for the Maine ballot this November, but it doesn’t have that designation.)

In the alternative Maine of "The Dead Zone," psychic Johnnie Smith, played by Anthony Michael Hall, has to figure out a gangland killing. His trail takes him to the fictitious Hollow Horn Resort Casino owned by the Mahopiac tribe in the un-fictitious Berkshire town of Stockbridge, Mass. (once home to the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans.) To gain access to the casino manager Jonas, an Indian stereotype with roach and ponytail played by Steven Cree Molison, Smith uses his psychic powers to throw hard eights at the craps table and gets himself banned. Gangsters, meanwhile, swarm the place, just as Tony Soprano and his crew get VIP treatment at the Mohonk casino in eastern Connecticut.

This is fiction, of course. The Mohonk and Mahopiac tribes, from the viewpoint of the TV writers, are conveniently extinct, and Stockbridge is probably the last place in Massachusetts that would accept a casino, if and when the state allows one. Likewise, the sighting of a known mobster at a real casino, Indian or otherwise, would trigger major repercussions. The writers at the "Sopranos" and "The Dead Zone" don’t seem to realize that casinos keep watch lists of undesirables who can’t even go in their parking lots. (We recall that the Mohegan Sun once threw out an actor in another HBO series.)

Thanks to Lynda for the news and also for pointing out that in the article, "There's at least one misstatement in that the name of the tribe that runs the DZ casino is called the Menanaki, not the Mahopiac" she also comments From their website: "Indian Country Today publishes more original journalistic content on American Indian issues - written by a sizeable full time staff of American Indian and non-native reporters with extensive experience in Native communities - than any other news source