Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont last week made plain that he will not support a casino for the state’s largest city unless the two gaming tribes, the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans, are involved.
The governor clarified his position during a gathering of newspaper editors and publishers at the governor’s residence. He said it is vital to work with the tribes within the confines of the state tribal gaming compacts that guarantees them a monopoly on casino gaming. In return for that exclusivity, the tribes pay 25 percent of their slots revenue, which was about $260 million last year.
He criticized a deal that Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim and city officials and lawmakers had pushed during the waning days of the legislative session, but said that talks should continue. The governor was not part of those last-minute discussions, which he warned could invite lawsuits.
“This 11th hour proposal has not been fully vetted or reviewed and with only one day until the end of session, it’s not in the public’s best interest to take up this matter,” a spokesman said in a written statement. “Instead of resolving outstanding litigation, it puts the state at increased and immediate litigation risk from multiple parties.”
The spokesman added, “This administration has invested more than four months attempting to negotiate a fair, equitable and impactful deal for all parties involved in this matter, including Bridgeport. At the start of those negotiations, the governor stressed the critical importance of an agreement which removed litigation, strengthened the partnership with the tribes and grows Connecticut’s gaming economy.”
Two senators who had worked on the deal, Senator Dennis Bradley, co-chairman of the legislature’s public safety committee, and Senator Cathy Osten, a champion of the gaming tribes, whose casinos are in her district, bristled at the governor’s intervention.
“We appeased the governor the first time and gave him almost four months,” Bradley said. “He made some progress. I think it’s unfair for him to say we’re no longer negotiating and we don’t want others to negotiate.” Bradley added, ”My attitude is, if Sen. Osten and I can work something out and go down swinging I’d like to work something out. If the eastern part of the state and Bridgeport are happy with the deal and it makes economic sense for the state of Connecticut, I don’t see how anyone would stand in the way.”
Senator Osten added, “I am trying to help out two of the largest employers in Connecticut.”
Lamont wasn’t the only one criticizing the proposal, however. So did the House’s powerful chairman of the public safety committee Rep. Joe Verrengia, who called legislation favoring Bridgeport “problematic” questioned the proposed expenditure of state funds when MGM would fund it at no cost to the taxpayers, and added, “Under this proposal, we’d be giving the house away.”
That proposal included a requirement that the tribes invest $100 million in the casino, with the state and possibly Bridgeport itself committing to another $100 million in infrastructure, with a resort hotel built and paid for by a private company.
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz was only slightly more encouraging. “As it’s written, I think it would be difficult to cobble the votes together,” he said. “But is it an excellent starting point for negotiations and maybe some clarifications? Yeah, I think a lot of work went into it. Having the tribes and Bridgeport on the same page is very important. They haven’t got there until now, so if this is the starting point, I think it’s a good starting point.”
At the meeting at his residence Lamont did not initially refer to the issue of the $675 million casino with 2,000 slots, a theater and 300-room hotel that MGM Resorts International proposed more than a year ago for the Bridgeport Steelpointe Harbor as part of its ongoing rivalry with the tribes.
MGM has argued that any expansion of gaming in the state should include an open bidding process. It asserts that the state can make more money by busting its 25 year old agreement with the tribes than it now makes from the 25 percent cut it gets.
When a reporter asked Lamont if a commercial deal with MGM is possible, Lamont responded, “The tribes would not cotton to that.” He added that the state, city and tribes are “at the five yard line” and he promised to help them make it to the goal.
When the legislature was discussing the Bridgeport casino proposal on the last day of the session, Lamont’s spokesman issued this statement: “Governor Lamont remains committed to a global resolution that positions Connecticut for a future that includes gaming.”
That would include the legalization of sports betting and would, if the tribes get their way, also give them exclusivity on that activity. That has run up against opposition by firms such as Sportech, which operates off-track betting in the state and which would like a share of sports book.
Andrew Doba, spokesman for MMCT, the joint tribal gaming authority, said the tribes were happy for Lamont’s support. Doba wrote in an email: “We sincerely appreciate Governor Lamont’s comments and look forward to continued discussions in the weeks ahead. With the right deal in place, we can pass legislation that will save thousands of jobs, spur millions in investment and make Connecticut more competitive with our neighboring states.”
Hugh Bailey, a columnist for the Middletown Press summed up the situation succinctly: “Bridgeport wants a casino (or any major development, really). The state doesn’t want to mess with its compact with the tribes that gives them exclusive gaming rights. And MGM, much more than it wants to build in Bridgeport, wants the tribes not to build in East Windsor, as is currently planned, because that directly competes with MGM’s recently opened Springfield, Mass., facility.”
The state legislature two years ago authorized the tribes to build a third, $300 million satellite casino in East Windsor meant to blunt the effects of the $960 million MGM Springfield 14 miles away and over the state line in Massachusetts.
MGM has fought the proposal in the press and allegedly in backrooms where reputed MGM influence prompted former Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to put a wrench in the tribes’ efforts to get department approval of the amendments to the state tribal gaming compact that they needed to begin building the Tribal Winds Casino.
Since Zinke left the department under an ethical cloud the department has approved of the amendments. But MGM still threatens litigation to try to stop efforts by the state to extend the tribes’ monopoly. It also could go to federal court to try to stop the East Windsor casino. It argues that its constitutional rights were violated when the legislature authorized the casino without a bidding process.
Meantime the tribes still lack financing to begin construction.
The tribes are less litigation averse than the governor. Doba said, “Litigation is part of the cost of doing business, whether you’re building a mall, a church or a casino.”
While some lawmakers were pursuing the Bridgeport casino, a different group were jointly (pun intended) pushing for legalization of cannabis sales and sports betting. Those goals had in fact been top priorities of the majority Democrats in the two chambers. On that final Wednesday they acknowledged defeat and said they might have to try the initiative approach for legalizing pot.
Legalizing sports betting will be a bit more complicated, since, once again, the tribes demand exclusivity before they will sign on.
