The East Windsor, Connecticut planning commission last week approved a zoning change that will allow the MMCT Venture tribal authority to build its $300 satellite casino 14 miles from the MGM Springfield.
However, the Authority, a partnership of the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes, still needs one of two amended tribal state gaming compacts to be approved by the Department of the Interior before it can begin building. The department has published one approval —for the Mohegans—in the Federal Register, but for unknown reasons has done nothing with the other.
The state law that authorized the East Windsor casino requires the federal sign-off.
The casino will be built on the site of the now demolished Showcase Cinema. Its purpose is to prevent the MGM Springfield from siphoning off profits and jobs from the tribal casinos.
The MGM casino is scheduled to open in two months. If the East Windsor facility were to begin construction this year it would probably not open for two years. The one-story, 188,000 square foot casino will have 2,000 slots and 60 gaming tables, plus dining and entertainment.
Before the commission vote Dorian Reiser Famiglietti, an attorney for MMCT told the panel, “It creates a development, we believe, of a very high quality to attract people from near and far to this site to create a regional destination to be a showcase for the town of East Windsor — a different kind of showcase — and to set the bar for redevelopment.”
The commission’s vote was just a first step. The site plan must also be approved. The commission says it is concerned about traffic flow around the facility.
MGM Resorts International has fought the Indian casino every step of the way, both in the halls of the state capitol and in the courts. It has vowed to further challenge the casino in federal court, claiming that its constitutional rights were violated because the state did not open the casino license out to bid and allow MGM to bid on it.
