Despite a mistake by the Connecticut Secretary of State’s office that for a few hours looked like it authorized the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation to pursue a casino, the Secretary Denise Merrill is firm that it was just a mistake—nothing more.
The tribe doesn’t want to take no for an answer, insisting that once the genie is out of the bottle that it can’t be put back in again.
The legislature last year adopted Special Act 15-7 that authorizes the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe to go through a bidding process to identify a community to host a third, satellite casino in the stat that would be operated jointly. They formed a joint entity, MM4CT and have so far accepted five proposals for the possible casino resort near the boundary with Massachusetts.
When the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation tried to take advantage of that law and filled an application for the “Confluence of Rivers Tribal Business Entity LLC” with the Secretary of State’s office and the state accepted the application—then withdrew its approval the next day.
The tribe is recognized by the state but not by the federal government, which is required for a tribe to engage in gaming. That is spelled out quite plainly in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988.
Secretary Merrill last week sent a letter to the tribe that said, “The Secretary’s error in filing the document neither confers legality on the applicant’s stated purpose nor properly authorizes the exercise of asserted rights under Special Act 15-7.”
Schaghticoke Chief Richard Velky responded last week by declaring, “7 days ago we were told ‘yes’ by the State. 6 days ago we were told ‘no’ by the State through their press statement. Yet here we are, a week later, and approval for our application hasn’t been rescinded. I can only assume that means the Secretary of the State’s office understands that it is wandering into dangerous legal territory if in fact it tries to rescind a perfectly valid, legal application that it initially approved.”
The Mohegans and Pequots still must seek approval from the legislature to go ahead and build a casino even after they pick the community they want to host the satellite casino.
This activity has been largely sparked by the building in nearby Springfield, Massachusetts of the MGM Springfield, which the state’s gaming tribes estimate could rob them of 9,300 jobs.
