Last week the Assistant Attorney General of Connecticut, Robert Deichert, asked a U.S. district court to dismiss a lawsuit against the state by MGM Resorts. The lawsuit challenges the law passed by the legislature that allows the state’s two gaming tribes, the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegan to identify a site to build a satellite casino and negotiate an agreement with a host community.
The lawsuit, filed in August claims that the Connecticut legislature violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause by giving the tribes the exclusive right to operate a third casino on private rather than reservation land.
MGM’s casino, which it has begun site work on, is one of several Bay State casinos the Connecticut law aims to block from draining gaming money from the state by siting a casino that will compete with it at the border between the two states.
The AG’s motion, the first response by the state to the legal challenge, argues that MGM lacks standing to challenge the law because it has suffered no injury and accuses MGM of fabricating an interest in building its own casino in Connecticut, which forms the basis for its lawsuit. It notes that MGM’s casino license from the gaming commission restricts it against building other casinos within 50 miles, which is where the Connecticut law aims to locate the satellite casino.
Deichert writes, “Therefore, MGM is precluded from applying for a license for, managing, operating or having a financial interest in a casino located in most of Connecticut; the radius restriction covers all of Hartford, Tolland and Windham counties, and large portions of Litchfield, New Haven and Middlesex counties. It also covers much of New London County, which is home to the tribes’ existing casinos.”
Deichert also told Judge Alvin Thompson that the Connecticut law does not yet give the tribes the legal right to build anything, and so the lawsuit is premature. The legislature actually declined to give the tribes permission to build a third casino at this time. Another law would be needed in order for them to actually build a casino.
In Deichert’s motion he writes: “Put simply, the gaming act has no impact on MGM’s ability to take whatever steps it chooses to take toward developing a casino in Connecticut.”
Meanwhile, the Pequot and Mohegan tribes issued a request for proposals, the first step towards identifying a site for the third casino. Applications are due November 6.
Pearce Real Estate is administering tribes’ RFP process. Barbara Pearce, chief executive officer of the company, told the Island Packet, “We’re obviously looking for the best possible site, and we’re looking for everybody to have a fair shot at providing us with that site. So we’re encouraging people to submit.”
One city that is moving forward to answer the RFP is East Hartford, where the Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously voted last week to approve of a permit that would allow “alternative recreation” at the now defunct Showcase Cinemas. Developer Silver Lane Partners proposes to turn the cinemas into a $150-300 million casino with as many as 2,000 slot machines, two restaurants, a German beer hall and Bavarian beer garden, two bars and a dance club.
Other border towns that have shown an interest are Enfield and East Windsor.
