Although Connecticut’s gaming tribes, the Mohegan and the Mashantucket Pequots and MGM Resorts International are jostling for position in what is developing to be a major battle for the rights to build a casino in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, a group opposed to any gaming in that city has formed.
The Coalition Against Casino Expansion in Connecticut met last week and about 50 local and regional residents attending, including Bishop Frank Caggiano of the Diocese of Bridgeport.
Caggiano told the audience, “I’m honored to stand with you in this work. In my mind, what joins us together is a sacred duty to stand with those and give voice to those who have no voice (against) these large forces.”
The resistance centers around the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center and the Catholic Center. At the meeting the Rev. Cass Shaw, president of the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport, declared, “We’ve got to show up, speak up, educate and confront people.” As is often the case when such movements form, Caggiano framed their cause as a “David vs. Goliath” struggle. The coalition argues that a casino will create social problems and actually harm the local economy.
MGM first proposed its $675 million casino resort in September. For several months, nothing much happened with the idea, then MGM’s CEO James Murren began speaking to business groups in the city and talking it up in a big way. At which point the Mohegan and Pequot tribes wrote a letter to Governor Dannel P. Malloy and legislative leaders saying that if any casino in Bridgeport was contemplated, that they wanted the right to compete for it.
The tribes have had a gaming monopoly in the state for more than 20 years, in return for a guarantee of paying the state 25 percent of their profits from the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods. But if they are no longer going to be guaranteed exclusivity, they want a place at the table, they say.
Last year the legislature passed and Governor Malloy signed a bill giving the tribes the go-ahead to develop a “satellite” casino of about $300 million in East Windsor. The tribes, once bitter rivals, are working together under a joint authority, MMCT, to open the state’s third casino sometime next year.
This is a development that MGM has fought in federal court and in the halls of the legislature as an existential threat to the MGM Springfield, which is certainly the way the tribes have viewed that $950 million casino resort scheduled to open next fall.
Upping the ante on the battle for Bridgeport, two weeks ago the Mohegans alone announced a strategic three-year relationship with the Webster Bank Arena.
Murren created some confusion, as well as an opportunity for the tribes to exploit, when, during a conference third quarter earnings call with investors, he said that after a decade of expansion in such locations as the MGM National Harbor in Maryland, and the MGM Cotai Strip in Macau, that the company didn’t plan any more expansions aside from Japan.
He noted that MGM has been the most active casino developer in the U.S. during that period, although more than 50 percent of its revenue still comes from its Las Vegas properties, but the tribes jumped on that remark and attacked MGM for just pretending to be interested in a Bridgeport casino as part of its strategy to fight the East Windsor casino.
Murren was forced to backtrack and clarify and do damage control, especially with Bridgeport residents who felt betrayed. Murren, in several high-profile appearances clarified that he had meant that the company wouldn’t be expanding any more in established markets, but that Connecticut constituted a new market where commercial gaming has not been allowed before. Currently Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim appears to be on board to bring a casino to his seaport city that is conveniently close to the Manhattan market.
Although the tribes have successfully operated their two casinos since 1993, the revenues have been in steady decline for the past few years. In 2007 the tribal casinos paid $430 million to the state. Last year that amount was $265 million. Partially has been due to the fact that competition has been steadily appearing in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland. The tribes realized that the MGM Springfield could only contribute to that.
MGM has argued that, given this trend, the state would be better off ending tribal exclusivity in return for allowing commercial casino development. MGM has said it will end up paying the state more than the tribes currently do.
Some political observers expect that the MGM/tribal rivalry and the history of gaming in the state could become a major political football in the 2018 state elections. The tribes, in asking for a place at the table of any commercial casino in Bridgeport have not been shy about reminding legislative officials that they have over the years paid $7 billion, or 25 percent of their slots revenue into the state treasury since 1993, a relationship they called a “mutually beneficial partnership.” They also reminded lawmakers that they previous requested—and were denied–a chance to build a commercial casino.
The tribes may be also hedging their bets since federal foot dragging by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in addressing the tribes’ new gaming compact with the state has many state officials worried that the East Windsor casino might not be legal.
This forced the state and the tribes to take the BIA to federal court to try to dislodge a ruling that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act requires with 45 days of submission, but which the BIA has not yet acted.
Last week the tribes, through their chairmen Kevin Brown and Rodney Butler requested assistance from the National Congress of American Indians, writing, “It has been more than 90 days since we submitted amendments to the DOI. These amendments clarified certain compact provisions, were approved by the Connecticut General Assembly, and were executed by us and Governor Dannel Malloy. Despite requirements in the law and regulations to do so, the Department has yet to publish notice of approval in the Federal Register. This is a clear violation of federal law.”
The letter adds, “The action (or inaction) of DOI is deeply concerning for all of Indian Country. That’s a critical part of why we filed this lawsuit — not just so we can proceed with opening and operating our commercial gaming facility under state law in East Windsor, but so the DOI will be held accountable for following the law in every instance of a compact amendment.”
Previously U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and representatives John Larson and Joe Courtney sent their own letters to the BIA several weeks ago.
