The dismissal of a lawsuit by Connecticut’s two gaming tribes to try to force the Department of the Interior to dislodge an approval of the amendments to the tribal state gaming compacts—rulings the tribes need to open a casino in East Windsor—means the casino is stuck in the mud. The department has been sitting on the approvals for more than a year.
The East Windsor casino is being proposed by MMCT Venture, a joint authority of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes. The changes to the gaming compacts took note of the fact that the tribes would be operating the first commercial casino in the state’s history. Their existing compacts give the tribes exclusivity to operate gaming in return for paying 25 percent of their revenues to the state.
The fear from lawmakers and the attorney general was that without an amended compact, the case could be made that the tribes were violating the compact by competing against themselves.
The purpose of the third, satellite casino, located near the border with Massachusetts, is to blunt the effects of the recently opened $960 million MGM Springfield, which has begun to drain some customers from the Bay State. East Windsor is about 14 miles from Springfield. The tribes have published studies that estimate that the MGM casino could cost the tribes hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
The Pequot tribe has already seen a 5.2 percent decline in slots revenue since the MGM Springfield opened in August and the Mohegans have seen an 8 percent drop.
At one time the East Windsor casino seemed inevitable. The governor approved it and the legislature passed a bill that made it possible.
But, largely thanks to public and private efforts in and out of the courtroom MGM was able to place effective roadblocks every step of the way. All along MGM claims that its rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution were violated when the legislature allowed the tribes to build a casino without opening the license up to competitive bid.
Apparently MGM’s under the radar lobbying with the Department of Interior proved to be strategic, since the Department’s approval is absolutely necessary, unless the legislature goes back and removes the requirement. However, that has been complicated by the fact that since the legislation was approved, MGM has introduced the proposal for a casino in Bridgeport. This had the effect of peeling back a significant part of the legislature from supporting the tribes.
The next step for the tribes is to appeal the federal judge’s dismissal of their case. Meantime, the longer the MGM Springfield operates without local competition, the more it cements its loyalty base—even in Connecticut.
MGM hailed the legal ruling with a statement: “The thorough and unambiguous federal court ruling can only be seen as a clear rejection of the Tribes’ insistent efforts to obtain a no-bid commercial casino license in Connecticut. It has become increasingly apparent that the Tribes’ promises of legal victory, no matter how often they are repeated, prove hollow.”
MGM argues that the state should open itself to competitive bidding if it wants more revenue from gaming: “Connecticut residents are best served by the state spending less time in court and more time on real opportunities to maximize economic development and job creation. That’s why each passing month makes it more obvious that the most productive path forward for Connecticut is to pass legislation calling for competitive bids on any new commercial casino in the state, and to get started on that process.”
Andrew Doba, spokesman for MMCT, told 22 News: Doba said, “We’re still reviewing our options following the court’s decision. Obviously, not what we wanted, but we feel confident that there’s a path forward for us and we’re looking at what those options are for us.”
Meanwhile the state’s congressional delegation was able to persuade the Inspector General of the Interior Department to investigate the department’s handling of the tribes’ requests.
The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has filed new papers to try to revive the lawsuit. It has introduced new accusations, including that the Department of the Interior bowed to “undue political pressure” that was applied to Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke at a “private dinner at a steakhouse in Las Vegas, Nevada,” where he was told by the White House to reject the amended tribal compact.
The papers claim that interference by the White House and the Nevada congressional delegation “tainted the administrative process.”
The papers mention Senator Dean Heller and Rep. Mark Amodei, both of Nevada by name because they were CC’d on the letter that was sent to the tribe informing it that the agreement would not be approved. MGM is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, so their interference is assumed to have been to benefit that company.
Interestingly, the Department did publish the Mohegan tribe’s amended compact in the Federal Register. But the casino can’t open until both compacts are published. The Pequot’s amended compact remains unpublished.
