During the long, contentious battle between MGM Resorts and Connecticut’s gaming tribes, MGM spokesman Uri Clinton was always there to give the gaming company’s side on that issue and other regional discussions and debates on gaming policy.
Clinton’s departure from that role, and as president of MGM’s Yonkers, New York casino was announced last week—and the announcement stunned many.
Clinton resigned as president and chief operating officer of Empire City Casino. MGM spokesman Debra DeShong confirmed the change, commenting, “However, he continues to support our development efforts as a consultant.” She provided no other details except that CFO Ed Domingo will oversee Empire City property operations in the interim.
Clinton was the very public face of MGM during the legislative debates in Connecticut’s state capital Hartford. He has represented MGM since 2014. There he has urged a competitive bidding process that would end the tribes’ monopoly on gaming and promoted MGM’s $650 million proposal for a commercial casino in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city.
That put him at swords’ point with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun—especially when they won the right to build a $300 million satellite casino at East Windsor, about 14 miles from the $960 million MGM Springfield that opened in 2018, in order to blunt the effects of that Massachusetts casino on their casinos’ bottom line. That casino hasn’t yet been built, in no small measure due to stubborn and steady opposition from MGM, both in federal courts and the court of public opinion, and always with Clinton as a major player.
“I’m surprised, caught off guard,” said state Rep. Joe Verrengia, who co-chairs the legislatures’ Public Safety and Security Committee overseeing all state gaming policy. “He’s been the face of MGM in Connecticut since Day One. There’s plenty of unfinished business to deal with in the upcoming session of the legislature, and I’m sure MGM will continue to be part of that discussion. The question now is with who?”
Although Clinton has been MGM spokesman since 2014, MGM added to his responsibilities a year ago when it named him president and COO of Empire City and Yonkers Raceway, just before it completed the $850 million purchase from the Rooney family. He expanded his lobbying efforts by pushing for Empire State lawmakers to allow the casino to add table games.
He has asked the legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo to lift the moratorium on new casino licenses that’s in force until 2023. He talked up building a hotel and bringing sports to the casino, but emphasized that couldn’t happen without a full-fledged gaming license.
Clinton recently said, “What our vision is, is to have an opportunity to operate an integrated resort that meets the needs of the county, leads to tourism and then also creates a world-class opportunity.”
Cuomo has made clear that he doesn’t see the moratorium being lifted. In March he declared, “I am very skeptical about some casino deal put together by casino operators promising billions of dollars and everybody is happy.” He added, “When we did casinos, we were very careful, because there’s a lot of money floating around and a lot of lobbyists floating around. And we were very careful to go through a process. It was primarily for upstate New York.”
The Empire City racino, 15 miles from downtown New York City, has more than 5,000 VLT’s, and is one of the largest casinos in the U.S. It employs 1,200, making it the largest private sector employer in Yonkers.
Yonkers’s Mayor Mike Spano previously praised Clinton for involving the casino in the community. He told Rockland/Westchester Journal News, “MGM has a deep management bench, so we look forward to continuing to work with them in bringing more economic development to Yonkers and full gaming to Empire Casino.”
