MGM Resorts is ramping up a full-throated media campaign in support of a Bridgeport, Connecticut Casino designed to signal its seriousness—despite the fact that the state has not invited such a proposal, nor indicated any interest in it.
The proposal is for a $600 million casino on the Bridgeport waterfront, with 2,000 slot machines, 160 gaming tables and a 300-room hotel.
MGM is sending out mail, making phone calls, going onto social media and advising residents of Bridgeport that if they want a casino they need to let their legislative leaders know it.
Bernard Kavaler, spokesman for MGM told the Connecticut Post that MGM “is engaged in a full-fledged communications campaign” and added “MGM views it as an obligation to provide that detail.”
MGM made the surprise announcement of a $675 million casino last week, which prompted Governor Dannel P. Malloy to comment “impossible” and to advise MGM to work with the gaming tribes, the Mohegan and Pequot tribes.
That’s unlikely, given the bitter animosity the tribes bear MGM for the MGM Springfield it is building 14 miles from the Massachusetts state line—a casino the tribes see as an existential dagger aimed at their two casinos: Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun.
The legislature earlier this year passed a bill allowing the tribes to build a $300 million commercial casino in East Windsor whose aim is to blunt the effects of the MGM Springfield on their profits by keeping some residents from crossing the border. The bill doesn’t mention a commercial casino anywhere else, a fact MGM is ignoring.
By the tribal state gaming compacts the tribes pay 25 percent of their profits to the state, but only if no commercial competition is allowed. They don’t consider their own commercial casino to be competition by that definition.
The tribal casinos contribute about $250 million a year to the state in taxes.
When asked to comment on MGM’s marketing campaign, Andrew Doba, spokesman for the joint tribal entity MMCT, snapped, “If you’re asking me if we plan to put a bunch of BS on glossy paper and send them to residents like MGM did in East Windsor, the answer is no.”
Besides creating 7,000 jobs, MGM claims the Bridgeport casino would pay the state $50 million a year, plus $8 million for the city of Bridgeport. At the press conference where the project was unveiled, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim announced his support.
“Right now for Connecticut, it’s about jobs, and it’s money to balance the state budget,” said Ganim. “Let’s look at it as an opportunity, let’s make it happen.”
He likes the 2,000 jobs MGM has promised, along with the other benefits.
Ganim is an old friend of President Donald Trump, and supported his efforts 20 years ago to bring a Trump casino to the city. The idea was fought to a successful conclusion by the Pequots, Steve Wynn and the governor of the time, Lowell Weicker Jr.
Trump famously said of the Pequots: “They don’t look like Indians to me.” This prompted Governor Weicker to declare “we don’t need that dirtbag in Connecticut” and Trump to fire back with other choice insults.
Ganim campaigned for the president last year and is reportedly telling friends that he may call in a marker from the president. He’s hoping to persuade the Bureau of Indian Affairs to rule that the tribes may not operate a commercial casino without a new compact with the state.
On the other hand, MGM CEO Jim Murren, a Bridgeport native son, and a lifelong Republican strongly endorsed Hillary Clinton last year.
The theory is that Trump might lean on the Bureau of Indian Affairs not to allow the tribes to operate a commercial casino under their current compact. September 15 the BIA sent a letter that created more questions than answers about what its ultimate position on that issue might be.
Michael Black, acting assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, in other words the head of the BIA, wrote: “We find that there is insufficient information upon which to make a decision as to whether a new casino operated by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot Tribes would or would not violate the exclusivity clauses in the Gaming Compact.”
The law approved earlier this year that allows the tribes to jointly operate a commercial casino off the reservation requires approval from the BIA that the revenue-sharing agreement meets federal law.
This is a problem, according to Rep. Joe Verrengia, who co-chairs the legislature’s public safety and security committee, which has oversight on gaming. “Without the BIA’s letter of approval, the project doesn’t go forward,” he said. If the BIA doesn’t provide that approval, the law would need to be amended.
Verrengia claims the letter gives MGM’s Bridgeport proposal “instant credibility,” adding “They are putting their money where their mouth is. Many thought MGM was just trying to defeat the East Windsor project.”
Others interpret the letter differently. Senator Timothy D. Larson, who represents Hartford and supports the tribes, told the Hartford Courant: “It did not say no. It said it was unnecessary, and I took that as favorable.”
Attorney General George Jepsen, who previously said he was concerned about BIA’s interpretation of the compact, said he is reviewing the letter.
Doba dismissed all of this talk as just that. “A story like this is complete speculation and fortunately for us, we don’t need to speculate. The law is the law,” he told the Connecticut Post.
Opponents of the MGM proposal are rallying to the anti-casino banner. Including the Coalition Against Casino Expansion in Connecticut, which has fought against the tribal casino in East Windsor. Michale Mudrick, a member of that group, told the Post “We have two of the largest casinos in the world. We don’t need another.”
Mudrick and her allies intend to focus on the threat to small business, traffic woes, increased drunken driving, and financial hardship that they saw follows any new casino.
She added, “I wish we had a budget that we could afford to send people fliers in their mail boxes.”
