MGM is reopening its campaign to be allowed to bid on a commercial casino license in Connecticut, although no commercial casino is being proposed, with a new poll that shows that nearly three quarters of voters questioned would like an open competitive process when compared to the exclusive deal the state handed its two gaming tribes a year and a half ago.
The poll, conducted for MGM by the Mellman Group out of Washington D.C. indicated that 71 percent of 500 persons questioned favored an open competitive process. Twenty percent said they favored an exclusive arrangement with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes.
The poll was conducted last month by cell phones and landline phones. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent. The results were largely the same even when responders were told that this would mean that the tribes would stop paying the 25 percent of their casino profit, they have given the state for the last quarter century.
Even the region that includes the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, i.e. the eastern part of the state, favored an open bidding process by 60 percent to 25 percent.
This gives ammunition to MGM, which is planning to appeal to lawmakers this next year to abandon the exclusivity agreements that its tribal state gaming compacts guarantee and take a chance on one or more commercial casinos that they can tax without a compact.
A year ago, MGM proposed a $675 million casino in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, whose harbor is within sight of New York state. This drove a wedge between the city’s large legislative contingent and lawmakers who support the tribes.
The latter, who are now proposing a bill that would remove the requirement that the tribes get the imprimatur of the Department of the Interior before they can build the proposed $300 million casino in East Windsor, will now find themselves fending off a reinvigorated MGM as the New Year’s session arrives. They argue that an open bidding process would attack their long time partners and threaten 15,000 employed at the two tribal casinos.
The legislature previously gave the go-ahead to MMCT Venture, the joint authority of the tribes, to begin building at East Windsor, but the bill required that the Department approve of an amendment to the gaming compacts that would ensure that the tribes wouldn’t later claim that the exclusivity requirements of the compacts were violated by allowing them to compete against themselves with a commercial casino.
One of those lawmakers, Senator Cathy Osten, questioned the survey’s independence, since it was paid for by MGM. “I don’t think they have Connecticut’s business at heart…This is not independent,” she said.
Osten is a supporter of a bipartisan effort to remove that requirement. The bill, authored by Senators Timothy Larson and Stephen T. Cassano would stipulate that the Department’s approval is not required for the tribes to be able to build and operate a casino.
The Interior Department has approved of changes made to the Mohegan compact, but not the Pequots’. Both are needed.
Osten has argued that federal approval is not needed because the amendments don’t alter the tribes’ exclusivity of offering casino games. “They said so last year,” said the senator. “So, let’s codify that in state law and get moving on the East Windsor casino because every day we wait is another job and another dollar out the door for Connecticut.”
Some have criticized the lack of action by the Department as reflecting MGM’s political influence on the Trump administration.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who previously called for an investigation by the Inspector General of the process, sees the departure of Secretary Ryan Zinke under a cloud of scandal as a signal for the state to press the new secretary for action.
“The decision about the compact was legally, completely misguided and wrongheaded,” said the senator. “It ought to be a new day for the new casino and this tribal initiative.”
Osten commented, “I did say, and continue to say, the Interior Secretary was the main divider on this issue after he called MGM and the legislators from Nevada.” She added, “Connecticut must move forward to protect its interests.”
Even if the Department approves of the changes to the compacts, MGM has still vowed to fight the commercial casino in every possible way, including the courts.
The tribes propose to build the third “satellite” casino at the site of a demolished former movie theater.
