MGM Resorts International is unleashing another facet of its ongoing legal, lobbyist and public relations campaign to kill a third tribal casino in Connecticut.
For the last month and more MGM has been concentrating its fire on the Connecticut Airport Authority’s efforts to persuade the state’s two gaming tribes to put that satellite casino on or near Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks.
Last week MGM began running a series of ads claiming that the state is attempting “to cut a bad deal” and “scam” taxpayers.
MGM is building the MGM Springfield about 20 miles north of Windsor Locks. So it sees the third casino as an existential threat—much the same way that the Mohegan and Pequot tribes of Connecticut see the MGM Springfield and the Wynn Boston Harbor as existential threats. It’s rather like a battle in the jungle, with little room for compromise.
Last week Alan Feldman, vice president of MGM Resorts International attacked the very concept of a casino at the airport. “If you put a casino in the airport it’s gonna take away customers from Foxwoods, it’s gonna take away customers from Mohegan Sun, and it would take away customers from us,” he declared.
MGM hammers away at the notion that the Airport Authority did much of its planning and negotiations with the tribe “in secret” without public input.
However, the Authority and its defenders, such as Windsor Locks First Selectman Chris Kervick, counter that this work was preliminary and would have been presented to the public for its input—and that no casino could have been built without a yes vote from the city’s voters.
