Long road still ahead of Connecticut casino

After the bill allowing a third tribal casino to be opened in Connecticut was approved by the House, there’s still trouble ahead of the project.

US.- The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes (MMCT) have won the upper hand over MGM in their dispute for a new casino venue in Connecticut after they got approval by the House to run a third one and the governor’s announcement that he’ll sign the bill. However, there’s still a rough road ahead for the project to become a reality.

First off, the satellite casino to be installed in a former movie theater complex in East Windsor needs to get federal and local authorisations. Besides, the US$300 million project’s design is still unfinished as the MMCT gets it ready to compete with the US$950 million MGM Resorts casino to be opened in Springfield, just 25 minutes away. The gaming giant will also take matters into a legal dispute which will slow down the development of the venue.

As the Associated Press reported, Mohegan Tribal Council Chairman Kevin Brown said: “We’ve got a few things in the hopper, a few things we have to focus our efforts on to get to the conditions where we can put shovel in the ground.” He also said that they’re on a path to do that and hopes that construction can begin by the end of 2017.

The bill introduces an amended compact -to be signed by governor Malloy- between the state and the tribes. According to Brown, who expects the process to take six weeks, “it’s changing nothing” and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs stated that the new venue won’t threaten the state’s existing revenue-sharing agreement with the tribes. The state will receive 25 percent of the revenue generated from the 2,000 slot machines and the 50 to 150 table games the casino will have.

MGM is the main opposer to the bill and says that the process is unfair. The company has a pending lawsuit against the state and will “continue to vigorously advocate in the courts as we seek to protect the constitutional rights of any company hoping to do business in Connecticut,” according to its senior vice president and legal counsel Uri Clinton.

However, legal challenges don’t scare the MMCT and Brown thinks that any objection by the gaming company shouldn’t affect the construction plans. “We promise to move forward and build this facility in East Windsor,” he added. Brown explained that the tribes will pay US$30 million in advance tax payments that, he projects, will be included in the two-year state budget.