Connecticut Casino Gets Approval Despite MGM Push Back

MGM Resorts International has been contesting a joint Connecticut casino project. The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes have been embroiled in a legal battle in a push to get the casino in East Windsor off the ground. It is suggested that MGM has opposed the project on grounds that the new casino will be roughly 15 miles away from MGM Springfield. The company is already struggling and further competition is surely the last thing that it needed.

The competition for gamblers has intensified in the region. This is after the launch of Encore Boston Harbor, further exacerbating the decline of the casino. Taking the legal route to block the new casino, MGM opposed the U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) ruling on grounds that the time for contracts between the tribes and Connecticut had expired.

Connecticut Casino Gets Approval from US Department

It didn’t take long for DOI lawyers to see through the ruse. They managed to convince presiding Judge Rudolph Contreras to side with the tribes. They found that “the Amendments merely clarify that if a state law-authorized commercial gaming facility wholly-owned by Mohegan and Pequot (tribes)… commences operations, it will not violate the exclusive tribal gaming arrangement set forth in the Tribes’ respective MOUs [memorandum of understanding] with the State.”

MGM had long planned to open a new casino that would be located in Bridgeport. But news of the approval of the tribes’ gambling establishment has all but put those hopes in tatters. As things stand, there are only two casinos in Connecticut and these developments will add to that number. The outgoing Bellagio owner is ridding himself of this property quickly. Thus, it would not serve the company’s interests to embark on a new project at this time.

Keep in touch to find out how everything unfolds between MGM and the tribes right here at CasinoUS.com.

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