MGM Resorts International announced in a recent press release that it plans to open a new casino in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The new casino will be known as MGM Bridgeport.
However, according to MassLive, MGM’s plans put “the company at odds with both tribal gaming operators and the gaming plans of Connecticut’s state government” and that “MGM’s development plans do not appear to fit within Connecticut’s current casino laws.”
MGM said that it would be partnering with the RCI Group, a Miami-based development firm that that has experience in waterfront projects.
How does the new Bridgeport Casino go against state plans?
In July this year, the governor of Connecticut, Dannel Malloy signed an act which gave the state’s two tribes, namely the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans, permission to join forces and build another casino in East Windsor. The tribes already own Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun. Their casino, which is scheduled to open next year, will compete directly with another MGM project, the MGM Springfield – less than 30 minutes drive from the East Windsor site.
MGM has gone all out in a campaign against the East Windsor casino, saying that the government’s provision of exclusive commercial casino rights to the tribes was not only anti-competitive, but also secretive and illegal.
In an advertising blitz trying to tout its plans for a new casino in Bridgeport, MGM has promised 7,000 new jobs, a $50 million license fee and $12.5 million worth of annual payments to Bridgeport and neighboring towns. MGM confirmed that it was “is engaged in a full fledged communications campaign” in Bridgeport.
Despite these efforts, Governor Malloy has said MGM’s Bridgeport casino plans will not come to fruition without full legislative support. The tribes say that a new casino would “violate the state’s existing deals with the tribes and end hundreds of millions of dollars in annual slot payments to Connecticut’s coffers,” according to the CTPost.
