MGM Resorts International is closing its intense lobbying campaign against a commercial casino proposed by tribal competitors by returning to its original strategy: a challenge to the constitutionality of the legislature’s awarding a license without competition.
casino expansion
Posted inPolitics
House Dems say ‘budgetary relief’ is the price of a new casino
If the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes want the House to join the Senate in granting them the right to build a casino off tribal lands, they must pay for the privilege and give Connecticut a measure of “budgetary relief,” House Democratic leaders said Wednesday.
Posted inPolitics
Tribes win casino fight in Senate, face battle in House
The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes won the first half of their home-court fight with MGM Resorts International over the rights to gaming expansion in Connecticut as the Senate voted 24-12 early Wednesday for a bill authorizing the tribes to jointly develop the state’s first casino off tribal lands.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy: Only realistic casino expansion option is the tribes’
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy moved forcefully Friday for the first time to focus the legislature’s debate on casino expansion, saying the only measure he would consider signing is a bill granting the owners of Connecticut’s two tribal casinos permission to build a commercial casino in East Windsor to compete with MGM Resorts International in Springfield.
Posted inPolitics
Tribes get BIA letter helpful to their bid for a third casino
A Trump administration official says the election of President Trump and arrival of new leaders at the Department of the Interior have not changed advice given a year ago in a technical assistance letter: A commercial casino operated by Connecticut’s two federally recognized tribes would not jeopardize their revenue sharing deal with the state.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Legislators search for safest bet on casino expansion
Connecticut legislators weighing casino expansion face the same stomach-churning questions as any gambler confronting a big play: What is their tolerance for risk? What is the payout if they win? What are the consequences of a loss? What of doing nothing? And, perhaps, most importantly, do they even know the odds?
Posted inPolitics
AG doesn’t necessarily see anything new in tribal ‘guarantee’
The office of Attorney General George Jepsen reacted cooly Friday to a lobbying effort Thursday by the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations to address legal issues around their push for permission to jointly develop Connecticut’s first casino off tribal lands.
Posted inPolitics
Tribes make pitch to improve odds for third casino in Connecticut
The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations made a lobbying blitz Thursday in the hopes of improving their odds of winning authorization to jointly develop Connecticut’s first casino off tribal lands. One House leader says odds of passage are still just 50-50.
Posted inPolitics
Committee approves, yet doesn’t endorse, casino expansion bills
Proposals to expand casino gambling in Connecticut cleared the Public Safety and Security Committee on Wednesday in votes signifying a consensus that the bills were too big to die in committee, not a measure of the support for opening the state to commercial casinos off tribal tribal lands.
Posted inPolitics
Major storm to close State Capitol, delay casino vote
With Connecticut closing for business Tuesday in the face of a major snowstorm, the leaders of the General Assembly signed an order Monday that will allow a legislative committee to hold a special meeting Wednesday to vote on casino expansion legislation.
Posted inPolitics
Legislator asks for independent analysis of casino expansion
Rep. Daniel S. Rovero, D-Killingly, said he arrived in Hartford for an all-day public hearing Thursday seeking clarity on the risks and benefits of granting the tribal owners of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun the right to jointly develop a casino off tribal lands without considering other bidders. He left disappointed, unsure if the state was getting a good deal and unhappy the state was providing no independent analysis of casino expansion.
Posted inPolitics
Campaign for casino expansion approaches a crossroads
In a political consultant’s conference room on the 16th-floor of CityPlace II, an MGM Resorts International executive named Uri Clinton sipped a late-afternoon Starbucks coffee, still jet-lagged after his latest red-eye flight from Las Vegas to Hartford. In Clinton’s world, the action right now is in Connecticut’s capital.
Posted inPolitics
MGM uses Obama interior secretary to fight new tribal casino
Lobbyists for MGM Resorts International made a well-timed play Tuesday in their fight to stop a new tribal casino in Connecticut, delivering a warning from former Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar that the proposal would jeopardize the state’s revenue-sharing agreement with the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans. The tribes dismissed Salazar as a paid consultant.
Posted inMoney
Malloy seeks pivotal opinion from AG on casino expansion
Attorney General George Jepsen, who derailed a fast-moving campaign for casino expansion in 2015 by raising questions never fully answered, has been asked by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for a formal opinion on the ramifications of allowing Connecticut’s two federally recognized tribes to jointly develop a casino off tribal lands.
Posted inPolitics
Tribes serve DNC breakfast and a case for casino expansion
PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana had two reasons for being the featured speaker Tuesday at a Democratic National Convention breakfast sponsored by the owners of Connecticut’s two tribal casinos: He can help them in their fight with MGM Resorts International, and they can help him raise money to take back the Senate.