The aims of the new suit by MGM are broader than stopping a competing tribal casino in East Windsor: It questions their ability to conduct any off-reservation gambling in Connecticut.
Mohegan Sun
Posted inMoney
Tribes reject Lamont’s grand bargain on gambling
The tribes won’t give up a planned casino in East Windsor, as requested by Gov. Ned Lamont. The next move is Lamont’s.
Posted inPolitics
Tribal ally tries to break stalemate over gambling expansion
A senator with many constituents employed by the tribal casinos made her move to nudge the governor into action on sports betting and casino expansion.
Posted inPolitics
Lamont seeks path around ‘legal mud’ of gambling wars
The drama over the expansion and control of legal gambling in Connecticut enters its fifth season, a convoluted story in search of an ending.
Posted inMoney
Legislators uncertain about legalizing sports betting before ’19
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday his administration could have a proposal ready soon for legislative consideration on a new state system for managing and profiting from sports betting. Whether lawmakers will come back to consider it before the new legislature and governor take office in January are another matter.
Posted inMoney
Malloy to open sports betting talks with tribes
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday he will try to resolve who has rights to sports gambling — the tribal owners of the state’s two casinos, licensed off-track betting parlors or other vendors chosen by the state, or a mix of the two — before calling the General Assembly into special session to consider legalizing wagering on sports.
Posted inMoney
House narrowly approves study that could roil CT casino landscape
The House narrowly approved a bill Friday that would authorize a study of siting a new casino in Connecticut.
Posted inPolitics
Union election at Foxwoods as CT tribes push back against federal labor laws
WASHINGTON — More than 300 employees who clean the Mashantucket Pequot’s Foxwoods Resort Casino will decide on Friday if they want to unionize and reject tribal arguments against that idea. Meanwhile, Connecticut’s Pequot and Mohegan tribes are backing efforts to exempt their businesses from federal labor laws, a priority for the nation’s Indian tribes.
Posted inJustice
AG: Initial step to MGM casino would not jeopardize tribal deal
Attorney General George Jepsen advised legislators Thursday that the state could take a tentative step toward testing the market for opening Connecticut to commercial casinos without immediately jeopardizing $260 million in slots revenue the state expects to collect this year under an exclusivity deal with the tribal owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun.
Posted inPolitics
Legislators buck Senate co-chairs, keep casino expansion alive
An 11th-hour uprising by rank-and-file members of a legislative committee Thursday resurrected an issue that two Senate co-chairs seemed to have tabled for 2018: Should the state be opened to competition for a commercial casino in Bridgeport, as proposed by MGM Resorts International in its long war with two tribal competitors, the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods?
Posted inJustice
Interior Department seeks dismissal of CT gaming lawsuit
The U.S. Interior Department told a federal court Monday that Connecticut’s refusal to negotiate a gaming compact with the Mashantucket Pequots nearly 30 years ago creates a fatal flaw in the state’s legal efforts today to help the Pequot and Mohegan tribes compete with MGM Resorts International.
Posted inPolitics
MGM spends $3.8M lobbying in Hartford, but wins in Washington
MGM Resorts International spent $3.8 million on lobbying in Connecticut last year, more than three times any other interest group, in a vain attempt to stop the General Assembly from authorizing its tribal competitors to build a casino in competition with MGM Springfield. But MGM had another card to play — a friendly relationship with the Trump administration and its Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke.
Posted inEconomic Development, Politics
Tribes’ lawyers tell Interior it must accept casino deal
Two national law firms representing the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations pressed the federal government Tuesday with a letter insisting the Interior secretary has no choice but to approve their gaming agreements with Connecticut and clear the way for them to jointly develop a commercial casino in East Windsor.
Posted inMoney, Politics
MGM pitches Bridgeport casino as feds delay tribes’ expansion
MGM Resorts International launched a glitzy new campaign Monday to expand into Connecticut, an effort that curiously coincides with the Trump administration, at least temporarily, halting the state’s two federally recognized tribes’ from building a casino in East Windsor to compete with a new MGM resort in Springfield, Mass. MGM is backed by mayors of New Haven and Bridgeport.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut moves closer to construction of a third casino
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and tribal leaders signed documents Thursday amending Connecticut’s relationship with its two federally recognized tribes, another step toward allowing them to jointly develop a casino in the Hartford suburb of East Windsor, as authorized in legislation approved last month by the General Assembly.