The CT Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/tag/mohegans/)
The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations crossed the finish line Wednesday on the last day of the General Assembly’s annual session, victors in a two-year struggle for authorization to jointly develop a casino to compete with the MGM Resorts International casino under construction in Springfield. Continue Reading →
The Connecticut legislature’s long debate about the implications of expanding casino gambling has come down to a stark question of transactional politics: What do a relative handful of urban Democratic legislators want in return for allowing the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans to jointly develop the state’s third casino, its first off tribal lands? Continue Reading →
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. Continue Reading →
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. Continue Reading →
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. Continue Reading →
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. Continue Reading →
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? Continue Reading →
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. Continue Reading →
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. Continue Reading →
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. Continue Reading →
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill formally notified the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation on Wednesday that her office’s mistaken acceptance of a business filing last month does not confer any right to develop a casino in Connecticut. Continue Reading →
The push by the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations for casino expansion in Connecticut ended early Friday morning with final passage of a measure that represents more of a consolation prize than a victory. Continue Reading →
Failing to slam the door on casino gambling in 1991, Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. cut the deal in 1993 that both gave the industry a foundation and firmly capped its reach in Connecticut — until now. Today, the legislature’s Public Safety and Security Committee holds a public hearing on what appears to be the strongest attempt in two decades to expand casino gambling off tribal lands. Continue Reading →
Questions about morality and the societal impact of expanded gambling are fading, if not gone. Competition in surrounding states, notably a planned MGM casino-resort in Springfield, has distilled the issue of a new casino in Connecticut to one overriding concern: Keeping jobs. Continue Reading →