After more than a year of heavy bickering between casino operator MGM Resorts International and Connecticut, a federal judge has ruled in favor of the state in a lawsuit filed by the gambling company in the summer of 2015.
Last June, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law a proposal for the establishment of a third tribal casino within the state’s borders. Under the law, Connecticut’s two federally recognized tribes – the Mohegan and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe – were allowed to start looking for a potential location for the new gambling venue. Another law should be passed that would actually authorize the casino’s construction.
With the new venue likely to be located near Connecticut’s border with Massachusetts, where MGM Resorts is currently building the $950-million MGM Springfield casino resort, the gambling operator has been taking various actions to block the tribal casino project that would be a direct competitor to its own venue.
Last August, the gambling operator filed a lawsuit against Connecticut and its decision to greenlight the establishment of a third full-scale gambling facility within its borders. MGM Resorts argued that by allowing the Mohegans and the Mashantucket Pequots to build together the third casino, the state’s new law demonstrated discriminatory favoritism. Connecticut, on the other hand, contended that MGM Resorts was not harmed by its new gambling act and that it did not have any standing to sue.
Despite MGM Resorts claiming that the new regulation prevented it from seeking its own site for a casino in Connecticut, the state pointed out that the law gave its two federally recognized tribes the green light to look for a location for their joint gambling venue but did not explicitly prohibit any other interested party from doing so.
Earlier this week, Judge Alvin Thompson supported the state’s claim, saying that the law did not explicitly favor the two federally recognized tribes and that there was any distinct competitive disadvantage to the gambling operator or even if there was one, it was too abstract to be supported in court.
MGM Resorts has already appealed the latest ruling in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Connecticut enforced its new law in order for casino jobs to be protected and much-needed gaming revenue to be prevented from leaving the state’s borders. There are two casinos currently operating within the state – Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino.
