MGM bid to block tribal casino tossed by court
MGM Resorts International, which next year will open a massive casino in Springfield, suffered a legal defeat yesterday in its ongoing battle to ward off potential competition from Native American tribes in nearby Connecticut.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan yesterday ruled that a lower court judge was correct in tossing MGM’s suit against the Nutmeg State last year.
In that lawsuit, MGM argued that lawmakers put it at a competitive disadvantage when the state passed a law in 2015 that allowed Connecticut’s two federally recognized tribes to build casinos on nontribal land.
MGM lawyers said the casino giant was improperly disadvantaged by the law, but the appeals court said the argument was “too speculative.”
Uri Clinton, senior vice president and legal counsel for MGM, said the litigation may not be over. The Connecticut legislature recently approved East Windsor, Conn., as the site for a third casino, and Gov. Dannel Malloy has voiced support for the legislation.
East Windsor is roughly 30 minutes from Springfield, and Clinton said, if Malloy signs off on the legislation, MGM will be ready to restart the legal fight. “We view today’s ruling as nothing more than a matter of timing,” Clinton said in a statement, “and remain undeterred in our goal of having the opportunity to compete in Connecticut.”
In a footnote, the appeals court acknowledged that MGM may have a legal leg to stand on in the future.
“Our conclusion does not rule out the possibility that MGM’s alleged harm may at some future point become sufficiently imminent,” U.S. Circuit Judge John Walker Jr. said, writing for a three-judge panel. “That possibility, though, is at this time only hypothetical and we therefore need not address it.”