MGM renews Connecticut casino option

Quietly over the summer, with zero fanfare and nary a public announcement, MGM Resorts International renewed a contract giving it the option to develop a casino in Bridgeport Harbor on land controlled by RCI Group.

The option had been set to expire in September, two years after MGM proposed a $675 million casino across the water from RCI’s Steelpointe Harbor development.

MGM’s renewal alone isn’t a big step toward an actual casino opening, which now seems impossibly far off. But it signals one thing clearly: MGM, after five years on the scene in Connecticut, after taking over the Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway, after opening the $1 billion MGM Springfield, after repeatedly failing to win the right to compete in this state, is not going away.

The Las Vegasbased company is still committed to the fight over gambling in Connecticut.

Up the road an hour or so, there’s no question about the instate commitment of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes; this is where they’ve been for centuries and where, since 1992 and 1996 respectively, they’ve planted billions of dollars in casino and hotel assets — businesses that face tough, new competition on all sides.

The tribes, operating jointly as MMCT for the purpose of expanding to nontribal land in Connecticut, also continue to eye Bridgeport, with a smaller, less clear proposal that emerged at the end of the spring General Assembly session in June.

Why can’t we just pick a winner and move ahead? The tribes claim a permanent exclusive duopoly not only for slot machines — for which they pay 25 percent of revenues to the state — but also table games, sports betting and maybe even instate online gaming. They, especially the Pequots, who own Foxwoods Resort Casino, are not backing down from that.

Give the tribes the whole enchilada and MGM will tie the deal up in federal court for years, claiming denial of fair treatment as a wouldbe competitor. MGM already has a lawsuit pending over the way the U.S. Department of the Interior approved a waiver for a joint tribal casino in East Windsor — and there are more lawsuits where that one came from.

Open the whole thing to bids from all comers, and the tribes stop paying the slot money to the state — which amounted to more than $240 million in fiscal 2019.

Forget a commercial casino in Bridgeport. That might be nice but what we really could use is the gravy train of sports betting and online gambling, which can’t happen either until and unless we have an agreement.

So where does all this leave us as Connecticut lurches toward its sixth year of trying to update its gambling scene? Stuck. Stalemate. Stagnant. Standoff.

Talks organized by Gov. Ned Lamont have gone nowhere, as Lamont seeks what he calls a global, negotiated solution. Lawmakers are divided, with slightly more favoring the tribes in a plan that emerged at the end of the legislative session in June, which would hand them a license for Bridgeport — with no location and a commitment of just $100 million.

The openbidding plan, favored by MGM, won in the House in 2018 but didn’t come up for a vote in the Senate and didn’t come

up in either chamber last spring.

This whole debate is maddening and absurd as surrounding states move forward with gaming plans. How absurd? Some Bridgeport lawmakers and Mayor Joe Ganim, reading the political tea leaves, swayed toward the tribes’ plan in June — so desperate is the state’s largest city for a spark, any spark.

How absurd? This week Sen. Dennis Bradley, DBridgeport, actually, with a straight face, wrote a letter to Lamont imploring him to bring the tribes’ plan to a special legislative session on other issues that may or may happen in November. Hello? There’s no deal if there’s no deal, and there’s no deal, Sen. Bradley.

He’s not some backbencher in this; Bradley is cochairman of the public safety committee, which has purview over gambling. The other cochair

man, Rep. Joe Verrengia, DWest Hartford, favors open bidding but is suspended from his duties because of an unfortunate DUI arrest, and is unlikely to return to the committee.

If you think this is a mess, you haven’t heard the half of it. Even if the tribes win everything, there’s no assurance they’d be able to line up money to build in Bridgeport. The whole industry is squeezed and the tribes are probably overbuilt on their own lands.

We haven’t exactly seen any progress in East Windsor two years after state approval, and I suspect that’s not just because of legal tieups.

MGM has deeper pockets and more borrowing power. But would the company really build a big enough resort in Bridgeport to make up for the loss of the tribes’ money? Even with sports gaming kicking in tens of millions a year, that’s a matter of debate. MGM Springfield underperformed in its first

year and MGM does own Empire City just over the state line.

The bottom line is Bridgeport needs these casinos more than they need Bridgeport, and that’s not a good place to be. For five years now, I’ve shown my usual upbeat ebullience that a compromise solution can happen. Now I’m doubtful.

“I continue to believe there’s a winwinwin situation in there,” said Rep. Steve Stafstrom, DBridgeport, who guided the openbidding plan to its narrow, 2018 House win. “None of the parties seem to have moved off their last best positions but I continue to hope that as we moved toward the next session that folks are going to get in a room and work this out.”

Bless his heart. I thought that too, this year, last year, the year before that and the year before that. Now I’ve lost faith. With luck, I’ll be wrong again in 2020.