A federal judge threw out a lawsuit a Native American tribe in Connecticut brought against the Department of the Interior as it seeks to build a casino near the Massachusetts border to compete against the newly-opened MGM Springfield. This is clearly great news for the MGM group, since it halts competition.But the decision by Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is a huge setback for the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes that run Connecticut’s two existing casinos.
Case Dismissed
A lawsuit was then filed by Connecticut and the Mashantucket Pequot tribe but quickly dismissed over the weekend . The tribe were seeking to force the Department of the Interior to approve or deny amendments to the agreement between the state and tribe that governs tribal gaming. The tribe cannot move forward with the legislatively-approved casino it is developing jointly with the Mohegan Tribe without federal approval of the amendments.MGM Resorts International said in a statement. “It has become increasingly apparent that the Tribes’ promises of legal victory, no matter how often they are repeated, prove hollow.”
Future Plans for the Tribe
The tribes working together as MMCT Ventures, are planning a development in East Windsor. This is to include a 188,000 square foot gaming and entertainment facility with a whopping 1,800 slot machines, 50 table games and 10 poker tables. To put that into perspective, that’s more slot machines that’s any casino in the UK and puts it up there with Vegas.MGM Springfield is hoping to draw players from Massachusetts, Connecticut’s Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, and the New York market. But the Connecticut tribes have been