Alex Massoud ’20

MGM Casinos proposed a possible development project on Sept. 18 that would put a $675 million casino and resort in Bridgeport.
The casino would be located across the street from the Bass Pro Shops, and would have roughly 2,000 slot machines, 160 playing tables and about 300 hotel rooms, as well as new entertainment and dining options. MGM executives say the project would create seven thousand new jobs and introduce roughly two billion dollars into the Bridgeport economy with its profits.

However, this plan violates a law passed by the Connecticut General Assembly in 2015 stating that only the Mohegan and Pequot tribes have the right to build a casino in Connecticut.
The law was created in order to protect Native American gaming laws and enforce the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act which restricts everyone except Native Americans from building casinos on former tribal land.

Kylie Adler ’19, Vice President of the Social Activism Club in Staples, believes that Native Americans should be the only people allowed to build casinos in Connecticut. “Native Americans have a right to this land and it should not be stripped from them in order to promote gambling,” Adler said.

How a Bridgeport casino may affect the Native American population is not the only concern. The Coalition Against Casino Expansion in Connecticut, a group consisting of over twenty organizations arguing against casinos, believes that it would not actually benefit the state to have another casino in Connecticut.

“Casinos act as a vacuum, and they are very detrimental to a local community. Up to 50% of profits of casinos come from the backs of the poor, the minorities and the jobless,” Michele Mudrick, Executive Director of the Coalition Against Casino Expansion in Connecticut, said.

The MGM corporation has taken their case to court three times over the past two-and-a-half years, arguing, according to the lawsuit, that it is illegal to limit the construction of the casinos to just two tribes. Despite this, the courts have ruled against them all three times.

The Connecticut General Assembly is divided on this issue. Republican State Senator Tony Hwang recently spoke out against the proposed casino. “Economically, it makes little sense to expand casino gambling when the Northeast faces a growing casino glut. You can’t base a successful, sustainable economy on gambling,” Hwang said.

Andrew Doba, a spokesman for MMCT, an organization comprised of leaders from both the Mohegan and Pequot tribes, agreed with Hwang. “Authorization of this facility would violate the existing compacts between the two tribes and the state,” Doba said in a Sept. 18 statement.

However, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and MGM’s Chief Executive Officer, Jim Murren, believe the main advantage of building a casino in Bridgeport would be the creation of thousands of new jobs, which would stimulate the economy of Connecticut’s largest and second poorest city.

MGM Casinos is working with RCI Groups, the owner of the waterfront property where the casino is planned to be built. RCI’s spokesman, Robert W. Christoph, is confident that the casino will be extremely helpful. “We can take Bridgeport and we can turn it around,” Christoph said.

Sam Laskin ’20 ultimately agreed with Christoph, but still acknowledges that there may be consequences. “I think that a casino would probably bolster the state economy but might also encourage riskier behavior as gambling tends to do,” Laskin stated.

There is no timetable for the decision on whether or not a casino will be built in Bridgeport with the East Windsor Casino already under construction.