Bridgeport Casino: MGM Announces Plans Touting $300 Million Economic Boost

BRIDGEPORT, CT — Promising a $600 million investment of private funds, officials announced a project that they say will help "make the state’s budget whole.” During a press conference at Steelepointe Harbor Monday morning, officials announced the MGM Bridgeport project, which would bring a casino resort to the state’s largest city.

Surrounded by Mayor Joe Ganim, New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, state lawmakers and project officials, MGM senior vice president and legal counsel Uri Clinton announced what he called “shovel-ready” plans that would help dig the state out of its financial troubles. If given the green light from Hartford, Clinton said the project would create over 7,000 jobs and be finished in 30 months.

“With the exception of an act of god, this project will be completed in 30 months,” Clinton said.

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Approval for the project figures to lie at the end of a rocky road. The Mohegan Tribe and the Mashantucket Pequot tribes hold exclusive rights to gambling in the state, and Gov. Dannel Malloy recently signed legislation allowing the operation of an entertainment and casino gambling facility in East Windsor that would be run by the tribes.

Malloy said Monday that he hasn't had time to fully examine MGM's proposal, but that MGM and RCI admitted that it would violate Connecticut's compact with the tribal nations. Over the next two years that would result in nearly a $500 million loss for Connecticut's coffers, he said, which is something that neither Republican or Democrats have dealt with in their budgets.

"I can't imagine any scenario under which the tribal nations would agree to open up the compact on those grounds, but perhaps they will," he said.

Malloy added that gambling is becoming ubiquitous in the New York metropolitan area with talk of possible gambling operations in Yonkers, Queens, and New Jersey near New York Giant's stadium. That comes in addition to planned casinos in Massachusetts. In a statement released Monday, it does not appear the tribes would be willing to relinquish their exclusive gambling rights.

"The idea that MGM is having a "groundbreaking" for a project that hasn't come close to receiving legislative approval continues a pattern of dishonesty that we saw time and again during the legislative session,” said spokesman Andrew Doba of the MMCT Venture, a partnership between the two tribes. Simply put, authorization of this facility would violate the existing compacts between the two tribes and the state which would immediately end the slot payments that currently sends the state hundreds of million a year in much need revenue. Our state's elected officials saw through their dishonesty last session, and we expect them to see this latest fib for exactly what it is - another bought and paid for piece of misinformation."

However, MGM Bridgeport officials said in a press release that by the year 2020 tribal payments will have declined 59 percent since 2007, and that the project is expected to reverse that downward trend. MGM and RCI received overwhelming support from Ganim and Harp, whose city would be the home of MGM’s workforce development center.

“Let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot,” Harp pleaded to lawmakers in attendance, urging them to support the project.

Economic Boon

In what he called a “homecoming,” Bridgeport native and MGM CEO Jim Murren said he was excited to help get his home state back on its economic feet. (For more casino news and neighborhood stories, subscribe to the Bridgeport Patch for breaking news alerts and our daily newsletters.)

“We want to be here in Connecticut and we want to be here in Bridgeport,” Murren said at Monday’s press conference. “We believe this can turn the economic tide in Bridgeport, we just need a commitment from the state.”

Among the potential economic benefits was an estimated tax revenue of over $300 million annually. RCI and MGM would pay $50 million in licensing fees to the state in 2018, and would make $8 million in payments annually.

Additionally, the partnership promised $4.5 million in annual payments to surrounding towns. Shortly following the announcement, Sen. Tony Hwang (R-Fairfield) issued a statement in opposition of the gambling expansion in Fairfield County.

“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," said Hwang in a statement. “And what about the human costs? Casinos spread gambling addiction, debt, bankruptcies, and crime. We cannot ignore the societal costs that gambling has brought to Connecticut: The families that have been torn apart, the lost hopes, and the suicides."

MGM Bridgeport officials promised 2,000 permanent jobs, and over 5,000 created for construction and in the surrounding areas. Murren added those jobs would bring a total of $1.2 billion in total income for workers.

In addition, MGM would establish a workforce training center in New Haven that would train employees for high-paying positions, Clinton said.

“The last time someone came in with a promise of 7,000 good paying jobs, which included jobs for the residents of Bridgeport, was never. We’d be crazy not to pass this deal,” said Bob Proto, Vice President Unite Here International in a statement.

Tapping Into The New York Market

Clinton said MGM Bridgeport would make the New York City market one of its targets. Currently, those wishing to gamble in the city have to make the choice of traveling over two hours to Atlantic City, over two and a half hours to Mohegan Sun, or nearly three hours to Foxwoods for full-service gambling.

The casino would boast a 700-seat theater, 300-room hotel, retail and dining options along with 2,000 slot machines and 160 table games.

The MGM Bridgeport website says the resort would host five fine dining/casual restaurants and six bar/lounge outlets with a total of 60,860 square feet of offerings. The casino area would cover a total of 100,000 square feet, with 30,000 square feet of retail space.

The renderings also show a 900 linear foot dock and an outdoor entertainment facility.

“We look forward to securing the required approvals so that this critical private investment of
over a half billion dollars may proceed without delay,” Christoph said. Officials invited public
support, “so that these plans can move off the printed page and the website, to cranes.”
maneuvering in the air and concrete being poured into foundations on the ground.”

Images courtesy of MGM International