A rendering of the MGM Bridgeport casino complex.Contributed photo
Almost 15 years after former Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell led a Fairfield County coalition opposing a casino in Bridgeport, the possibility of gambling in the state’s largest city took on a new life today.
MGM Resorts International announced ambitious plans for a $675 million casino and entertainment complex in Bridgeport’s Steelpointe Harbor area that it said would create thousands of jobs.
The announcement came despite current state law that bars building a casino in Bridgeport as gaming is currently limited to the two federal Indian reservations. However, the General Assembly has approved a plan for a third casino in East Windsor that would be jointly operated by the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes.
That did not seem to dissuade MGM Chairman and Chief Executive Office James Murren, a Bridgeport native, from announcing his plan.
“We’re interested in stabilizing Connecticut’s finances and strengthening its largest city and in the region creating jobs and economic expansion,” he said at a news conference with Steelpointe Harbor as the backdrop.
“MGM Bridgeport is the right development, at the right time and in the right place.”
Andrew Doba, spokesperson for MMCT Venture, the joint tribal entity seeking a third casino in the state, called the MGM announcement its “latest stunt.”
“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,” he said in a statement.
“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.”
MGM Bridgeport would include 2,000 slot machines, 160 table games, a 700-seat theater, 300-room hotel, retail and dining options.
MGM said the casino would create 7,000 new jobs in Bridgeport area and, if approved by state legislators, would give the state $50 million in licensing fees in the current fiscal year.
MGM, which considered Bridgeport for a casino in the 1990s and touched off opposition by Farrell and others, has been seriously working on the project since June. If approved, it would take about a year for construction to begin and about 30 months before the complex would open, officials said..
