MGM-commissioned poll finds state voters prefer competitive bidding for 3rd casino
With Democratic lawmakers proposing that a third casino — perhaps one the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegans tribes would operate in East Windsor — be added to the state budget, MGM Resorts International released a poll Tuesday showing Connecticut voters prefer that casino expansion be pursued through a competitive-bidding process.
The poll, commissioned by MGM Resorts and three other gaming operators, found that 71 percent of respondents support a competitive-bidding process while 22 percent oppose it. When asked to choose between a bill ensuring a competitive process or one granting the tribes the exclusive right to develop a commercial casino, 72 percent of respondents backed the former. Nineteen percent preferred the tribes-only bill.
“Likely voters in Connecticut are speaking with one voice, loudly and clearly, for an open, competitive process ...,” Uri Clinton, MGM Resorts senior vice president and legal counsel, said in a statement.
The Mellman Group of Washington, D.C., conducted the poll, surveying 600 registered voters May 9-11 via both cell- and landline phones, according to MGM Resorts. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
A spokesman for the tribes, which hailed Democrats’ inclusion of the third casino in their latest budget proposal, declined to comment on the poll, instead referring a reporter to a tribes-commissioned analysis of the competitive-bidding option. Pyramid Associates, the Massachusetts research company that issued the analysis in April, found that a competitive-bidding process could cost the state $85.6 million in annual revenue.
If the state were to grant a commercial gaming license to an operator other than the tribes, the tribes would cease paying the state 25 percent of gross slot-machine revenues from the tribes’ respective casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. In the current fiscal year, the state's share is expected to total $267 million.
The tribes are pursuing the East Windsor casino as a hedge against the anticipated impact of a $950 million resort casino MGM Resorts is building in Springfield, Mass.
Clinton, in a phone interview, said MGM Resorts commissioned the poll along with Pinnacle Entertainment, Boyd Gaming Corp. and Peninsula Pacific, companies that own and operate casinos across the country. He said MGM contacted the companies and others amid growing interest in commercial gaming opportunities in Connecticut.
“Operators have heard about what’s going on in Connecticut,” Clinton said. “For years, people thought tribes had it locked up, that there wasn’t another opportunity. Now they’re inquiring about it. They wanted to test whether there’s public support for it.”
In other results, the poll found that 68 percent of respondents believe a casino developer should pay the state at least $85 million for a gaming license, the same amount MGM Resorts paid the state of Massachusetts for the license to operate MGM Springfield. Eighty-six percent of respondents say casino developers should pay for highway improvements near casino sites, and 85 percent favor requiring that a referendum be held in any town hosting a casino.
Clinton said a competitive-bidding process could be completed in a matter of months and that the developer that emerges from the process could be required to pay the state a licensing fee in 2018. In the meantime, he said, the tribes still would be making monthly slots payments to the state. The payments would not end until the state issued a license for the new facility, he said.
Of course, Clinton added, the tribes could participate in any competitive bidding.
“They could put their East Windsor proposal up against everyone else’s and see what happens,” he said.
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.
