For decades, the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes and the state have been partners. The gaming agreements that bind them grant the tribes the exclusive right to operate casino gaming in Connecticut and, in turn, the state gets a 25 percent cut of the slot-machine revenue the tribes’ casinos generate.

But, at some point, their interests were bound to diverge, as it appears they did in negotiations over the expansion of gaming, including sports betting.

Gov. Ned Lamont revealed this past week that the talks have ground to a halt, suggesting it’s unlikely the General Assembly will enact any gaming bills in the legislative session that ends in less than a month. While the talks were thought to be mainly about the tribes’ claim that they alone are entitled to offer legal sports wagering in the state, other gaming-related matters intruded.

During the negotiations, the governor and members of his staff sought to accommodate the Bridgeport delegation’s desire for a casino, a project Lamont suggested the tribes could undertake, according to a source close to the negotiations but not authorized to discuss them. The idea was that the tribes would walk away from their proposed casino in East Windsor to focus on Bridgeport, a move that might sit well with MGM Resorts International, whose Springfield, Mass., casino the East Windsor casino would target.

Might MGM Resorts, which has a Bridgeport casino proposal on the table, be willing to forgo its designs on the Park City and a competitive-bidding process as well as its opposition to the tribes’ East Windsor project?

It may never be known.

“MGM’s position on gaming policy in Connecticut has not changed,” the Las Vegas-based company said in a recent statement. “While we appreciate Governor Lamont’s diligent efforts to work with all parties and put Connecticut’s interests first, our view remains, and the residents of Connecticut overwhelmingly agree, that an open, competitive, transparent process is the best way for Connecticut to maximize economic benefits.”

MGM Resorts has pushed for years for the Connecticut legislature to adopt a competitive-bidding process for a commercial casino, though the company's acquisition last year of Empire City Casino in Yonkers, N.Y., appeared to belie its commitment to Bridgeport.

In any event, the source said, the tribes showed little interest in abandoning East Windsor, where their MMCT Venture partnership has invested nearly $20 million in a project that’s expected to cost roughly $300 million. Apparently, even a promise of the exclusive right to provide sports betting and online gaming at their existing casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, was not enough of an inducement.

Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket chairman, suggested this past week that the tribes would be amenable to a deal in which the legislature authorized sports betting at the casinos this year and then revisited the issue next year. The Connecticut Lottery Corp. and Sportech Venues, which operates the state’s off-track betting facilities, also have made pitches for sports betting.

Lamont said he’s intent on a "global solution" that avoids litigation.

MGM Resorts may yet seek to derail the East Windsor project by pursuing a legal claim that the 2017 state law authorizing the tribes to pursue Connecticut’s only commercial casino on nontribal land violates the U.S. Constitution. MGM first raised the argument in a 2015 suit over a previously enacted state law that enabled the tribe to form a joint venture and seek casino site proposals.

A federal district court judge dismissed MGM’s suit in a decision upheld by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate judges found that MGM’s claim of being harmed by an “uneven playing field” was speculative because no actual competition was then “underway.” With MGM Springfield up and running and the tribes' East Windsor project nearing fruition, the claim now might have legs, some believe.

The East Windsor project was delayed for more than a year by the federal government’s failure to act on amendments to the tribes’ gaming agreements with the state, delays MGM allegedly had a hand in orchestrating.

With the sides at an impasse and the legislature’s June 5 deadline approaching, the governor's negotiatons with the tribe stalled.

On Friday, state Rep. Joe Verrengia, the West Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the Public Safety and Security Committee, which oversees gaming, stopped short of saying for sure that no gaming legislation would emerge from the current session.

“Just because the governor’s hit the pause button doesn’t mean we still can’t take a look at something,” Verrengia said. “If a certain delegation wants to move forward on a particular bill, that’s still possible." 

He said the creation of a gaming commission remains “on my front burner.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com