Connecticut’s tribal gaming operators are shelving plans for a joint venture casino in East Windsor, which could help smooth the state’s path to legal sports betting. 

On Wednesday, the Hartford Courant reported that the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes – which respectively operate Connecticut’s only two casinos Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods – had ‘temporarily’ abandoned plans to build their Tribal Winds casino in the northern portion of the state. 

Tribal Winds was conceived nearly four years ago as a way to deter Connecticut gamblers from crossing the border into Massachusetts to visit MGM Resorts’ new MGM Springfield venue, which opened with great fanfare in September 2018. 

MGM, with the help of the federal government, immediately launched an obstructionist campaign to sandbag Tribal Winds’ development, while claiming that its objections were rooted in MGM’s desire to build a Connecticut casino in Bridgeport. The feds eventually dropped out of the fight in early 2019 amid mounting allegations of former DOI secretary Ryan Zinke’s collusion with MGM.