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Two tribes in the US state of Connecticut are pressing ahead with plans to build a casino near the border with Massachusetts in spite of delays in the approvals process, reports Fox61.

The Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes yesterday began the six-week demolition of a shuttered cinema in East Windsor, Connecticut, with plans to construct a 200,000sq.ft casino and entertainment venue,

“We’ve been through too much already together to give up. And we’re not going to,” said Mohegan tribal chairman Kevin Brown. The tribes hope the property will be open withing two years, ready to compete with the new $950m MGM Resorts casino that is to open in Springfield, Massachusetts, later this year.

The tribes’ project has been the subject of numerous delays although both Brown and Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, are optimistic the remaining issues will be addressed in the next few months.

“The law is very, very clearly on our side,” Butler said. “There’s been much more complicated situations that have gone through this and have been approved.”