MGM Resorts International has bought a new Washington, D.C., office building to use as a base for advancing public policy initiatives.
In a statement last Thursday, MGM Resorts, which operates 10 Strip hotel-casinos, said Ayesha Khanna will lead the new Washington office as senior vice president for federal government affairs. Khanna served as chief counsel to Harry Reid, D-Nev., who recently retired after 30 years in the Senate. She was also an international trade counsel on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee under U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and an attorney at the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Commerce Department.
Khanna’s team, MGM Resorts said, will include Norman Ross, vice president of federal government affairs, who will work from Washington, and Denice Miller, senior vice president of government affairs, who will work from Nevada. The statement said the team will advance MGM Resorts’ position on “critical issues, such as travel, tourism and gaming.”
John McManus, MGM Resorts executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, said in the statement, “Today’s announcement of our Washington, D.C., office and the continued development of our talented policy team is the first of many steps we aim to take to build our public affairs capabilities and strengthen our role as a strong corporate citizen on a wide range of key issues.”
TheStreet.com and other news outlets noted that MGM’s announcement came the same week that President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee said he’d “revisit” the 2011 Justice Department ruling that opened the door for online poker.