MGM Resorts claims that they will be paying upwards of $800 million in settlements from the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. They also said that they have $751 million from insurance to help cover the settlements. They are hoping to settle all liability lawsuits by May of next year.
Plaintiffs are suing for compensation for physical and psychological harm due to the 2017 mass shooting that occurred at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. The gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds of ammo from his room at Mandalay Bay Hotel into the crowd attending the concert. It is considered to be the deadliest shooting by an individual in U.S. history. The gunman killed 58 people and another 422 were injured.
Plaintiffs claim that MGM Resorts, which owns Mandalay Bay, did not adequately protect concert goers. The shooter spent several days prior to the event collecting assault-style weapons and ammo in his room before shooting into the crowd on October 1, 2017.
MGM filed lawsuits against more than 1,900 people last summer to counteract any suits filed against them. MGM claims that they complied with the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act when they hired a company, certified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to provide security for the event. The statute states that companies are not liable if they utilize “anti-terrorism technology”.
Attorney Robert Eglet, who represents more than 4,200 of the plaintiffs, says that there is a long way to go until settlements are reached, insinuating that it is aggressive of MGM to be able to establish a dollar figure to the claims at this time.