The billionaire casino developer who has been pushing for years to build a casino in Brockton suggested that he will drop his efforts after the Massachusetts Gaming Commission determined Thursday that it will not reconsider its 2016 denial of his Brockton casino bid.

Neil Bluhm, chairman of Mass. Gaming and Entertainment, told the Gaming Commission that he has spent millions of dollars on studies and planning in hopes of building a casino at the Brockton Fairgrounds. But with a vote to deny his request to reconsider an earlier denial looming, Bluhm told the commission they would be effectively ending his interest in vying for a Massachusetts casino license.

“To vote that you are not going to reopen this under any circumstance, I don’t know how I can continue to hang in here on behalf of Brockton. I’ve spent millions of dollars,” Bluhm said. “To deny this request, I think you lose me. I can’t hang around. I’ve been doing this for more than five years.”

The Gaming Commission met Thursday to clear up a variety of issues associated with the still-unassigned casino license for the southeastern part of the state, known to the commission as Region C. More than a year ago, Bluhm’s Mass. Gaming and Entertainment requested that the commission “agree to reconsider MG&E’s application without reopening the [licensing] process more broadly.”

The commission on Thursday heard from its lawyers and lawyers for MG&E to determine whether the regulators have the authority to reconsider a previous licensing decision and then whether “there are sufficient grounds in this case, whether they exist to properly exercise that authority,” Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein said.

By a 3-1 vote, the commission ruled that it does have the power to reconsider its past licensing decisions but that there were not sufficient grounds to reopen MG&E’s specific proposal and reconsider the 2016 license denial.

Commissioners were concerned that by reopening the years-old MG&E proposal, the commission would be preventing other interested parties from applying for the license given some of the changes to the gaming and business landscape since the commission’s 2016 ruling. Commissioner Enrique Zuniga was the lone “no” vote and he expressed an interest in gauging interest from other developers before deciding whether to consider MG&E’s proposal on its own.

Bluhm and his attorneys from Goodwin Proctor argued for the same.

“I don’t honestly know how long you expect us to be hanging around here for Brockton,” the Chicago casino magnate said. “I don’t see why you can’t vote that you have the authority to reconsider and then for a period of time see what interest there is for others to potentially bid on this. And then, if you have no interest, then you can go back and make your decision.”

The commission’s lawyers and those representing MG&E were in agreement that the commission has the authority to reconsider its decisions, but one commission lawyer warned the regulators against establishing a precedent in which rulings routinely change after they are made.

“The power to reconsider must be sparingly used if administrative decisions are to have resolving force on which persons can rely; meaning that, obviously, once a decision is made you don’t want to go around changing decisions people have come to rely upon unless there is a good reason,” deputy general counsel Todd Grossman said.

Of concern in Region C when the commission rejected the Brockton proposal from MG&E by a 4-1 vote was the possibility of the Brockton casino competing with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s planned $1 billion First Light Resort and Casino in Taunton, less than 20 miles from the site of the planned Brockton casino.