Column: Keeping count of tribal casino impacts

Wednesday, July 29, 2009  

"A new study of the impacts of gambling on Connecticut, commissioned by the General Assembly, doesn't produce a lot of surprises for the people of southeastern Connecticut, who already know that the towns near Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun bear more of the costs and see less of the state's share of revenue from the two casinos.

And yet there are many interesting, illuminating statistics in the 400-page report that show some of the ways the casinos have changed the culture here over the last 17 years.

From increased road repairs to new English-as-a-second-language school programs to teach the children of casino workers, towns across the region reported increasing casino-related expenses.

In Norwich, for instance, schools have four times as many Asian-American students than they did in 1993, due in large part to the migration of casino workers from New York's Chinatown. Asian-Americans now make up 7 percent of the school population.

One of five residents of Norwich now works at one of the casinos, according to the report by the Spectrum Gaming Group of Linwood, N.J.

Norwich Free Academy, the city's high school, estimates its annual casino-related costs at $600,000. Montville says it spends an additional $300,000 in language programs for its schools.

The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich reported losing as much as $1 million in treating uninsured people brought from the casinos."

Get the Story:
David Collins: Casino Impacts: Keeping Count (The New London Day 7/29)

Connecticut Study:
Gambling in Connecticut: Analyzing the Economic and Social Impacts (June 2009)