Blog: Critic sees more problems ahead for Mashantucket gaming

Tuesday, September 21, 2010  

"Jeff Benedict, Connecticut's longtime casino nemesis, returned to his home state Tuesday with a warning about where tribal gambling is headed.

"There is going to be a lot damage,'' Benedict, author of the Without Reservation, a controversial book that traces the revival of the Mashantucket Pequots and creation of Foxwoods Resort Casino.

The big question will be whether foreign bankers -- who have financed the casino's striking success and who now watching as the Mashantuckets are unable to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars in loans -- will be able to take control of a casino on American soil.

"This thing is loaded with stuff that's never been tested in court,'' Benedict said. "It's going to be a terrific and very compelling moment if we get to the point where the banks decide they cannot extend them anymore [credit] ... Nobody knows what a court would do with all this.""

Get the Story:
Jeff Benedict Returns And Sees The Demise of Foxwoods (The Hartford Courant 9/21)