Connecticut

Tribes warn of job and revenue losses at casinos in Connecticut

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The Mohegan Sun Casino. Photo from Facebook

Connecticut's two federally recognize tribes warned of major job and revenue losses as non-Indian gaming options expand in the Northeast.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe commissioned a study to determine the impact of the new establishments on their facilities in Connecticut. According to gaming expert Clyde W. Barrow, the tribes will lose about 9,300 jobs and $703 million in revenue by 2019.

"If the previous decade of expanded gaming in the Northeast is a reliable guide, then it is likely that a significant portion of the gaming revenue generated by new these facilities will be cannibalized or displaced from existing casinos in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island," the report states. "Given the proportion of Connecticut’s casino customers that come from New York and the New England states, the planned new casinos pose a direct and continuing competitive threat to the casinos in Connecticut."

The Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. Photo from Facebook

To counter the threat, the tribes are proposing to build up to three new casinos that will be licensed by the state. One would be located near the Massachusetts border, where MGM Resorts International is building a $800 million casino in downtown Springfield, just a few miles away.

A bill to authorize new casinos is being considered in the Connecticut Legislature.