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Updated at 2:45 p.m.
The tribes running the state’s two casinos will announce within days where in north-central Connecticut they want to build a satellite gaming facility, casino leaders announced Thursday.
The state Senate approved the consolation prize late Wednesday for those hoping to see a new casino authorized to combat growing competition from gambling facilities in neighboring states — particularly one to open in Springfield in 2017. The bill, which now heads to the House of Representatives, instead establishes a search process for a potential host community for a new casino — and requires the legislature to revisit the matter one year from now.
A legislative hearing on a renewed proposal to legalize keno raised old concerns Wednesday about expanding gambling in restaurants, bars and convenience stores and new ones about profit-sharing and technology.
The leaders of Connecticut’s federally recognized Indian tribes rallied Monday to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s defense, decrying the practice of an Oklahoma tribe and its business associates to make unlicensed, short-term loans here at astronomical rates.
A proposal to expand casino gaming outside of Connecticut’s Indian reservations advanced Thursday. But while the state legislature’s Public Safety and Security Committee endorsed the measure by a wide margin, it narrowly rejected an amendment that would have barred the state from offering loans, grants or other economic aid to preserve casino jobs.
If the state and Connecticut’s Indian tribes are considering opening new gaming sites, then launching Keno – a lottery-style game legislators have flirted with in recent years – must be on the table as well, the House chairman of the legislature’s revenue panel said Tuesday.
Since Mohegan tribal leaders declared their interest six weeks ago in offering casino games at a new site, state officials responses have ranged from negative to lukewarm. But if the concept is to get even a public hearing this spring, someone at the Capitol is going to have to step up and champion the issue, according to the leader of the legislative panel with jurisdiction over gaming issues.
The concept of offering casino games at a new site drew a quick response from Connecticut’s anti-problem-gambling forces: Don’t do anything without fresh data on the state’s gaming addiction issues.
