Connecticut’s two tribal casinos staged a ceremony Thursday marking the start of a formal search for a community willing to accept a new gambling hall to maintain market share against competition coming to Massachusetts.
Mohegan Sun
Posted inPolitics
Jepsen declined to help tribes lobby feds on casino
The state attorney general’s office declined Tuesday to help the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes ask the U.S. Department of the Interior for a statement supporting their bid for casino expansion in Connecticut.
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Strategic retreat: No final casino vote until 2016
Rather than authorize immediate construction of Connecticut’s first casino outside tribal lands, the state Senate is set to vote on a bill creating a complex approval process requiring passage of a second law next year.
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Study: I-91 casino best bet to keep gamblers in CT
A casino in the I-91 corridor north of Hartford could recapture nearly 53 percent of the Connecticut gambling dollars that otherwise would be lost to the MGM Springfield casino, according to a study released Thursday.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Tribes see casino momentum outside Capitol
Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal leaders say the new interest by greater Hartford municipalities in hosting a casino should translate into momentum for their joint proposal at the General Assembly.
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Attorney General to legislators: Casino expansion poses legal risks
Attorney General George Jepsen warned top legislators Wednesday that legislation giving the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans exclusive rights to a new casino was itself a gamble, potentially endangering the current profit-sharing deal with the tribes and exposing the state to claims of illegal favoritism.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Study: Casino competition will cost CT 9,300 jobs
New casinos in New York and Massachusetts will siphon $703 million in annual revenue from Connecticut’s two tribal casinos by 2019, costing 9,300 residents their jobs and state government $100 million, according to an industry study.
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Gaming expansion draws considerable support, some opposition
While Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was noncommittal Tuesday about a proposed expansion of gaming in Connecticut, it drew support from business, labor and municipal leaders.
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Connecticut’s unlikely history of casinos gets a new chapter
Failing to slam the door on casino gambling in 1991, Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. cut the deal in 1993 that both gave the industry a foundation and firmly capped its reach in Connecticut — until now. Today, the legislature’s Public Safety and Security Committee holds a public hearing on what appears to be the strongest attempt in two decades to expand casino gambling off tribal lands.
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Quinnipiac poll: Pot does better than Malloy, casinos
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows that Connecticut has grown comfortable with the existing casino industry, but that proponents of expansion face a significant sales job in the months ahead.
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Twenty years later, Connecticut has a new view of casinos
Questions about morality and the societal impact of expanded gambling are fading, if not gone. Competition in surrounding states, notably a planned MGM casino-resort in Springfield, has distilled the issue of a new casino in Connecticut to one overriding concern: Keeping jobs.
Posted inPolitics
Legislators to outline joint Pequot-Mohegan casino pitch
The Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans, historic rivals and casino competitors, are to be introduced Tuesday as potential partners in at least one new casino in Connecticut, sources said Monday night.
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Pequots, Mohegans lobby together for expanded gambling
Connecticut’s two tribal casinos are trying to gauge support at the General Assembly for an expansion of gambling to stem what a new study shows is the rapid loss of customers to out-of-state competition. Expansion possibilities include a new casino north of Hartford or slots at OTB parlors.
Posted inMoney
Mohegan Sun interested in adding a gaming facility in Connecticut
The owners of the Mohegan Sun casino are interested in developing one or more new gaming facilities in Connecticut to keep customers being targeted by new casinos under development in Massachusetts. And while the Mohegan tribe hasn’t fully developed any proposal, or settled on any specific locations, it does believe its most aggressive new competitor lies in Springfield, Mass., where a new $800 million casino is being developed.
Posted inPolitics
Courtney hoping nickname ‘Landslide Joe’ not a joke anymore
WASHINGTON – Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, came into office on the slimmest of victories, a surplus of just 83 votes that earned him the jocular nickname “Landslide Joe” among his colleagues. This time, as he seeks re-election for a fifth term in Congress, Courtney hopes the nickname is no joke.