CT Capitol Report www.ctcapitolreport.com features several links today led by “Here Come The Casinos,” a reference to the gaming growth surrounding Connecticut. How much revenue will the state lose as a result?
Last week OIB debated the chances of Connecticut expanding gaming beyond casino operations by tribal nations. In 1993 Connecticut entered into a compact that provided 25 percent of the slot take to the state in exchange for granting casino exclusivity. A casino proposal for Bridgeport was torpedoed by the Connecticut Senate in 1995. For gaming to expand in the state the compact must be renegotiated with the Mashantucket and Mohegan operations. Can it be done?
Check this out: www.cga.ct.gov/2011/rpt/2011-R-0087.htm
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Tom Lombard is right. Start with the fact Bridgeport has no jobs. Casinos with off-track betting, table-games-only casinos and sports book parlors, along with Hotels/Entertainment centers would bring in thousand of jobs overnight and tax revenues in the millions.
We don’t need slots machines, we need a new industry and that’s gaming, RFP Trump and Wynn.
New York State has six racinos and next year Aqueduct will be the seventh.
As of 2006, racinos are legal in nine states: Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia. The first racino in Pennsylvania opened in November 2006. West Virginia pioneered the concept when MTR Gaming Group was allowed to introduce video lottery terminals (VLTs) to Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort in Chester. Delaware, Rhode Island, and West Virginia, all members of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL; best known for Powerball), in fact, jointly run a jackpot VLT game, Ca$hola.
Connecticut is being surrounded by gaming venues. Screw the compact and open up the state with full-blown gaming including sports books. I don’t want to hear any meowing from down-county types. They get NBC, Diageo, UBS, RBS and Time-Warner will probably be next. Bridgeport gets an elevator company. Going Up???
And yet there is another piece to this puzzle.
www .nypost.com/p/news/business/dances_with_debt_9JFPd3VfRZZwaAt4MKwW7M
Foxwoods is threatening to default on $500 million in debt with the caveat their assets cannot be seized since they are located on an Indian reservation. Talk about a scorched-earth policy. Kill off all Indian Casinos in order to save one.
And Mohegan Sun is looking to restructure their debt big time. They have already ventured off of the reservation so they cannot pursue the Foxwoods avenue of refinancing.
Bob,
In your multiple terms on the Council, I believe you were on the Budget & Appropriations Committee for some sessions and probably attended those meetings on other occasions to ask questions which may have been the reason you were not invited to be on that committee in your final years. Asking questions and getting partial or no answers is frustrating. Thank you for doing that to open the process over the years.
My question at the moment is what did you know as a Council member about the Management Letter to the City of Bridgeport that accompanied the CAFR document each year, or at least in most years? Were you provided a copy? Was it discussed in any manner, shape, or form and by what City department or person before one or more members of the Council, our City watchdog?
Any light you can shine on this will be helpful. You asked more questions than most, and have never been appreciated enough by taxpayers for your efforts. The more background on this subject I can discover, the more accurate will be our description of the City process. Thank you. Time will tell.
How!