Legislators Met With Tribal Leaders Regarding Gambling Competition

The Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes recently met with legislators who oversee gambling issues in Connecticut to talk about competition in other states and what to do about it, a key lawmaker said Tuesday.

State Rep. Steve Dargan, D-West Haven said he and state Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, who oversee gambling issues as co-chairs the legislature’s public safety and security committee, met with representatives from both tribes shortly before Thanksgiving.

He said they discussed the gaming industry in general terms “and the competition, in general, around us from surrounding states and how that might impact our state,” Dargan said in a phone interview.

“There’s no plan or concrete bill as of yet, with the understanding that [Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s] administration would probably have to be on board, too, if there was going to be any expansion of gaming,” Dargan said.

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Remember those $75 checks back in the 1990’s? Gambling casinos were supposed to lower taxes. Mmmmmmm. How’s that working for us?

SEAMUS091414

AT 5:31 AM DECEMBER 10, 2014

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Neither of the tribal chairs were at the meeting, but there were representatives and lawyers for both tribes as well as people representing the tribes’ gambling venues, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, Dargan said. State Sen. Tony Guglielmo, R-Stafford, was also at the meeting as the ranking member of the public safety committee, Dargan said.

At least one legislator wants expanded gambling in Connecticut. State Rep. Peggy Sayers, D-Windsor Locks, said she could envision a gaming venue either near Bradley International Airport or along the I-91 corridor between Hartford and Springfield.

Expanded gambling could be as simple as adding slot machines to the off-track betting venue that also includes Bobby V’s Restaurant and Sports Bar in Windsor Locks.

Connecticut could open a new gambling attraction that would include table games like poker, Sayers said Tuesday. She added that such a proposal is unlikely to get needed legislative support but that it was still worth considering.

“I think if you’re going to talk about it, put everything on the table,” Sayers said.

Sayers stirred up interest in modifying gambling rules in the state when she issued a media release Nov. 6 saying that the state should take bold and immediate action to protect and expand the state’s gaming industry.

Sayers then left the state for three weeks, she said, on a two-week cruise followed by a health-care conference in Arizona. She said she didn’t expect her suggestion to draw so much attention.

“There wasn’t any wi-fi, and when I found some wi-fi and all these messages were coming in on my phone, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh!'” Sayers said.

What motivated Sayers was the Nov. 4 election when Massachusetts voters struck down a referendum that would have repealed a 2011 law allowing three resort casinos in different regions, including an $800 million attraction planned by MGM Resorts International in Springfield.

Connecticut casino patrons in Greater Hartford are closer to Springfield than either of Connecticut’s casinos. If people go to the Bay State to gamble, Connecticut will lose tax revenue to its neighboring state. She said that’s why she wants the legislature to consider expanding gambling.

“The outcome might be that we would do nothing,” Sayers said. “We would determine that it’s not in our best interest to do anything. But if we don’t look at it and look at the pros and the cons, we won’t know that.”

It’s too early to tell if there will be a legislative hearing or a bill, and what that bill might say.

“Unless there’s really a concrete proposal that a number of people are interested in to move forward, it might be a waste of time,” Dargan said of a legislative hearing. “But, like I said, we hear a lot of different things. So, we’ll have to see where it brings us.”

Dargan said he couldn’t recall exactly which day he and other legislators met with the tribes. He said he thinks it was Nov. 21, the day a U.S. federal judge ruled against a New Jersey state law that would have allowed casinos to offer betting on sporting events. The hope in New Jersey was to generate more money for Atlantic City venues.