This file photo shows the Casino of the Wind at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. A new study pitches the idea of opening a third Connecticut casino in Fairfield County.
This file photo shows the Casino of the Wind at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. A new study pitches the idea of opening a third Connecticut casino in Fairfield County.
Photo: Jessica Hill, Associated PressA new study has found building a new casino off I-95 in southwest Connecticut would generate more money for the state and create more new jobs insteading of constructing a new gaming hall around the Hartford area.
The Oxford Economics study was commissioned by MGM Resorts International, the company that plans on building a casino in Springfield, Mass. The General Assembly passed legislation last year that opens the door for the adding a third state casino, run by the Mashantucket Pequot and the Mohegan tribes near the Massachusetts border, that would reduce the loss of revenue and jobs in the state.
MGM says it commissioned the study “to contribute to a broader foundation for discussing expanded commercial gaming in Connecticut.” A southwest Connecticut casino would also mean it would be about 100 miles way from its planned Springfield casino.
With competing casinos cutting into Connecticut's gaming revenues, the proposal may have a better chance now. In recent years, the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville and Foxwoods in Ledyard have seen sharp decreases in business, with corresponding drops in state revenue from their slot machines, of which the state gets 25 percent of the total wagered.
The new study’s numbers could also tempt legislators - looking for more revenue from a ballooning a state deficit - with potentially more revenue from more profitable casino in southwest Connecticut.
Up to 5,366 more jobs could be created from a Bridgeport area casino.
Building a casino in southwest Connecticut - between Bridgeport and Greenwich - “would generate far greater economic benefits than locating one in North Central Connecticut because Southwest Connecticut offers a much deeper market,” the study said.
It estimates the addition of a single casino in southwest Connecticut would generate $70 million to the state instead of $16 million from a new north-central Connecticut casino.
In pitching the beneifts, the study projects the two current state casinos could generate $173 million to the state by 2019. Adding a southwest Connecticut casino would increase that amount to $243 million.
Building a casino in the Bridgeport area would require an investment of $1.1 billion and create more than 5,700 jobs. The report said a north-central Connecticut casino would create more than 2,000 jobs cost more $500 million to build.
If built, the new casino would have to be in a town that would agree to host the gaming facility. It would be run by the Mashantucket Pequot and the Mohegan tribes.
Several towns and cities in the Hartford are interested in hosting the joint Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot casino to compete with MGM Springfield, scheduled to open in 2018.
In 1995, a bill that would have allowed the Mashantucket Pequot tribe to build a $875 million casino and entertainment complex in Bridgeport was rejected by the state Senate. The tribe had promised to pay the state about $3.4 billion from 1996 to 2005, to be spread among municipal coffers and the state's parimutuels, and to pay off the state's debt. A casino also would have created about 10,000 jobs.
The Paugussetts and the Schaghticokes during the 2000s proposed building a casino at Steele Point in Bridgeport, but failed to gain federal recognition, partly because of gaps in ancestry records and proof of continuity as a tribe.
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