An April 15 letter from Attorney General George Jepsen to legislative leaders injected a dose of reality into the fevered schemes of expanded casino gambling advocates. Jepsen's extended and detailed analysis of the risks that come with increasing the number of casinos in Connecticut will sober all but the most deluded supporters of more casinos.
The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes have enjoyed a lucrative two-decade monopoly on casino gambling in the region. Thanks to different agreements with the state, each tribe and Connecticut's government coffers have prospered. That often is the result of monopolies. The Indians' cornering of the market has come to an end.
In 2017, casinos will begin to open in Massachusetts. The one in Springfield is a being built by MGM. Its spokesman calls it a "mixed-use urban revitalization project." In the MGM tradition, expect it to be an extravagant creation, particularly in contrast to its surroundings in beleaguered Springfield.
A few Connecticut legislators would like to tempt gamblers to stay in the Hartford area to place their wagers by allowing the tribes to build three joint ventures close to Connecticut's borders. They hope new casinos would make money for the state.
Enter Jepsen and a bucketful of facts. Under a 1988 federal law, the tribes have a right to build and operate casinos on their reservations. The tribes and the states in which a reservation is located can come to an agreement on the many complicated details that accompany the casino business. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs plays an important role in making sure that state governments do not take advantage of the tribes.
Jepsen's six-page letter to legislative leaders is dense with red flags. The agreements with the tribes are complicated and delicately balanced. The brightest flag is that expanding casino gambling in Connecticut to places that are not on a reservation could put state government's 25 percent stake in the slots take at risk. The state's agreements with the tribes over casino gambling and sharing the loot from slot machines could for the first time receive a detailed examination from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That agency could decide that state government's share is greater than what most tribes pay, and unfair. That could mean less money, not more.
Still, developers are swarming to greater Hartford with colorful plans and cuckoo projections of riches to be shared by all, if only they and the tribes can build new casinos. One obvious hurdle is that there are no Indian reservations in the area.
The tribes and their allies want the state to bestow on them a privilege denied everyone else: the right to build a casino. This will strike most people as unfair. The tribes have done well in the gambling business on their reservations. When Massachusetts began its long process of reviewing, voting on and selecting proposals, the Connecticut tribes jumped in and competed with other corporate hopefuls. They wanted to be part of reducing casino business in Connecticut when it would profit them.
Each tribe was rejected in competitions in different parts of Massachusetts, though the Pequots recently joined a group hoping to build a casino by the water in New Bedford. That will reduce what Connecticut makes from the casinos here.
At least one eager developer wants to build a small casino on the site of a shuttered multiplex movie theater in East Hartford. A multiscreen theater in East Windsor that closed long ago appears to be in play, too. I was a patron of both for many years. No one ever suggested they were built on Indian reservations.
One of the developers of the East Hartford site is Anthony Ravosa. He was part of a group seeking to build a casino in Holyoke, Mass., during that community's quixotic dalliance with casino gaming. He was happy to reduce gaming in Connecticut if he could profit. Ravosa came to unhappy prominence in Connecticut early in this century when he was a consultant to Enron working the levers of influence with Gov. John Rowland. An expensive mess ensued, now he proposes another one.
The latest casino plans are about money. For a lot of players at the table, guarding the flow of money to state government is its cover, not its purpose.
Kevin Rennie is a lawyer and a former Republican state legislator. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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