In June 2015, Connecticut lawmakers passed legislation opening a door to expanded gaming in the state.
New private-sector data and the company that produced it say that door should be in southwest Connecticut.
Last year’s legislation permitted an entity owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut ”“ operating as a so-called “Joint Tribal Entity” ”“ to solicit proposals from municipalities seeking to host a commercial casino facility by the end of 2015.
From the beginning, the proposal has hinged on stemming a potential flow of money from central Connecticut to a new casino in Massachusetts, the $800 million MGM Springfield to open in 2017.
But the legislation also spawned another research effort conducted by gaming giant MGM Resorts International, which commissioned Oxford Economics, a commercially-based forecasting and analytics venture run in conjunction with Oxford University, “to analyze potential economic impacts and highlight key public policy considerations.”
MGM also commissioned Strategic Market Advisors, a New Hampshire-based management consultancy, to provide gaming market revenue estimates.
In a prepared statement, MGM Resorts said, “Indeed, when considered on a net impact basis, and in the context of the existing tribal compacts, the addition of a single casino in north-central Connecticut offers relatively limited fiscal benefits: $16 million of incremental gaming revenue contributions to Connecticut and $17 million of additional state and local taxes.
“Locating a casino in southwest Connecticut would generate far greater economic benefits than locating one in north-central Connecticut because southwest Connecticut offers a much deeper market.
“We estimate the addition of a single casino in southwest Connecticut offers more than two-and-a-half times the net benefits to Connecticut as compared to adding a casino in north-central Connecticut.”
“The bottom line question is where does Connecticut get the best deal?” said Alan Feldman, MGM executive vice president for global government and industry affairs. “The more comprehensive the study, the clearer the answer becomes. It is not in the Hartford region. Southwest Connecticut offers a market that brings more jobs, more revenue and more opportunity for economic growth. The Oxford Economics study, as a precursor to a full-blown state analysis, precisely lays out the facts.”
The analysis, according to MGM, showed a commercial casino in southwest Connecticut would generate three times the number of jobs and four times the tax receipts. The study predicted an additional $128 million would find state tax coffers if the facility is built in southwest Connecticut.
The study itself is a rejoinder to Tribe-commissioned studies last year that focused primarily on the impact of a casino in north-central Connecticut and did not consider a sole commercial casino in southwest Connecticut, according to MGM. It was the so-called “limited scope” of the studies prompted MGM to commission its own analysis.
“We have said consistently that there should be an open, competitive, fair and transparent process that allows Connecticut to determine what would be most beneficial if there is to be a commercial casino,” Feldman said.
How could saturating the market for casino gambling possibly be a good idea? Whatever somebody’s feasibility study may say from within its own limited context, it appears to me self-evident that this market already is saturated and the existing investments in casinos are at risk. Has anybody looked at Atlantic City lately?